Picturing the Plan: Stalinist Mass Politics and the Art of Soviet Statistics

Research and writing contributing to a book on information design by the Soviet Institute of Pictorial Statistics (Izostat).My book project, “Picturing the Plan: Stalinist Mass Politics and the Art of Soviet Statistics,” examines the history of the Soviet Institute of Pictorial Statistics, or “Izostat.” From its founding in Moscow in 1931, Izostat bridged the divide between art and economics. Izostat staff (artists and economists) sought to transform complex economic and planning ideas into simple images that could be easily communicated to any Soviet citizen, regardless of literacy level or mother tongue. In examining how the USSR attempted to take statistical knowledge to the masses, “Picturing the Plan” scrutinizes how modern states mobilize the power of images, and how citizens in one authoritarian regime responded in turn.