The October Revolution of 1917 that created the Soviet Union declared itself early on to be an opponent of colonialism, imperialism and national oppression.
In fact, the founders of the world's first socialist state broke from previous iterations of the socialist movement, largely based in Europe, which condoned colonial oppression and saw their "own" nations as civilized and the colonized as "savages."
Russian Bolshevik leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin saw these countries as enslaving "natives in the colonies," growing wealthy and sustaining national economies while also "infecting the proletariat with colonial chauvinism," in turn corrupting the workers' and socialists' movements.
It was Lenin, in fact, who added the "oppressed" to "Workers and Oppressed of the World Unite!"
National liberation forces, inspired by the Marxist example of the Bolsheviks, began to sprout up across the colonial and neo-colonial world fighting for their freedom in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.
teleSUR takes a look at the powerful visual art printed by the USSR.