N. MIKHAYLOVA Confectionery trade cards from the series “The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway” as part of mass visual culture of the late 19 early 20 century Russia

CONFECTIONERY TRADE CARDS FROM THE SERIES “THE VIEWS OF SIBERIA AND THE SIBERIAN RAILWAY” AS PART OF MASS VISUAL CULTURE OF THE LATE 19 EARLY 20 CENTURY RUSSIA
UDC 769.91
Author Mikhaylova Natalia, MA student of Аrt History department. European University at St. Petersburg (Russia), e-mail: mikhaylovawork@gmail.com
Summary: A series of trade cards “The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway” demonstrates some key points of the mass visual culture of the late XIXth –early XX-th centuries. The series reflects the vision on Siberian Railroad and the symbolic appropriation of Siberia by a Central Russia resident.
Keywords: mass culture, visual culture, advertising, сonfectionery trade cards, Siberia, Siberian railroad

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Trade cards, or, in our case, confectionery trade cards – are printed ephemera that were usually put in boxes of sweets at the turn of the XIX-th century in Russia. They varied in formats and could include board games, puzzles, mini-booklets and series of themed postcards. In this article we will discuss such postcards.

Issuing series of trade cards with images (Ill. 1) united by a common theme was one of the common advertising strategies. Each series could comprise a different amount of cards (there are known series from 6 to 72 cards). Every card bore a total number of cards in the series. There could only be one card per box of sweets; in order to get a next card, a new pack of chocolate had to be purchased. After collecting all cards from a particular series, a customer was entitled to a prize from a company. This advertising strategy not only “tied” a customer through the promise of a prize, but also cultivated their passion for collecting. Educational elements of the card images allowed buyers to combine chocolate consumption with the consumption of culture, and, as a result, increased their cultural capital. An apparent success of this strategy is confirmed by the fact that, having arisen in the late XIX-th century, it existed in the same format until 1917 and, somewhat modified, continued into the Soviet and post-Soviet period¹.

Ill. 1. Example of the trade cards from “The 300th Anniversary of the Romanov Dynasty” series produced by the partnership “Einem”. 1913. Chromolithograph. Collection of Museum of the History of Russian chocolate, Moscow.

One of the most prominent representatives and a consistent proponent of this advertising strategy was a partnership “Einem” (after the Revolution – the factory “Krasny oktyabr”, Красный октябрь). The Einem trade cards were famous for their colorful and diverse designs; but mostly their wide popularity was due to the texts often printed on the backside (Ill. 2)². Even though other manufacturers produced series of cards as well, the Einem trade cards comprise the most complete and intact body of images, providing the opportunity to analyze a consistent advertising program of one of the pioneers in the field.

Ill. 2. Front and reverse sides of the trade cards from the “War of 1812” series produced by the partnership “Einem”. 1912. Chromolithograph. Fine publications fund of the Russian State Library.

A series of the Einem trade cards “The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway” (Ill. 3) demonstrates some key points of the mass visual culture of the late XIXth –early XX-th centuries.

Ill. 3. Trade cards from “The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway” series produced by the partnership “Einem”. ca 1900. Chromolithograph. Fine publications fund of the Russian State Library.

Despite the fact that the exact time of creation of the series is unknown, we would like to suggest a likely date – 1899. During this year in Krasnoyarsk I. R. Tomashkevich and M. B. Axelrode released a photo-album with the same title – “The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway” (Ill. 4). A simple comparison of the Einem cards with the postcards from the album indicates that the latter with no doubts served as a source for an unknown artist of “Einem”.

Ill. 4. The cover of the photo-album “The Great Way: The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway” published by I.R. Tomashkevich and M.B. Axelrode. 1900.

This method of memorialization of a large state-sponsored construction project had foreign analogues: in the late 1860-s an album “Great West Illustrated” devoted to the construction of the Pacific railroad was published in the United States. However, the significance of the Tomashkevich-Axelrode album for its time was far more profound than just publishing the documents on Trans-Siberian Railway. It played an important role in promoting this ambitious construction project, both in Russia and abroad. The album was presented at the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris and along with the famous panoramas P. Piasecky³ (Ill. 5) was meant to shape a visual image of a new large-scale Russian undertaking in European audience.

Ill. 5. Panorama by P. Piasecky, executed in his journey along the Siberian Railway during its construction. Princeva G. Sibirsky put’ Pavla Piaseckogo [Siberian way of Pavel Piasecky], State Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, 2011. P. 27, 45, 113.

