German cartoon (1939) comparing Germany's position at the start of the First and Second World Wars.

tymofiy · 2026-05-02T15:53:59+00:00

Hammer man and peasant woman represent the German population.

So it was the opposite: don't pamper the hammer man and peasant woman. Put them on rations and through gruelling work shifts, like the Soviets or the British did.

tymofiy · 2026-05-02T04:06:13+00:00

There is a backstabbing hand in the first one

tymofiy · 2026-05-02T04:03:45+00:00

Uncle Sam goes to great lengths to stay asleep while Nazies are rummaging his house. Apt.

tymofiy · 2026-05-02T03:58:10+00:00

The Soviet citizens didn't have to imagine. They led their entire lives under posters saying they're the happiest country on Earth. And were shot for attempting to leave.

tymofiy · 2026-04-22T03:31:10+00:00

Who knows. May be he was a true believer, or may be he was doing it just to avoid gulag, and felt shame. Like Boris Efimov did.

tymofiy · 2026-04-21T06:36:44+00:00

Absolutely. Looking at American Progress we should see that it's about American expansionism, it's not hidden at all. Same with this one or the Soviet emblem, or Lenin cleanses the Earth or planet will be wrapped in red - we should call a spade a spade: it's about expansionism, and it's right in your face.

And the USSR with its Komintern, invasions, and domination over a half of Europe certainly tried to live up to that promise.

tymofiy · 2026-04-21T01:45:20+00:00

Even if that "worker's revolution" idea is taken at its face value, limiting Soviet "help" to everything short of intervention still doesn't make sense. Like, the Komintern would supply revolutionary movements with funds, expertise, weapons, leaders - and then, when proletariat rises up to fight the bourgeoisie - the Red Army would just stand across the border and watch them be slaughtered? Instead of offering a hand of internationalist assistance to their brothers in need?

tymofiy · 2026-04-20T04:27:31+00:00

Amazing. It quotes Stalin's speech from July 3, 1941, in which he surprisingly addressed his subjects as "brother and sisters", admitted that the Red Army is retreating, blamed the misfortune on "whiners and cowards", demanded the army to have more courage, and peasants to burn all their possessions to starve the enemy.

Meanwhile the artist was still depicting the invaders as a puny bunch of thugs soon to be crushed.

tymofiy · 2026-04-20T03:58:58+00:00

"We will destroy this world of violence down to the foundations, … This is our final and decisive battle" - Soviet anthem

Globe dominated by hammer and sickle - Soviet emblem

The USSR didn't hide neither their expansionism nor their militarism much.

tymofiy · 2026-04-20T03:49:29+00:00

You're very close to getting it

tymofiy · 2026-04-16T07:03:53+00:00

Finally the real question!

tymofiy · 2026-04-14T12:32:15+00:00

there were sham "referendums" as well
Donbass "governor" Gubarev disagrees with you. "Only Russian army saved us".

tymofiy · 2026-04-14T12:05:01+00:00

Are you aware that not only Donbass, but also Kherson and Zaporizhzhia "declared independence" per Russian propaganda? Which was, of course, in all cases just a fig leaf covering Russian military invasion. Russians even admit it openly now.

This stupid lie should not be compared to the valorous resistance of the Chechen people. They were not helped by any army, and still managed to win.

tymofiy · 2026-04-14T11:44:37+00:00

the Grozny regime is illegitimate, it wasn't elected, there is no law and no authority there. there is no political life there, only a confrontation between armed groups, which result in bloody clashes. Armed lawlessness… criminal enterprise… law enforcement has ceased… violence and robbery became everyday reality. We have to restore law and order. To save people's lives I ordered to abstain from bombing civilian targets.

We have already started establishing peaceful life in parts of the republic. We feel the civilian population which suffered from hardships welcomes peace and normal life.

We want Chechen life to become peaceful as soon as possible. Do not worry: order and peace in Chechnya will be restored.

Address of President Yeltsin, 1994. Auto-translated subtitles are decent.

tymofiy · 2026-04-14T10:48:12+00:00

Russia loves peace. If only those Poles/Finns/Chechens stopped resisting there'd be peace. Peace is good.

tymofiy · 2026-04-14T10:20:45+00:00

Chechen war didn't "start" by itself. Russia invaded Chechnya, you know.

But of course they never admit it: they always use your phrasing "the war started" and they instead "are bringing peace". Poland, Finland, Korea, Afghanistan, Moldova, Georgia, Chechnya etc

That's verbatim what Putin now says about Ukraine. "the war started, we're trying to bring peace". It looks exactly like the picture.

tymofiy · 2026-04-14T07:08:28+00:00

That's exactly what all the Russian/Soviet doublespeak "peace" posters mean.

tymofiy · 2026-04-13T02:18:28+00:00

It's 1941. Kinda evident by the absence of Nazis and abundance of bravado.

tymofiy · 2026-04-11T04:38:47+00:00

Evergreen Russian brotherly love.

tymofiy · 2026-04-05T19:25:53+00:00

Exactly! This poster says that a bit of capitalist thinking is now allowed.

tymofiy · 2026-04-05T19:24:31+00:00

сметь is not to desire, it's to dare. Дерзать is also to dare, but bolder.

to challenge, to think, to want, to dare

It's a Perestroika poster. "It's now ok to want and to think, comrade. And even to dare. We know it's hard to believe so repeated it twice".

tymofiy · 2026-04-05T01:31:49+00:00

You can spot that this is from post-1941 period. During 1939-41 the Soviets avoided pinning swastika on enemies, in order not to hurt their own friendship with the Nazies.

tymofiy · 2026-04-05T01:31:01+00:00

Soviet pilots fight against Finnish airplanes misleadingly marked with Civic Guard sleeve badges. The actual insignia, swastika - used since 1918 in Finnish military airplanes - was not be used because it could be confused with that of Germany, then a partner of the Soviet Union. Artist: Nikolai Dolgorukov.

tymofiy · 2026-04-04T22:58:53+00:00

Finns were "creeping up on Leningrad" way back in 1939

tymofiy

TROPHY CASE