I agree that this is an interesting area of study and research. I suspect that a lot of the original inspiration came from state propaganda of the Soviet era in the USSR.
Here, the ironic thing is that immediately after the Revolution in 1917, most of the intelligentsia (including the artistic intelligentsia) sided with the revolutionaries (Tsarist Russia had been a by-word for reactionary attitudes for ages).
Thus, in practice, this meant that early Soviet art was both cutting edge in the sense of modernity and widely known and accessible. It was also necessary as a tool of communication as - in the early days at least - literacy was a problem in the USSR, (a mass education drive addressed some of these deficiencies) and later, in some of the successor states as well, such as Korea, and indeed, earlier on, China. Thus, striking, eye-catching posters, radio and film were all important aids in promoting the message of the revolutionary state.
Artists such as Pen and Chagall and Mayakovsky ran 'schools' - the so-called 'Russkii Avant-Garde' [one such was in Vitebsk, in modern Belarus, the birthplace of Chagall, which I was lucky enough to be able to visit some years ago] in the early Soviet era with the noble aim of 'bringing art to the masses', before times changed, and with it, artistic fashion, which meant that by the 30s, many of the best artists from the early Soviet times had ended up in western Europe or, later still, the US, as they had fallen out of favour with Stalin, whose own taste was conservative and very literal in what he wished art to portray.
This meant that even when it descended into crudest state propaganda, there was a peculiar strength to some of that Soviet art from the Stalinist era - those blocs of solid strong colours, (combinations of black, white and red predominated), striking composition, stark lines. This taste in art and propaganda was exported to countries which were ideologically attracted to the Soviet revolution after WW2 (China and Korea come to mind) with local embellishments and variations in the imported themes, (the old 'Communism With Chinese Characteristics' idea).
Years ago, shortly before the old USSR collapsed, I (bought, in the Hermitage, in what was then Leningrad,) and subsequently read an amazing (and occasionally unintentionally hilarious) book of Soviet propaganda art. Among other things, this showed examples of the art of regional revolutionary regimes which also included their respective depictions of Lenin. Thus, some far eastern variations showed a Lenin with pronounced Asiatic features; some communist African states had a black Lenin, and so on. On that trip, I also bought some large posters and maps - which are now history rather than propaganda, and thus, even more interesting.
