Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were the Soviet Union’s ‘western gate’. For Soviet holiday makers visiting the Baltic republics, the western architecture and lack of shortages separated them from the other Soviet republics. Soviet filmmakers often used Lithuanian and Estonian cities as stand-ins for western cities like Paris.
Under the watchful eye of Soviet censors, Baltic film and propaganda posters were screen printed in limited runs. The censors forbade the use of the flags from each of the Baltic Republics. Artists like Stasys Eidrigevičius and Eduard Wiiralt would find ways to add them to posters anyway by arranging the colours in a non linear composition. The results were visually inventive posters laced with cautiously coded counter-propaganda.
