---
title: Mayakovsky, Советская азбука (Soviet Alphabet), letter Б (Moscow, 1919)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/mayakovsky-soviet-azbuka-1919/
description: Page for the letter Б in a rhymed picture alphabet for children. A lanky figure in a top hat and tails, whose body forms the initial letter, bolts away…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Mayakovsky, Советская азбука (Soviet Alphabet), letter Б (Moscow, 1919)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/mayakovsky-soviet-azbuka-1919.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/mayakovsky-soviet-azbuka-1919.jpg)

# Mayakovsky, Советская азбука (Soviet Alphabet), letter Б (Moscow, 1919)

Page for the letter Б in a rhymed picture alphabet for children. A lanky figure in a top hat and tails, whose body forms the initial letter, bolts away beside the verse "The Bolsheviks look for bourgeois. The bourgeois race off a thousand versts." A class label, "bourgeois", is attached to a comic fleeing figure, and the rhyme supplies the verdict.

- **Date:** 1919
- **Period:** [Interwar](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=interwar)
- **Made by:** Vladimir Mayakovsky (text and drawings), Moscow
- **Region:** [Eastern Europe and Eurasia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=eastern-europe-eurasia)
- **Country:** [Soviet Russia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=soviet-russia)
- **Medium:** [Books and pamphlets](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=book-pamphlet)
- **Issuer type:** [Individual](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=individual)
- **Regime:** [Soviet Russia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=soviet-russia)
- **Leader:** [Vladimir Lenin](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=vladimir-lenin)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Demonize](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=demonize)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Labor](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=labor)
- **Event:** [Russian Civil War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=russian-civil-war)
- **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons (scan credited to raruss.ru)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mayakovsky%27s_Soviet_Azbuka_-_%D0%91.jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (published 1919; author died 1930, term expired; Commons: PD-old-70-expired) Vladimir Mayakovsky, Советская азбука (Moscow, 1919), via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

## Text on the object

Original (Russian) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
[Б]ОЛЬШЕВИКИ
БУРЖУЕВ ИЩУТ.
[Б]УРЖУИ МЧАТСЯ
ВЕРСТ ЗА ТЫЩУ.
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
The Bolsheviks
look for bourgeois.
The bourgeois race off
a thousand versts away.
```

The initial Б of the first and third lines is drawn as, or hidden behind, the running figure, so the printed words start at ОЛЬШЕВИКИ and УРЖУИ; the missing letter is supplied in square brackets from the verse's known text.

[← Капитал (Capital)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kapital-deni-1919/) [Миръ и свобода въ Совдепіи (Peace and Freedom in Sovdepia) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/mir-i-svoboda-v-sovdepii-1919/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Exit Liberté a la Francois! or Buonaparte closing the Farce of Egalité, at St. Cloud (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exit-liberte-buonaparte-gillray-1799/) (Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling)
- [Van Moscouw tot Elba moest ik wyken (From Moscow to Elba I had to give way), Napoleon caricature by Wijnand Esser](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/van-moscouw-tot-elba-napoleon-esser-1814/) (1814 · Name-calling)