A series of trade cards produced by the partnership “Einem” may be regarded as the canonical mass-edition of this album. A world’s fair in Paris was widely covered in the press of the period, and the Russian public was well informed about the exhibits presented in the Russian pavilion that were dedicated to the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. It is likely that the album by Tomashkevich-Axelrode had a high cultural status. Those purchasing Einem candy boxes with a card from the Siberian series had thus an opportunity to share the experience of those who were able to visit the Exposition Universelle. While collecting cards, Einem customers received a “short version” of the album, which, as we shall see below, carried the same cultural impulses as the original album itself.

Another tool to stimulate demand was a visual language that was designed to speak to a mass audience. If one compares the Einem cards with the original album photos it becomes evident that the artist tried to make images more picturesque.

The series of cards “The views of Siberia…” consisted of 12 images. Like the album, it included cityscapes, views of the railway and remarkable engineering facilities that made up what now we would call an “industrial landscape”, and the images of the population of Siberia. The cityscapes and the railway images most clearly demonstrate the artist's desire to abandon documentary in favor of the picturesque. On the card “The view of Tomsk” (Ill. 6-7) the foreground is heavily modified. Instead of numerous horse-carts the artist shows only one. Moreover, its presence on the banks of the river becomes not entirely clear: in front of the horse there is a low fence separating the river and making it impossible to access to the water. The absence of other carts on the trade card changes a meaning of the place for the city. According to the photograph this slope descending to the river was, most likely, a gathering spot for coachmen. It is not clear from trade card, the foreground of which is occupied by a buch.

Ill. 6. View of Tomsk. Trade card from “The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway” series produced by the partnership “Einem”. ca 1900. Chromolithograph. Fine publications fund of the Russian State Library.

Ill. 7. View of the Ascension Mountain and the Old Bridge in Tomsk. Photo from the album “The Great Way: The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway”. Publisher: Krasnoyarsk, I.R. Tomashkevich and M.B. Axelrode, 1900. P. 27.

Photographic accuracy of the images of buildings in the background disappears. The landscape turns into an imitation of a classical landscape painting with a side-scene – a bush – in the foreground and traditional for urban landscapes staffage – a man with a cart near the water – in the back, and the background deliberately sunk into a bluish haze. The main scene depicts the city's attractions. Similar compositional principles one can see in the cards “Lake Baikal”, “University Hospitals”, “The railway bridge over the Ob”, “Pier on the river Tom”. According to the traditions of classical landscape painting the Einem artist adds staffage, “side-scenes” and vivid clouds in the sky to make a card more picturesque and – “picture-like”.

This visual language, easily recognized by a mass audience, was comparable with that of classical paintings for which the example in the time was the style of the Wanderers (Rus. – Peredvizhniki, Передвижники). While some of them were still actively participating in the exhibitions, many early works of the Wanderers had already been acclaimed national heritage.

A special trait of the series of the Einem Siberian cards was their “narrative” character.  In only 12 pictures it was necessary to give an impression of a new stunning railway (without limiting it to its Central part as was done in the photo album) and to tell the story of the greatest construction project of the late XIX-th century. Artistic expression based on a narrative, as a rule, has a higher chance of being understood by a more diverse audience. The “stories” of the Einem trade cards not only reached to an educated and well-read public, but also to those who could hardly read at all: the picture told a story better than any text. Thus, the Einem trade card images had a high educational potential.

The selection of images was limited to the Tomashkevich-Axelrode album. This album, that was supposed to be followed by others, included only the Western section of the railway. While selecting images the Einem artist had both an opportunity to slightly alter the original photographic image, or to make significant changes to the composition. By analyzing the artist’s selection and changes made in “translating” photographs into trade card images one gains insight into how the development of Siberia and its public image were broadcasted for popular culture.

A substantial body of the trade cards were devoted to Tomsk (Ill. 8). Its university hospitals, the main (and most picturesque!) street and its inland river port created a pleasant image of the city. Tomsk appeared as “European” city both in its culture and level of its infrastructural development. It is important to point out that the images of Tomsk had undergone a minimum amount of changes during their “transfer” to the trading cards. Thus, the images of Tomsk  presented a clear proof of a “civilized” region disproving the stereotype of a “wild Siberia”.

Ill. 8. The University Hospitals in Tomsk. Pier on the Tom River. Trade cards from “The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway” series produced by the partnership “Einem”. ca 1900. Chromolithograph. Fine publications fund of the Russian State Library.

