Poster by the Battling Pencil group from a portfolio of 24 entitled 'Perestroika For and Against'. Russia, 1989.

Poster depicting a man standing at a lectern with his open mouth forming a record player. A record is playing 'Glasnost! Glasnost! Glasnost!' and he holds another record behind his back.

Given by Peggy vance

Sixth poster in ‘Prerestroika [restructuring] For and Against’ portfolio. It depicts a speaker at a lectern with his mouth forming a record player, playing a record that repeats 'Glasnost!, Glasnost! Glasnost! refering to the new policy of 'openess'. He holds the record that has just been changed behind his back. An accompanying verse warns that it is not possible to have faith in the wiles of a hypocrite.

The portfolio contains a series of 25 satirical posters by a group of Leningrad artists known as ‘Battling Pencil’ on the theme of the struggle to restructure communism in the new political atmosphere under the regime of Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachov (b.1931), appointed general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, with text and images edited by A.M Murtov and V.I. Kiunap respectively. Each poster is composed of an image with an accompanying verse in the tradition of the Russian lubok.

Attribution note: published in a print run of 5,000

E.365-1990