Smoking is fun: Communist Mongolian cigarette advertisement

How Communist Mongolia or rather Soviet Union promoted smoking in Mongolia

RBTH or Russia Beyond the Headline published a story about how smoking was widely promoted in USSR.  The story featured several advertisements of cigarettes produced in Soviet Union. One of the cigarettes had “Old Mongolian script” or “traditional Mongolian script”on it. The caption of the cigarette said “Red Army Soldier smoking the cigarette brand “Fun” and is shown image of a Red Army soldier with pointed hat being offered a box of cigarette.

 Most interesting thing is the old Mongolian scripts on the box. I read the smaller Mongolian scripts on the left as “High grade 25 pieces”  or  “Дээд Зэрэг 25 ширхэг”. The larger writing on the right side of the soldier says “Mixed cigarette named  Peoples Fun” or “Ардын зугаа хэмээх хуйлмал тамхи”.

I have never seen this brand of cigarette in Mongolia. Most likely this dates back to 1920s when Red Army soldiers were wearing this kind of pointed hat and “Old Mongolian script” or the traditional script was officially used. The soldier's image clearly has distinctive Mongolian features-broad cheekbones and jutted chin and big ear.

By Ganbat Namjilsangarav