Viktor Deni and Nikolai Dolgorukov (Дени, В. и Долгоруков, Н.), The enemy’s fate is predetermined: we have crushed them before and we will crush them again (иной судьбы врагу не может быть врага мы били и будем бить), 1938
Stalin poster of the week is a weekly excursion into the fascinating world of propaganda posters of Iosif Stalin, leader of the USSR from 1929 until his death in 1953.
Here, Anita Pisch will showcase some of the most interesting Stalin posters, based on extensive research in the archives of the Russian State Library, and analyse what makes these images such successful propaganda.
Anita’s new, fully illustrated book, The personality cult of Stalin in Soviet posters, 1929 -1953, published by ANU Press, is available for free download here, and can also be purchased in hard copy from ANU Press.
Viktor Deni and Nikolai Dolgorukov’s ‘The enemy’s fate is predetermined: we have crushed them before and we will crush them again’ of 1938 depicts the relaxed and friendly pair of Stalin and Kliment Voroshilov, civil and military leader respectively, chatting under a portrait of Lenin, who is in characteristic collar and tie.
The holy trinity of Lenin, Stalin and Voroshilov watch over the nation
The three figures form a ‘holy trinity’ that watches over and protects the Soviet Union, and the text of the poster, invoking fate and predestiny, lends a sacral aura to the notion of righteous victory.
Enemies of all sorts – Whites, foreigners and Mensheviks – flee or are expelled by the mighty Red Army
Beneath the trinity is a map of Europe in which Russia’s enemies flee as a series of red flags springs up around Europe. These enemies include Aleksandr Kolchak who, in the Civil War formed an anti-Communist government in Siberia, Lieutenant General Anton Denikin who was a prominent White leader during the Civil War, Nikolai Yudenich, also a White leader, Cossack military leader Pavlo Skoropadskii, Cossack Lieutenant General Piotr Krasnov, Cossack Lieutenant General Aleksandr Dutov, the Poles, the Germans, the Japanese intervention and the Mensheviks.
Anita Pisch‘s new book, The personality cult of Stalin in Soviet posters, 1929 – 1953, is now available for free download through ANU Press open access, or to purchase in hard copy for $83. This lavishly illustrated book, featuring reproductions of over 130 posters, examines the way in which Stalin’s image in posters, symbolising the Bolshevik Party, the USSR state, and Bolshevik values and ideology, was used to create legitimacy for the Bolshevik government, to mobilise the population to make great sacrifices in order to industrialise and collectivise rapidly, and later to win the war, and to foster the development of a new type of Soviet person in a new utopian world.
You can visit Dr. Anita Pisch’s personal website at www.anitapisch.com
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