Government
Antonio Gramsci: Selections from The Prison Notebooks
Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937) was an Italian intellectual who joined first the Socialist and then the Communist Party. Between 1924 and 1926 Gramsci was the head of the Italian Communist Party.
Balzac’s The Chouans
Novelist Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) was a giant of nineteenth–century European literature. In his multivolume The Human Comedy, he investigated the general desire for social advancement in the post–revolutionary world.
Dickens, Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens’s (1812–70) novels generally appeared in serial form in popular newspapers.
Hugo, Ninety–Three
Victor Hugo (1802–85) was an ardent republican and defender of the revolutionary legacy who went into exile during the Second Empire (1852–70). He lived long enough to become an icon of the Third Republic.
Image of the King at the Festival of Federation
Having lived through a tumultuous year, France’s political leaders, new and old, perceived the need to foster a sense of unity among the people.
Perestroika and the changing Soviet workforce
One of Mikhail Gorbachev's most famous reform movements was perestroika (reconstruction), an attempt to rebuild the Soviet economy, which had been stagnating for more than a decade.
Let's Go! Support Perestroika!
Mikhail Gorbachev began a parallel program of reform for the Soviet Union: perestroika (reconstruction) and glasnost' (openness). His intention, however, was for a state-directed movement that would keep the Communist Party in firm control.
Polish Voting Rights
This campaign poster for the Polish Solidarity movement shows Polish voters what was at stake in the upcoming elections in June 1989. Under the terms of the arrangement negotiated with the Communist party, 35% of the seats in the Lower House of the parliament (Sejm) were to be freely contested.
Solidarity Commemorates Tiananmen Square
After Solidarity assumed the political leadership of Poland, the new government issued these stamps to commemorate the student protests in Tiananmen Square in China in the Spring of 1989. Postage stamps may be part of everyday life and the images here served an important political purpose.
Against Pig-Headedness and Corruption
Poster criticizing the Stasi - the GDR secret police - prior to March 18, 1990 East German election in which voters overwhelmingly backed unification with West Germany.