James H. Billington Lecture | The Art of Soviet Statistics

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Data visualization—such as charts, graphs, and infographics—can serve a democratizing purpose, yet it can just as easily be used to obscure and to mislead. Join us for the annual James H. Billington lecture by 2021-2022 Billington Fellow Katherine Zubovich, where she will discuss how Soviet artists and economists created numerical graphics in the 1930s to communicate the goals and results of the country’s first Five-Year Plans to a mass audience. Focusing on the history of the USSR’s Institute of Pictorial Statistics, founded in Moscow in 1931, the talk will survey the books, posters, billboards, and pamphlets produced by the institute during the tumultuous 1930s.

The James H. Billington Fellowship was established in 2016 in tribute to the co-founder of the Kennan Institute, former Director of the Wilson Center, and former Librarian of Congress. Dr. Billington made enduring contributions to the field of Russian Studies, and in our nation’s ability to understand and maintain bridges of dialogue with the Russian people.