The Power of Print: Dutch propaganda for a new Russia

Until the late twentieth century, the print medium was the most important vehicle through which political imagery was translated from one culture into another. Reproducible, portable, and affordable prints crossed international boundaries with far more facility than formal portraits and monumental sculptures and reached a significantly broader audience as a result. Political iconography was appropriated, hybridised and naturalised throughout Europe in the early modern period but no example of this cross-cultural borrowing is as dramatic or compelling as that of Peter the Great's creation of political propaganda for his Westernisation of Russia. It is both essential to examine the early history of printed propaganda at a time when the demise of the print media at the hands of the internet has been heralded and timely to consider its role in Russia as we approach the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution in 2017.

'The Power of Print: Dutch propaganda for a new Russia', explores the single most important moment in the history of the political print in Russia: Peter I's 1698 commission of Dutch printmaker Adriaen Schoonebeek to establish a new school of printmaking. Dutch technology, expertise, and iconography were applied to the project of propagandising the Westernization of Russia, with models borrowed from Romeyn de Hooghe's prints celebrating Stadholder and King of England William III's 'Glorious Revolution'. The printed image and its control by the state rapidly became central to the Russian government's discourse of power and identity - a practice that continued through the Great Reforms of the 1860s, the Revolution of 1917, and the construction of the Soviet state. The examination of the construction and use of political imagery in Russia provides insight into the complex issue of how different cultures borrow and assimilate political iconography to support, nuance or change their own notions of leadership and national identity.

The project's international and multi-lingual research network comprises experts in various aspects of Dutch and Russian print culture from iconography and print publishing to collecting and reception. Scholars from a range of disciplines and institutions in the UK, The Netherlands, and Russia will come together to engage in collective, collaborative research addressing the significance and impact of the appropriation of Dutch imagery, iconography, and ideology and its translation for use in some of the most important images produced in the Petrine era. The proposed workshops, training sessions, and events will forge collaborations that establish access to previously unstudied research material and archival resources and connect specialist knowledge from different fields and scholarly traditions. This constellation of varied specialists will engage with novel ideas about the development of political iconography and the relationship between the printed medium and cultural self-definition.

This topic has the potential to engage many different constituencies as the importation of a visual iconography of power from the Netherlands into Russia, with the attendant machinery for mass production and wide dissemination thorough the medium of print, offers a remarkable example of the larger issue of cross-cultural translation and assimilation. The significance of Peter the Great's establishment of a printmaking school is obvious in the Russian context, but its potential ramifications extend well beyond Russia's borders and the Petrine era and this can be appreciated by some consideration of the subject's potential to interest and instruct non-academic beneficiaries.

Non-academic beneficiaries of our research include diplomats and members of government who seek to understand the early history of Russia's relationship with Europe; members of the press interested in the origins of the modern media and the much heralded demise of the print medium; UK museums interested in collaborating with great, if lesser-known, Russian institutions such as The Russian Museum and the National Library in St. Petersburg; and secondary school students of history, cultural studies, media studies and Russian.

With the territorial boundaries of the European Union, the definition of its mission, and the future of its economic might in flux, issues related to the complexities of national versus collective trans-national identity are more pressing than ever. The history of Russia's sophisticated hybrid culture, which has long been in dialogue with Europe, is crucial to understanding its current position on issues related to everything from foreign policy to cultural exchange. Our research will contribute to this political discussion by illuminating the origins of Russia's relationship with Western visual culture as well as its relationship to both its past and present cultural identity. Though Peter I's propaganda prints, replete with allegorical figures and classicising motifs, may now seem old fashioned, his use of the print medium as a political tool was the cutting edge technology of his day. Just as Twitter and Facebook have been credited with bringing about the 'Arab Spring' through cross-cultural communication and information sharing, Peter I's use of the print medium revolutionised the conveyance of political ideology and dissemination of propaganda and our examination of the birth and development of the political print in Russia will be of interest to those engaged in and studying the modern media.

Our research also has the potential to contribute to school curricula not only with subjects relating to Russia, such as AS Level Russian History 1881-1914, but also as a case study in 'critical viewing'. The goal of our workshop in the Cambridge Festival of Ideas is to encourage critical viewing not only of political images but also of the more seemingly casual imagery that we encounter on a daily basis. The cognitive and visual tools required to 'unpack' the political prints of the past are equally applicable to contemporary political imagery and our discussions will be designed to teach students how such messages are conveyed, thereby revealing their goals and biases. In an age in which images are ubiquitous, critical viewing is a crucial component of critical thinking.