Unable to meet circulation demands, the TASS studio considered franchising its operation by creating autonomous satellite stencil studios in the Soviet republics. The first such workshop opened in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, in January 1942; it issued posters under the UzTAG (Telegraph Agency of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic) designation.

UzTAG editions bear both the original TASS number given by the central office and a separate local number. In addition to copying images forwarded from the capital and translating their captions into local languages, the UzTAG studio issued a limited number of unique posters, which addressed regional topics in a style little influenced by the TASS studio in Moscow. Unlike their Russian counterparts, artists working for regional studios designed their posters exclusively for local consumption.

The success of the satellite studio in Tashkent led TASS officials in Moscow to consider establishing a Transcaucasian branch that would reproduce and distribute posters in Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia. Although proposals to open such a studio were rejected, unauthorized TASS studios across the Soviet Union, such as that run by the Department of Arts and Bashkir Artists in Ufa, began designing and distributing posters independently.

Viktor Ufimtsev. Glory to the Heroes of the Labor Front! (UzTAG 357), c. 1943. Ne boltai! Collection, 0357.

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