---
title: Долой неграмотность! Грамотность — мост к процветанию твоего народа (Down with Illiteracy! Literacy Is a Bridge to the Prosperity of Your People)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ovanesov-down-with-illiteracy-north-caucasus-1925/
description: 'A multilingual likbez (literacy-liquidation) poster. A stone bridge arches over a mountain valley: on the left, factories, an oil derrick and a tractor…'
section: Collection
---

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

[![Долой неграмотность! Грамотность — мост к процветанию твоего народа (Down with Illiteracy! Literacy Is a Bridge to the Prosperity of Your People)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/ovanesov-down-with-illiteracy-north-caucasus-1925.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/ovanesov-down-with-illiteracy-north-caucasus-1925.jpg)

# Долой неграмотность! Грамотность — мост к процветанию твоего народа (Down with Illiteracy! Literacy Is a Bridge to the Prosperity of Your People)

A multilingual likbez (literacy-liquidation) poster. A stone bridge arches over a mountain valley: on the left, factories, an oil derrick and a tractor; on the right, a stone village and a man ploughing with oxen; two readers sit in the foreground. Under the Russian headline, slogans in several other scripts and languages repeat the message. 'Literacy is a bridge to prosperity' is a virtue-word promise with no stated mechanism: the glittering-generalities tell.

## Text on the object

Original (Russian, with lines in several other languages and scripts) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
ДОЛОЙ НЕГРАМОТНОСТЬ!

[non-Russian slogan lines in Arabic, Latin-based and Cyrillic scripts: not transcribed]

ГРАМОТНОСТЬ — МОСТ К ПРОЦВЕТАНИЮ ТВОЕГО НАРОДА

[non-Russian repetitions of the same slogan in four further lines: not transcribed]

ИЗДАНИЕ С.К.КР.ОБЩ. «ДОЛОЙ НЕГРАМОТНОСТЬ»
А. ОВАНЕСОВ
[illegible: printer's imprint line at the foot]
```

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

```
DOWN WITH ILLITERACY!

[non-Russian slogan lines: not transcribed]

LITERACY IS A BRIDGE TO THE PROSPERITY OF YOUR PEOPLE

[non-Russian repetitions: not transcribed]

PUBLISHED BY THE N. CAUCASUS REGIONAL SOCIETY 'DOWN WITH ILLITERACY'
A. OVANESOV
[illegible]
```

Only the Russian lines are transcribed. The other-language lines were not read, since no reader of them was available; they are described by their position and scripts only.

[← Лучшие работницы и крестьянки — в Ленинскую партию! (Best Women Workers and Peasant Women: into the Lenin Party!)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/luchshie-rabotnitsy-i-krestyanki-v-leninskuyu-partiyu-1925/) [Come & See the Palestine Exhibition, Vienna (XIV Zionist Congress poster) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/palestine-exhibition-zionist-congress-1925/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Gold solidus of Constantine I, reverse RESTITVTORI LIBERTATIS](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-constantine-i-restitutori-libertatis-0313/) (Roman Empire · 0313 · Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (Byzantine Empire · 0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (Dutch Republic · 1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Trois Tetes sous l'meme bonnet (three heads under the same cap)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/trois-tetes-sous-le-meme-bonnet-1789/) (France · 1789 · Plain folks, Glittering generalities)
- [Assignat of fifteen sols, law of 4 January 1792](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/assignat-quinze-sols-1792/) (France · Jan 4, 1792 · Glittering generalities)
- [Assignat of fifty sols, law of 23 May 1793 (British Museum)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/assignat-cinquante-sols-1793/) (French First Republic · May 23, 1793 · Glittering generalities)
- [Proclamation by the Queen in Council, to the Princes, Chiefs, and People of India (printed sheet, Allahabad, 1 November 1858)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/queens-proclamation-to-the-people-of-india-1858/) (British India · Nov 1, 1858 · Glittering generalities, Scapegoating)
- [Te Haeata (Auckland), 'Te Runanga Maori ki Kohimarama', 1 September 1860](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/te-haeata-kohimarama-runanga-1860/) (New Zealand · Sep 1, 1860 · Glittering generalities)