Galerie Basmadjian, Paris

‘To organise the whole national economy on the lines of the postal-service… is our immediate aim’ wrote Lenin. A monolithic, hierarchical, state-run organization, the service was a model of hypercentralisation that could be held up by Lenin as an example of how to structure a socialist economic system. The postal-worker subsequently became a universal image for the reliability and efficiency of the state as well as the heroism of the everyday worker, who in this instance provided the vital link between the far reaches of the empire. Elena Kostenko graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1952 and became famous for her strong portraiture.