by Natasha Lyandres, Russian and East European Collections
RBSC recently acquired a collection of early Soviet candy wrappers from various Soviet Republics, spanning from the early 1920s through the mid-1930s. This period encompasses the crucially important years of the New Economic Policy (NEP, 1921-1928) and the First Five Year Plan (1928-1932). Because caramel candies were relatively inexpensive and widely available, their wrappers—much like posters and other forms of mass-produced graphic ephemera—played a vital role in the Soviet effort to integrate art and propaganda into everyday life. This collection captures a brief yet dynamic period of innovation and exploration for the emerging proletarian visual culture. Its breadth and diversity of styles and subjects highlights the coexistence of different traditions and creative practices that defined the era. By the mid-1930s, however, Joseph Stalin rejected the avant-garde experimentations in favor of a standardized visual language, asserting absolute state control over cultural life and establishing a new official doctrine of Soviet art: Socialist Realism.
Reading candy wrappers
Candy wrappers combined texts and imagery for identification and promotional purposes, utilizing lithographic and chromolithographic printing techniques. In addition to naming the confection, the text frequently detailed a product’s production and distribution. Many wrappers featured the names of large, nationalized factories such as Roza Luxemburg in Odesa, Karl Marx in Kyiv, and Krasnyi Oktiabr’ (Red October) in Moscow. Others named cooperative enterprises that marketed and distributed products—including Mosselprom (Moscow Association of Enterprises Processing Agro-Industrial Products)—and regional lithographic presses. Candy wrappers also frequently incorporated the names of local censorship organizations. Following the Bolshevik takeover in October 1917, the state exercised full control over all publishing and printing activities, including consumer advertisements. While wrappers rarely printed their creation dates or designers’ names, production dates can be determined primarily through visual and material analyses, archival sources, and historical research on producers and distributors. Identifying the designers, however, proves far more challenging. Although large cooperative enterprises like Mosselprom employed numerous designers and collaborated with prominent avant-garde artists such as Aleksandr Rodchenko and Vladimir Mayakovsky, the specific creators behind the wrappers in this collection remain unidentified.
The scene depicts a peasant riding a tractor. To modernize agricultural production, the Soviet state imported its first tractors from the United States, including tractors produced by Ford, such as the one featured in this image.
This caramel candy was produced in Odesa, Ukraine, by the Roza Luxemburg factory. The factory was nationalized in 1919. In 1922 it was named after the famous German Communist leader Roza Luxembourg. The candy was distributed by KharchoTrest (Odesa district Food Industry Trust). During the NEP, trusts were state-owned organizations responsible for overseeing food production and distribution. The lithographic image was printed by “Odespoligraph, 3 gostip” (lower right) which was a state publishing house. It was approved for publication by “Okralit” (lower left) – Odesa District Inspectorate for Literature and Publishing, which operated between 1925-1930 and acted as a local censorship authority.
Design
The design of candy wrappers from this period reflects the coexistence of varied artistic styles, ranging from the popular print traditions of Lubok, Realism and Art Nouveau to the emerging avant-garde aesthetics of Constructivism.
This lubok-style scene depicts a farmer plowing the land with a simple wooden plow and a horse.
The wrapper depicts a decorative Art Nouveau-style portrait of an idealized young woman framed by an ornamental composition. The candy’s name derives from the French “mignon”, meaning “little” or “cute”. During the NEP period, such imagery appealed to more prosperous consumers (or the so-called NEPmen).
The wrapper blends the striking geometry of Constructivism and its signature three-color palette (red, black, and white) with a popular caricature-style image of a Black man holding a bottle and raising a glass, all framed by black and cream checkboard pattern. It was most likely used as a wrapper for a liquor-filled caramel. The confection was produced and distributed by Goskontrest (State Confectionary Trust) in Kharkiv, Soviet Ukraine. The design was approved for publication by the local censorship authority Misklyt (on the right) on March 13, 1930.
A single-color lithographic print produced by “Lenselprom” (Leningrad Agricultural Industrial Trust), featuring hammer and sickle. By naming the candy simply “No. 3” in a series of goods produced by the special order of Tsentrosoiuz, the design embodied Constructivist aesthetics characterized by geometric simplicity and abstraction.
Subjects
Although disposable and ephemeral by nature, candy wrappers served a role that extended far beyond their practical purpose of protecting confectionary products. Through playful names and engaging designs, they provided visual entertainment for both adults and children, while simultaneously acting as vehicles for state propaganda and promoting the emerging values of Soviet life.
Factories issued new candy varieties under such names as “Narodnaia” (People’s Candies), decorated with images of Soviet insignia.
Also popular were candy wrappers featuring idealized portraits of Soviet workers and youth, including peasants, factory workers, liberated working women, and Young Pioneers.
Produced by “Mosselprom”, it features a peasant woman holding a child and a sickle. Marked as “Made in the USSR” indicates that this candy was made for export.
Candy wrappers documented the rapidly changing political and cultural landscape of Soviet Russia, often capturing major events in near real time. Depicted subjects included public monuments, popular theatrical and circus performances, famous actors, and the transition to the new Soviet currency, the chervonets. Ultimately, these images reflected and celebrated socio-cultural transformations taking place across Soviet society.
The name of caramel candy refers to the Soviet currency, the chervonets, introduced in 1922 to combat hyperinflation and stabilize the economy after the 1917 Revolution and Civil War (1917-1922).
The candy wrapper features a monument to the Soviet Constitution in front of the Lenin Institute and the Central Communist Party Archive located in the heart of Moscow on Soviet (Tverskaia) Square.
The name of the candy refers to a popular but very risky circus acrobatic somersault act.
Mary Pickford (1892-1979) was a Canadian-American actress and one of the most famous Hollywood silent-film stars. This candy wrapper was most likely issued to commemorate her visit to the Soviet Union in July 1926. The name of the candy denotes her 1923 film “Rosita”.
Wrappers from the First Five-Year Plan (1928-1932) joined a massive visual propaganda effort to advance Stalinist collectivization of agriculture and industrialization.
Two candy wrappers celebrate workers participating in the shock-brigade state sponsored competitions aimed at surpassing official production targets.
The name of this candy refers to the massive Soviet campaign to seize grain from Ukrainian peasants. The wrapper depicts a patriotic procession of carts carrying the first grain of the harvest to the state distribution centers. The candy was produced by the Karl Marx confectionery in Kyiv, most likely in the years immediately preceding the Holodomor of 1932-1933. Forced collectivization of agriculture and Stalin’s brutal grain requisitioning policies led to the catastrophic famine in Ukraine, which ruined farming and killed millions.
Candy wrappers also functioned as collectible items, with some issued in thematic series that continued the pre-revolutionary tradition of collecting decorative packing of confectionary and tobacco products. Recurring subjects included known literary figures, representations of people from around the world in traditional costumes, and illustrations of fruits and animals.
Four candy wrappers from the “Zoological” series produced by Lenselprom, featuring different animals.
Conclusion
The early Soviet candy wrappers collection complements the Hesburgh Libraries’ strong holdings in early Soviet visual culture and the performing arts. By drawing attention to candy wrappers as an overlooked form of mass-produced printed ephemera, this collection broadens our understanding of how popular Soviet visual culture circulated outside familiar formats like illustrated books, posters, stamps, and prints.
