The brainchild of Leon Trotsky, the “Society of Friends of the Air Fleet” (ODVF) was founded in the spring of 1923 to enlist citizens in the task of developing “Red” aviation. This poster was one of the first produced by ODVF in support of its initial “Campaign to Build the Red Air Fleet.”

The airplanes depicted circling the globe are WW I-era British DeHavilland DH-4s. Licensed for production by the Imperial Russian government in 1917, the DH-4 served as the basis for the first mass-produced airplane to emerge from Soviet factories following the Bolshevik take-over: the Polikarpov R-1.