Born in 1878 to a wealthy Ukrainian family, Angelica Balabanoff broke ties with her parents and left for Europe to become one of the leading female socialists of the early 20th century. Just five feet tall, plump and plain, she was rumored to be a lover of Mussolini, Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin. Returning to Russia at the beginning of the October Revolution, she became one of the few women to occupy high-ranking positions within the all-male Bolshevik government, later fleeing Russia in disagreement with Lenin's politics. She was accused by European and American secret services of promoting communist propaganda, and by the Soviets of disloyalty. She lived in small dormitory-like rooms, moving on average every two years with her two suitcases of important documents. She died in Rome at the age 96, concluding her 65-year career by supporting Giuseppe Saragat in his quest to become president of Italy. During her nomadic life, state and police agencies in the countries she visited compiled documents on her. The author draws on this extensive, scattered archive in this first biography of Balabanoff.

This large-format book of Soviet propaganda posters allows the reader to remove individual posters and is at once a revealing historical document and a sublime example of graphic art at its best. Dating from 1917 to the end of the Cold War, the posters in this book feature the work of groundbreaking Russian artists such as El Lissitzky and Alexander Rodchenko, alongside extraordinary works by their contemporaries. Presented in full color, printed on heavy paper, and in a large-format, the posters gathered here represent the pinnacle of Russian avant-garde design from the 20th century. They range in theme from the dangers of alcohol abuse and the creeping Nazi menace, to illustrations of utopian harmony and the Soviet industrial machine. A special feature of this book allows for the removal of the posters, which have been designed to fit standard frame sizes. A brief introduction offers a chronological overview of the period that produced such eloquent art, which has long been a major source of inspiration to artists and designers.