| Place | Europe: United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Accession Number | ARTV01342 |
| Collection type | Art |
| Measurement | sheet: 76.2 x 50.8 cm |
| Object type | Poster |
| Physical description | offset lithograph on paper |
| Maker |
Kukryniksy Ministry of Supply Unknown |
| Date made | 1941 |
| Conflict |
Second World War, 1939-1945 |
| Copyright |
Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain
|
We smashed the enemy with lances...
Description
British Second World War poster published by the Ministry of Supply. It is a reproduction of a Soviet war poster designed by a group of artists known as "Kukryniksy". The poster depicts caricatures of German soldiers and Hitler being routed by lances, bayonets, swords and a tank. This British reproduction has additional English translations integrated as text titles underneath the original Russian language title captions. It is one of several examples of the British Government reproducing Soviet posters as propaganda to encourage popular support for the Soviet Union, which had entered the Second World War on the Allied side in 1941.
Three separate images, one underneath the other, make up the whole in a kind of 'triptych' that depicts the routing of German forces over time. The upper image depicts a Knight of the Teutonic Order, decapitated and impaled by bright red lances. The central image shows two First World War German soldiers with tattered uniforms running from an attack of bright red rifles with bayonets attached. The lower image depicts a fleeing Adolf Hitler holding pistols about to be run over by a bright red Soviet tank.
The 'Kukryniksy' were a collaborative team of three Russian artists working together in the 20th century; Porfiry Krylov (b. 1902, d. 1990), Mikhael Kuprianov (b. 1903, d. 1991) and Nikolai Sokolov (b. 1903, d. 2000). Krylov and Kuprianov met as students in the Graphic Department of the Higher Art and Technical Studios (Vkhutemas) in Moscow, and began working together in 1922. The pair collaborated in the designs for comics, posters and book illustrations before being joined by Sokolov in 1924, when they adopted the name 'Kukryniksy'. Their work was published widely in newspapers and magazines during the 1920s and 1930s. During the Second World War, they were major contributors to the TASS studio in Moscow and designed approximately 74 posters for the group in between July 1941 and April 1945, and they continued their collaborative career long after the War.