But - Russia needs the tools NOW!

Places
Accession Number ARTV02334
Collection type Art
Measurement Sheet: 49.5 X 74 cm
Object type Poster
Physical description offset lithograph on paper
Maker the Kukryniksy
Ministry of Supply
Unknown
Place made United Kingdom: England, Greater London, London
Date made 1941
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

British war poster issued by the Ministry of Supply. It features a reproduction of a Soviet poster by the Kukryniksy initially published by Iskusstvo in June 1941 in an edition of 2000,000. The image depicts a caricature of a small, fat, Hitler dressed as Napoleon being pushed by the butt of a red army rifle wielded by a much bigger unseen Russian soldier. Hitler is holding a torn piece of paper saying 'Treaty' in Russian. This is a reference to the recently broken Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement signed by Germany and Russia in 1939. The silhouette cast by Hitler appears as that of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the shadow cast by the soldier's rifle appears as a pitchfork with the year '1812' printed on its shaft. A translation of the Russian text is integrated into the image and runs 'NAPOLEON SUFFERED DEFEAT AND SO ALSO WILL THE CONCEITED HITLER!'. References to the defeat of Napoleon were employed by Soviet artists during the Second World War to suggest that history would repeat itself and Russia would defeat the expansionist plans of Hitler as they had the French over a hundred years before.