I am indebted to Ruth Bosch for drawing to my attention this photograph from Paraphilia Magazine, captioned “Russian children taking part in a parade celebrating birds helpful to farming, 1934”. It is instructive to realise that Soviet Communism was not an unalloyed disaster, at least in ornithological terms. Needless to say, I am agog to learn precisely which birds were deemed “helpful to farming”. Skylarks? Peewits? Pratincoles? Any readers equally expert in birds and Bolshevism should contact me immediately.
I don’t have the necessary skills to shed light on this matter; but the title, Birds and Bolshevism, does remind me that Doves Brandish Limbs … which is interesting, given their ordinarily peaceable façade.
I like the masks that have eye cutouts below the beaks instead of above. It reminds me of when we had to draw pictures of our family in primary school, and I couldn’t remember whether my Dad’s moustache sat under his nose or above his nose. I drew it incorrectly – I’ll let you guess which way I mean.