[Actions on Civil Defense Alert Signals]

Informing Soviet civilians on minimizing nuclear fallout (the year after Chernobyl).

This Cold War-era educational poster reflects the dreary reality of a prospective nuclear war in the Soviet Union shortly before its total collapse. A series of captioned illustrations provide basic instructions for the civilian population in the event of an air alert (signifying a possible nuclear attack). The process begins with donning a gas mask and moving at a right angle against the radioactive wind. One must then search for available shelter, in which they can expect to stay for three days (or more, depending on contamination level). A diagram in the center of the sheet presents the various zones of radiation hazard emanating from the blast point of the bomb.

The chart was authored by S.N. Semenov and drawn by V.G. Rogozin, with approval by the Academic Council of the USSR State Committee for Vocational and Technical Education. Published by the Moscow Higher School in 1987. Printed in Odesa by Poligrafkniga – Ukraine may have been particularly wary of nuclear dangers considering the Chernobyl disaster had happened just the year prior.