Klucis designed these postcards devoted to the theme of physical culture and sport to commemorate the All Union Spartakiada, which opened in Moscow on 12 August 1928. The Spartakiada was a form of national Olympic Games, organised by the Supreme Council of Physical Culture, which also commissioned the postcards. Each postcard illustrates one specific sport or a group of related sporting activities. Diving is linked with other water sports such as swimming and rowing, while motorcycle racing is celebrated alongside the pole vault, cycling, the long jump and equestrian events.

For the Bolsheviks, sporting success and physical perfection demonstrated the triumph of the Revolution, the efficacy of Socialism and the achievements of the Soviet state. The Spartakiada, therefore, had considerable propaganda potential, and, as a committed Communist and Constructivist, Klucis orchestrated his photomontages to maximise this. While seeking to capture the dynamism of sporting activities and reveal the beauty of the physical gestures involved, he was also concerned to bring out the fundamental connection between sport and Communist ideology. Diagonal arrangements and combinations of various stances at different scales create a sense of vibrant physical movement. Its ideological significance is underlined by slogans such as ‘Soviet physical culture is one of the links in the cultural revolution in the USSR’ (tennis postcard) or ‘Long live the unity of the worker sportsmen of all countries’ (runners postcard). Klucis reinforced the political message by using images of Lenin or the Lenin mausoleum (denoting his enduring presence and inspiration), so the former leader accompanies an image of a man putting the shot, or stands next to the mausoleum watching the female discus thrower.

This proof sheet shows all the postcards together and is therefore particularly effective in revealing the variety of ways in which Klucis combined photographic and graphic elements. Used in this way, they produce emotionally powerful and politically resonant images of physical activity.