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[TASS Window 903]

documentary heritage
  • Description

    Large Russian propaganda poster produced during the Second World War. Hand stencilled central image of a sheep, and a dog-like creature. Juxtaposed, representing two sides.

    Translation from Russian: "TASS Window No. 903. Two Faces. Finland. The White Finns have two faces; and we of them don't believe; of the face in the West, it is sheep; Of the face toward the East - wild beast. S. Marshak".

    Pinned at top is a newspaper clipping of an article by Alan McCulloch, about a "Soviet Poster show" held at Myer Mural Hall in Melbourne, Australia.

    Pinned at bottom is a piece of paper with a handwritten translation of some of the Russian text. On the reverse side is a part of a typescript document - "Australia-Soviet House, 330 Flinders Lane. Friendship through knowledge photographic exhibition "Heroes of the Allied Nations". Opened by General Sir Thomas Blamey, G.B.E. ... on Red Army Day, 23rd February, 1945. Heroes of the Soviet Union - The Soviet State highly values heroism and initiative for the good of the people and of the [...?].".

    In the immediate aftermath of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, a group of artists and writers in Moscow joined forces under the auspices of the TASS News Agency to help reassure and rouse the Soviet citizenry by producing large-scale posters TASS Windows.

    [Source: http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/exhibitions/TASS/index]

    The term "Belofinna", meaning "White Finn", originally arose in Soviet propaganda, to describe members of the Finnish military.

    For more information about these Russian posters, see article "Artful Coercion: The Aesthetic Extremes of Stencil in Wartime" by Jill Bugajski. Featured in journal 'Art in Print', November-December, 2011, Volume 1, Number 4.

    Online version: http://artinprint.org/article/artful-coercion-the-aesthetic-extremes-of-stencil-in-wartime/

  • Place
  • Other Id

    EPH-PW-2-128 (Reference Number)

    18520 (Presto content ID)

  • Department
[Two Faces], Auckland War Memorial Museum, EPH-PW-2-128

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