Cold War Propaganda From The Other Side of the Fence

If you have any memory at all of Cold War-era editorial cartoons and rhetoric from the American perspective, this collection of Soviet posters from the same time period is both fascinating and mentally jarring. The English Russia Web site provides translations for most of the posters, but really, they're impressive in their ability to get everything across even if you can't read a word of Russian. One the most interesting things going on here, visually, is how easily the artists take the wacky, friendly stilt-walking clown Uncle Sam most Americans are familiar with and morph him into a figure more akin to evil Mr. Potter from "It's a Wonderful Life" (frequently featuring anti-Semetic over and under-tones). They don't even change his outfit, just the colors.

Thanks to Twitter pal pbump for pointing me to the page!

Previously:

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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MORE: Art and Design • History • politics • pop culture

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eviladrian

Holy crap, imagine if they’d got Vin instead of us!
It’d be like “Superman: Red Son” with Hondas.
VeniceArtist

If you are interested in these, you may also like this organization. http://www.politicalgraphics.org
Anonymous

I think it’s that guy from Film Riot.
rayceeya

OMG I so desperately want some high res prints of these. They are amazing!!!
rrh

The “Same years but different weathers” poster bothers me, because I’m pretty sure 22% is higher than 20%.
- Maggie Koerth-Baker
  
  That threw me, too. Until I realized that it’s meant to be -22 and +22. Which are, says the Minnesotan, very different.
rl

Why is Obama wearing a soviet uniform?
- Maggie Koerth-Baker
  
  Obama? That guy doesn’t look like Obama. This is very clearly Vin Diesel wearing a Soviet uniform.
jahknow

rrh — yes, 22% < 20% is a bit disconcerting.
Anonymous

Here’s a couple of Czech ones.
http://gomel.rajce.idnes.cz/Komunisticke_plakaty/