The journal informed readers abroad of the hyper-construction taking place within the nation, and portrayed the emergence of the Soviet Union as a leading industrial power.

[1] By focusing on a single theme or initiative in each issue, the contributing artists produced a work which effectively conveyed the heroic efforts of the Soviet people in fulfilling the objectives set forth by Joseph Stalin to transform the technologically deficient country into a highly developed and productive world power.

[1] The journal was published over the course of eleven years and brought together articles by esteemed writers such as Alexander Fadeyev, Isaac Babel, and Sergei Tretyakov, with montages composed from images created by the Soviet Union's most talented photo-journalists: Max Alpert, Arkady Shaikhet, Georgii Zelma, Boris Ignatovich, Semion Fridland, and George Petrusov.

El Lissitzky and Sophie Lissitzky-Küppers designed the overall layout and cover arrangements for a number of issues, as did Alexander Rodchenko and his wife, Varvara Stepanova.

Many avant-garde artists thus turned to photomontage as an alternative mode of expression which could side-step around the rigid restrictions being put on painting.