Compatibility

On 17 September 1939, during the common Nazi-Soviet military parade  in Brest, the Soviet general Krivoshein expressed his hopes to the German general Guderian to welcome them soon in Moscow after their victory over Great Britain. But the supreme Soviet military leadership cherished even more extravagant hopes as to the place of the re-union.


The brother nations fixed the appointment
above the enemy city.
On each of their handshakes
the imperial Britain trembles.

However, times change and we change with them. The poster designed in 1940 by the Kukryniks troika – Kupriyanov, Krylov, Sokolov – finally become famous in its version of 1945.


The brother nations fixed the appointment
above the enemy city.
On each of their handshakes
the fascist Germany trembles.

3 comentarios:

Studiolum dijo...

Yes, the script is curious indeed. It was a trademark of Germany. Why was it used for a non-German city as well? And especially in a period when Germans, usually referred to by this script, were a “brother nation”? Was this the only way to make a Cyrillic inscription “foreign-sounding”? I will have to check it in other contemporary Soviet sources as well.

It’s just a pun, but check how the Red “gives the upper hand”!

Yes, in Russian, just like in Hungarian or in other languages of the ex-Eastern Bloc, “Fascist” has referred primarily to the Reich, and only the few chosen has known that there was some difference between the ideology of Germany and Italy of the period.

Megkoronáz dijo...

Maybe the Soviets didn't consider the gothic script to be German (it was also used in Britain)as much as capitalist? The Russian is sans-serif!

The Russians ought to have the upper hand -- Russia could have won the war without Britain, but not vice versa -- the odd thing to me is that they chose Britain and not the USA to share the poster.

Studiolum dijo...

A short history of the versions of this poster has been published here, which considers the 1940 version a forgery. See also here.