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Elo-Hanna Seljamaa
from the bourgeois period” (Ojaveski et al. 2002: 251). Visual symbols and repre¬
sentations of the festival avoided references to earlier celebrations and emphasised
instead links between the 1950 song celebration and Soviet power. The 1950 cele¬
bration was to be dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the Estonian Soviet Socialist
Republic (ESSR), the fifth anniversary of restoring Soviet power in Estonia, and to
the successful, early completion of the first Five-Year Plan. With hindsight, it was
argued that the 1950 song and dance celebration signified the victory of socialism
in Estonia (Ratassepp 1965: 154).
The emblem of the festival (Fig. 2) depicted a red-starred zither in between the
icons of Moscow and Tallinn: the alarm bell tower of Kremlin and the tower of Tall
Hermann. Tall Hermann is part of the medieval Toompea Castle complex that in
the 1920s was rebuilt to house the Estonian parliament and is used to this day to
hoist the state flag. On the emblem of the 1950 celebration, a red flag was shown
to be flying at the top of the Tallinn tower, while the Moscow tower was topped
with a red star. The inscription read “ESSR 10 1950”, and the insignia also made
references to the coat of arms of the Estonian SSR.
Similar explicitly political symbols dominated the posters of the festival. People
depicted on the placard designed by Olev Soans (1925-1995) and Aleksei Viilup
(1916-1978) (Fig. 5) wear Estonian folk costumes, but instead of flowers, which
had abounded in visual representations of the 1947 festival, they carry in their
hands red flags and other Soviet symbols. The poster by Skop (Fig. 6) shows a row
of identical young men blowing trumpets embellished with red flags—a significant
change from the old bagpipe player on the poster designed by the same artist in 1947.
The cover of the guidebook featured a smiling couple in national costumes
carrying a portrait of Joseph V. Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union. Marching at
the head of a procession, the man and woman are followed by demonstrators with
red flags and banners (Nöukogude Eesti 1950. a. üldlaulupeo juht). This image is
essentially identical to a poster designed by Raunam on the occasion of the tenth
anniversary of the ESSR (Fig. 7). The slogan “Long live the 10° anniversary of the
ESSR” was included on every poster of the 1950 song and dance celebration. Peo¬
ple were shown engaged in marching, demonstrating, expressing political views,
rather than celebrating.
The permeation of Soviet slogans and symbols through song and dance festi¬
vals, on the one hand, and the use of national costumes and other elements of folk
culture in Soviet rituals and representations thereof, on the other, made these two
types of events look the same. Posters of song and dance festivals from the 1940s to
1950s look the same as posters celebrating the First of May, anniversary of the Great
October Socialist Revolution or yet another jubilee of Soviet Estonia (Figs 8 and 9).
Overall, the 1950 song and dance celebration was designed to make a forceful
political statement, depicting Estonia as a Soviet country and its people as mem¬
bers of the international family of Soviet nations. In years and decades to come, this
picture was to become more and more refined and detailed in some ways, but also