The comedy ‘The Mandate’ by Nikolaj Erdman, a Soviet writer from a Baltic family, was first shown in 1925 in Meyerhold’s Theatre in Moscow. In a sharply ironic manner, the play depicts the struggle of tsarists to restore the old regime in Russia and the pitiful effort of the petty bourgeois to adapt, at least superficially, to the new reality. The play became highly relevant in 1989 during the period of democratic transition in Central and Eastern Europe and had a sweeping revival.

Péter Pócs designed this poster for a performance of the play at Atelje 212 theatre in Belgrade, Serbia. It shows the double-eagle emblem of tsarist Russia in an un-heraldic setting, floating forlornly in the sky with the hammer and sickle symbols of Soviet Union in its claws. The commissioning of poster by a Serbian theatre from a Hungarian artist demonstrates the personal contacts among Central European democratic intellectuals. The elegant execution and the perfection of the red and silver surfaces on this splendid silkscreen print are an effective counterpoint to the wit of the visual idea. Pócs created an image that captured the anomalies of society in Central and Eastern Europe.