The fact that this region enjoys all benefits of technological progress shall become instantly clear when looking, for example, on a card with a bridge across the Ob river (Ill. 9-10). This card representing a sort of “portrait of the bridge” might not evoke the feeling of a completely lived-in area: the figures of people here are small, and the residential buildings are not shown at all. However, the industrial development of the region is depicted excessively: the card shows a steam locomotive, ships and a huge railroad bridge.

Ill. 9. The Bridge over the Ob River. Trade card from “The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway” series produced by the partnership “Einem”. ca 1900. Chromolithograph. Fine publications fund of the Russian State Library.

Ill. 10. The Bridge over the Ob River. Photo from the album “The Great Way: The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway”. Publisher: Krasnoyarsk, I.R. Tomashkevich and M.B. Axelrode, 1900. P. 3.

The changes made by the Einem artist are indicative of an intention to make a view more picturesque. The unremarkable landscape of the Tomashkevich-Axelrod album was livened up with the tree on the foreground as if to symbolize a retreat of nature from the industrial expansion.The steam-boats that are not on the original photo liven a trade card river. The sky looks extremely scenic at the a sunset; it colors and softens rough industrial landscape. These alterations demonstrate a vast areas that are to be developed, and at the same time emphasize the swiftness of the technological progress coming to these lands. In addition, they turn the trade card into a “painting-like” work.

In contrast to the image of Siberia as a region which enjoys all the benefits of European culture and technological progress, a number of trade cards articulated the need for further progress expansion. Two trade cards “The camp of the Kyrgyzs in the steppe” (Ill. 11) and “Railway Workers in the Siberian forests” illustrate this idea best (Ill. 12-13). “The camp of the Kyrgyzs in the steppe” was not based on the album photograph and depicted “exotic people”. The trade card highlights differences between the Kyrgyzs  and the european-looking Russians: clothing, cooking, instruments, housing – everything looks different. On the other hand, the card shows the image of the “noble savage”:⁴ Kyrgyz are depicted listening to music.

Ill. 11. Trade card “The camp of the Kyrgyzs in the steppe” from “The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway” series produced by the partnership “Einem”. ca 1900. Chromolithograph. Fine publications fund of the Russian State Library.

Ill. 12. Trade card “Workers in the Siberian forests” from “The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway” series produced by the partnership “Einem”. ca 1900. Chromolithograph. Fine publications fund of the Russian State Library.

Ill. 13. A hut of the laborers in the taiga. Photo from the album “The Great Way: The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway”. Publisher: Krasnoyarsk, I.R. Tomashkevich and M.B. Axelrode, 1900. P. 73.

The need for further exploration and colonization of the land was manifested through the comparison of this card with the other views from the series. The “Workers in the Siberian forests” is equally contrasting. Some details of the image come from the photos from an album “Views of Taiga. A hut of the laborers in the taiga.” The main change is in titles – the “Laborers” became “Railway workers”. The photo in the album depicts poor and miserable life of laborers, while the people on the card are more well-off (It is interesting to point out that in the text accompanying photo in the album, the workers are not mentioned at all, but taiga is described in detail). Both the photo and the card were supposed to illustrate extremely meager life of construction workers and, therefore, created a sense of the necessity of further development of the area.

Finally, a conscious or unconscious wish to overcome the “foreignness” to a potential audience is evident on the card “The village on the Amur river” (Ill. 14). This view that was not in the original album could hardly be identified with the Russian Far East. On the contrary, the Einem artist shows the village similar to any other village in the western part of the country. This card gave a strong impression that even in the distant lands of Siberia the life is just like in Central Russia.

Ill. 14. Trade card “The village on the Amur River” from “The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway” series produced by the partnership “Einem”. ca 1900. Chromolithograph. Fine publications fund of the Russian State Library.

It would seem that the image of Siberia drawn by the cards is very controversial. However, these controversies were generally typical not just for mass visual culture, but also, for example, for literature and media. According to N.N. Rodigina, at the turn of XIXth century, in the mass periodicals Siberia appears both as a symbol of hardship and as the “promised land”. Either interpretation had deep historical roots⁵.

The series of trade cards, obviously, reflects a vision of a Central Russia resident. This is most clearly illustrated by changes made to the images of Lake Baikal and the city of Krasnoyarsk. A card “The view of Lake Baikal” (Ill.15-16) repeats the photograph from the album, but of an entirely different location – a hill “Gremyachaya” on the Yenisei and a gazebo in summer residence of the Krasnoyarsk mayor, I. A. Matveev. In the background there is a bridge. A resident of Siberia, of course, would be well aware that there is no bridge across Lake Baikal. A great event for the region (and the rest of Russia) was the opening of a ferry line across Lake Baikal in 1900.

