The Saratov Regional Museum displays this poster, with the inscription ‘Poster ‘Teach 1,000,000 in 1929 and 1930. Are you not yet signed up for this cultural crusade? Shame on you! ’ The poster was issued when the country was struggling with illiteracy. The poster’s background is a map of the lower Volga region, and in the foreground, a woman is depicted as a cultural combatant. She is wearing a red headscarf and a tunic, brought together with a belt and knife belt. She holds an exercise book and the ‘Let’s Learn’ primer in her hands, with Lenin illustrated on the book’s cover. An inscription, positioned within a curved frame on the right of the poster reads: ‘The Regional Special Commission for the Elimination of Illiteracy.’

The Lower Volga region, with Saratov at its center, included Astrakhan, Saratov and Stalingrad provinces, Kalmyk Autonomous Region, part of Pugachevsky parish in Samara Governorate and the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The region became one of the leading regions in the country in the fight against illiteracy towards the end of the 1920’s and beginning of the 1930’s. Under the leadership of the Special Commission for the elimination of illiteracy, a wide range of schools were established, including evening classes, advanced classes and schools for the illiterate. The commission was formed of party representatives, Komsomol members, trade unionists and other citizen groups, as well as university and technical college heads. The commission’s members were divided into ten sections. Similar commissions were created in the cities, suburbs, regions and villages.

This campaign earned the name ‘the Cultural Crusade’. The elimination of illiteracy for the population aged between 16 and 50 years of age was the campaign’s fundamental task. Particular attention was directed towards eliminating illiteracy in areas. Those who participated in the cultural crusade became known as cultural combatants. The third stage of the campaign began in the Lower Volga Region in 1930, which became known as ‘the Cultural Storm’. 100,000 cultural combatants were deployed in the region’s villages. As a result, literacy in the region reached 97.3%, and 99.5% in Saratov. The campaign meant that the Lower Volga region was presented with the Transferable Red Banner. Posters played an important role in the fight against illiteracy, as they directly appealed to workers and peasants to become educated. 10,000 copies of the exhibited poster were produced in Saratov during the second stage of the campaign.