Over the weekend, a friend sent this link my way- it’s an extensive library of patterns that were produced during the 1920’s in the Soviet Union. With the Sochi Olympics on everyone’s mind, I thought the batch would be interesting to share, as they reflect life and culture through the lens of communism. The motifs reveal workers, peasant life, planes, locomotives, marine living, cotton picking, tractor riding, propellers, collectivization, mechanization, florals and symbolic repeats.

This concept, of course, wasn’t a new one, as every country fighting a war was in on the act, creating messaging through textiless. To learn more, check out this book from Yale University Press, Wearing Propaganda: Textiles on the Home Front in Japan, Britain and the United States.