# ROSTA Windows

> Hand-stencilled satirical news posters made by the Russian Telegraph Agency during the Civil War and hung in empty shop windows, first in Moscow, then in Petrograd and provincial towns. Mikhail Cheremnykh, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Dmitry Moor and others turned the day's news into numbered sequences of crude, flat stock figures in two or three colours, each frame with a short rhymed caption, reviving the lubok as Futurist street agitation.

- Period: 1919–1922
- Where: Eastern Europe
- Origin: Moscow (Russian Telegraph Agency, ROSTA), with branches in Petrograd and provincial cities
- Branch: Avant-garde
- Also known as: Okna ROSTA, ROSTA satire windows, Okna satiry ROSTA
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/rosta-windows/

## How it works

- Break the message into numbered frames read in sequence, like a comic strip or a lubok sheet.
- Reduce people to flat, instantly legible stock types (worker, Red Army soldier, kulak, bourgeois) drawn as silhouettes.
- Limit colour to two or three flat paints applied through cut stencils, with red doing the heavy lifting.
- Pair every picture with a short, punchy rhymed caption in hand-drawn Cyrillic lettering.
- Work at the speed of the news: draw, stencil and post a new window within days, sometimes hours, of a telegram.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Framed panels](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/framed-panels/) (defining)
- [Modular grid](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/modular-grid/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Sequential narrative](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/sequential-narrative/) (defining)
- [Repetition & rhythm](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/) (characteristic)
- [Single focal point](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/single-focal-point/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (defining)

### Colour
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (defining)
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (characteristic)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (characteristic)

### Form & shape
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (defining)
- [Distortion & exaggeration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/distortion-and-exaggeration/) (characteristic)
- [Pictogram](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pictogram/) (occasional)
- [Geometric primitives](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-primitives/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (characteristic)
- [Painterly brushwork](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-brushwork/) (occasional)
- [Paper & letterpress bite](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/paper-and-letterpress-bite/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Ornament-free](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornament-free/) (characteristic)
- [Emblems & badges](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/emblems-and-badges/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [Comic & cartoon](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/comic-and-cartoon/) (defining)
- [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Hand-painted](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-painted/) (defining)
- [Pen, brush & ink](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pen-brush-and-ink/) (characteristic)
- [Architecture & signage](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/architecture-and-signage/) (characteristic)

### Tone & intent
- [Agitational & persuasive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/agitational-and-persuasive/) (defining)
- [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (characteristic)
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (characteristic)
- [Ironic & self-aware](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ironic-and-self-aware/) (occasional)
- [Utopian & idealistic](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/utopian-and-idealistic/) (occasional)

Avoids: Photomontage, Straight photography, Naturalistic depiction, Gradients, Illusion of depth, Abundant decoration, Luxurious & glamorous

Palette: #ece2c9, #171512, #c7281e, #2d5b9e, #c99a3b

Typefaces: Hand-lettered Cyrillic captions in brush and pen, one under each frame, Blocky hand-drawn Cyrillic capitals for headings and frame numbers

Known for: Mikhail Cheremnykh, who started the windows with journalist Nikolai Ivanov in Moscow (1919); Vladimir Mayakovsky, drawings and rhymed captions for hundreds of windows (1919–1922); Dmitry Moor; Ivan Malyutin; Amshey Nurenberg; Vladimir Lebedev and Lev Brodaty, Petrograd ROSTA windows; Okna TASS, the Second World War revival by the Kukryniksy and others (1941–1945)

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Grew out of: [Lubok Popular Print](https://stylogeny.com/styles/lubok.md) (1650–1920)
- Influenced by: [Italian Futurism](https://stylogeny.com/styles/futurism.md) (1909–1944)
- Alike in its design choices: [Escuela Bruguera (Spanish Humour Comics)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/escuela-bruguera.md) (1947–1986), 79% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Bitterkomix (Afrikaans Underground Comics)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/bitterkomix.md) (1992–present), 70% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Arab Independent Comics (Samandal, TokTok, Lab619, Skefkef)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/arab-independent-comics.md) (2007–present), 68% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [L'Association and French Alternative Comics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/l-association-comics.md) (1990–present), 68% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [UPA & Cartoon Modern](https://stylogeny.com/styles/upa-cartoon-modern.md) (1944–1960), 65% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Atelier Populaire (May '68 Screenprint Poster)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/atelier-populaire.md) (1968), 60% alike

## Real works

- [Every Absence Is a Joy to the Enemy (Kazhdyi progul – radost' vragu!), ROSTA Window No. 858](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D0%9A%D0%B0%D0%B6%D0%B4%D1%8B%D0%B9_%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B3%D1%83%D0%BB_-_%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8C_%D0%B2%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B3%D1%83.jpg): Vladimir Mayakovsky, 1921, Russian State Library, Moscow (scan via Wikimedia Commons)
- [The Little Entente (Malaia Antanta), ROSTA Window No. 583](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vlad%C3%ADmir_Maiakovski,_Rosta,_num._583,_Institut_Valenci%C3%A0_d%27Art_Modern.JPG): Vladimir Mayakovsky, November 1920, Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (IVAM), Valencia (gallery photograph via Wikimedia Commons)
- [Comrade, Remember the Children (Tovarishch, pomni o detiakh), Glavpolitprosvet window No. 282](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1921._%D0%9C%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%8E%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BD._%D0%A2%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%89_%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%BD%D0%B8_%D0%BE_%D0%B4%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%8F%D1%85.jpg): Ivan Malyutin, 1921, Sergo Grigorian collection (redavantgarde.com, private collection and dealer, cat. no. 831; image via Wikimedia Commons)
- [ROSTA window on the Noulens famine commission (twelve panels)](https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O74913/): Mikhail Cheremnykh, 1921, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (E.1241-1933)
- [For the First Time We Greet 1st May with a Hammer, Not a Rifle (Ne s vintovkoi, a s molotom vpervye my vstretim 1-e maia)](https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O45666/): Vladimir Kozlinsky, May 1921, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (E.180-1987)

## Sources

- Wikipedia (ru), 'Окна РОСТА'
- Alexander Roob, 'Graphic illustrated journalism and the avant-garde: the ROSTA windows of the Bolshevik art army', Melton Prior Institut
- Viktor Duvakin, Rostafenster: Majakowski als Dichter und bildender Künstler (Dresden: VEB Verlag der Kunst, 1967)
- Russian Wikipedia: Окна сатиры РОСТА (lubok traditions; stencil copies; autumn 1919–1921): https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Окна_сатиры_РОСТА

---

From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “ROSTA Windows”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/rosta-windows/