Life — August 31, 1922 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Life Magazine: American-Russian Number (August 9, 1922) This is the cover of Life's "American-Russian Number," priced at 15 cents. The central image depicts a figure (likely representing a Russian leader or Bolshevik revolutionary) seated within an ornate Russian Orthodox church interior, complete with distinctive onion domes visible in the background. The satire appears to critique Bolshevism's relationship with Russian Orthodox Christianity and traditional Russian culture. By positioning a Soviet figure in a sacred religious space, the cartoonist likely suggests either the appropriation of Russian identity by communist leadership, or perhaps the threat communism posed to traditional Russian institutions during the early Soviet period. The 1922 date places this during the Russian Civil War's aftermath and the early Soviet consolidation of power.