Assess students' ability to apply semiotic frameworks to analyze visual rhetoric in Soviet propaganda posters (1917–1939). Students should identify denotative and connotative signs, signifiers/signified relations, iconic/indexical/symbolic codes, paradigmatic and syntagmatic structures, and common iconography (color, composition, typography, gestures). Evaluate how these signs and visual strategies construct ideological meaning, target audiences, and mobilize behavior, using close visual reading of selected posters supported by historical context (political aims, production, and circulation). Emphasize evidence-based interpretation and clear linkage between semiotic concepts and rhetorical effects.