Oldal 512 [512]
OCR
510 Elo-Hanna Seljamaa from the bourgeois period” (Ojaveski et al. 2002: 251). Visual symbols and representations of the festival avoided references to earlier celebrations and emphasised instead links between the 1950 song celebration and Soviet power. The 1950 celebration 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. People were shown engaged in marching, demonstrating, expressing political views, rather than celebrating. The permeation of Soviet slogans and symbols through song and dance festivals, 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 members 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