Ill. 15. Trade card “The Lake Baikal” from “The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway” series produced by the partnership “Einem”. ca 1900. Chromolithograph. Fine publications fund of the Russian State Library.

Ill. 16. View of the hill “Gremyachaya” on the Yenisei and the summer residence of the Krasnoyarsk mayor I. A. Matveev. Photo from the album “The Great Way: The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway”. Publisher: Krasnoyarsk, I.R. Tomashkevich and M.B. Axelrode, 1900. P. 117.

Several changes made to the photo “Railway station ‘Right Yenisei’ ” (Ill. 17-18) turned it into a card “On the banks of the Yenisei river”. In addition to adding traditional staffage, the artist constructs the mountains in the background . It seems that he strived to create not an image of a particular place, but a more general image of a typical Yenisei River landscape which would be more recognizable. These mountains the residents of the European part of Russia could imagine based on the works of  P. Piasecky⁶. However, the level of exaggeration by the Einem artist who, obviously, had never seen the area around Krasnoyarsk, becomes apparent when compared with photographs of the location.

Ill. 17. Trade card “On the banks of the Yenisei River” from “The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway” series produced by the partnership “Einem”. ca 1900. Chromolithograph. Fine publications fund of the Russian State Library.

Ill. 18. Pier “Right Yenisei”. Photo from the album “The Great Way: The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway”. Publisher: Krasnoyarsk, I.R. Tomashkevich and M.B. Axelrode, 1900. P. 121.

Sometimes the cards that are based on the photographs of the very specific locales are identified inaccurately or incorrectly, as it happened in case of “View of Lake Baikal.” Precise  photo album titles become more general – the names of some places might just be ommited (this also applies to other series of trade cards). One can hardly assume that a local resident would not notice these errors. The series was neither created by a Siberian native nor was meant for the distribution there. This is confirmed by the fact that “Einem” production and distribution network did not cover Siberia at all: all the shops and factories of the company were located in the European part of the country.

Another peculiarity of the trade cards images is that they broadcast a colonial point of view. The main theme of the series if to view it as a separate narrative is one of a success of the “civilizing mission” and a promotion of its further development.

Besides, the trade cards put the viewer into a position of the state: due to a colonial discourse a manner of the narration logic. The series includes two types of views: those represented in the original photo album and purely imaginary. These “imaginary” images on trade cards all have something in common: they show the territory where by 1900 the railroad had just been built (“The camp of the Kyrgyzs in the steppe”, “The village on the Amur River”). The differences between album and the trade cards titles, (“The view of Lake Baikal”) as well as the lack of geographical precision (“The village on the Amur river”) and the only image of “Siberian exotic tribe” suggests the artist tried to “tack” the territories that were recently covered by the railroad as if to show a panorama of the railroad construction, an achievement worth of pride.

This intention of the Einem artist explains the discrepancies between the trade cards and the album images mentioned above: he/she used those photographs from the album which would fit into stereotypical expectation of how a Siberian lake or hilly landscape along the banks of the Yenisei river would look like. He appealed not to geographical accuracy, but to mass visual stereotypes⁷.

Thus, a series of trade cards “The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway” demonstrates one of the tools for shaping a public opinion in favor of further development of Siberia. It was achieved through intentionally or unintentionally “placing the viewer into the state’s shoes”.

Besides, due to educational content and easy-to-grasp artistic manner, and a necessity to “collect” this series facilitated a symbolic “appropriation” of Siberia and its inclusion into the “inner” rather than “outer” space.

REFERENCES

1. Princeva G. Sibirsky put’ Pavla Piaseckogo [Siberian way of Pavel Piasecky], Saint Petersburg, 2011.

2. Rodigina N. N. Drugaya Rossia: obras Sibiri v russkoy zhurnalnoy presse vtoroy poloviny XIX – nachala XX veka [Other Russia: the image of Siberia in the Russian press of the second half of XIX - early XX century.], Novosibirsk, 2006.

3. Smith B. European Vision and the South Pacific // Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 1950. Vol. 13. № 1/2. p. 65-100.

4. Veliky put’. Vidy Sibiri i ee zheleznoy dorogy [The Great Way: The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway], Krasnoyarsk, 1900.

FOOTNOTE