Girl power
Nina Vatolina created this mighty figure as the Nazis invaded Russia in 1941. With her arms flung open and her wide stance, she has something of Hersilia, the woman who charges into the midst of the battle in David’s The Intervention of the Sabine Women.
Double life
Vatolina was a pupil and daughter-in-law of Viktor Deni, a key figure in the visual revolution brought about by the Bolsheviks, using the printing press to spread a mass-produced art for the masses. This poster enjoyed a second incarnation in 1942, when its central figure was adapted to resemble the local women of Azerbaijan, as the Nazis threatened the oil-rich region.
A woman’s worth
By the time Vatolina was in her prime, artists were central tools for spreading Stalin’s ideology; this is a typically stirring take on the Russian everywoman.
Careless whispers
The figure was modelled on Vatolina’s neighbour, who is also the face of one of the artist’s other most famous images. In Don’t Chatter! Gossiping Borders on Treason, she frowns with a finger pressed to her lips; it’s a Soviet twin of Britain’s Careless Talk Costs Lives.
Part of Red Star Over Russia, Tate Modern, SE1, to 18 February
