Soviet poster, Making Hand Grenades
date: label: Date made
content: 1942-1943
label: Date made
content: 1942
name: label: artist attribution
content: Vyalov, Konstantin Aleksandrovich
label: author
content: Mashistzov, A.
notes: label: Description
content: During World War II, after the breakdown of the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact, the Soviet news agency TASS issued a series of propaganda posters. Topics included anti-Nazi caricatures and Socialist Realist art encouraging the war effort. Beginning in June 1941, the Union of Soviet Artists established a publishing collective to produce the posters on an almost daily basis. Because they were displayed in the windows of the news agency's Moscow office, they are known as TASS window posters. It is estimated that about 1,500 different posters were produced between 1941 and 1945.
label: Description
content: Well-known artists and poets worked on the designs and captions, and most of the posters were produced in limited editions using the stencil process for both graphics and text. Many posters were completed and reproduced within 24 hours, making them very responsive to political issues and war news. Copies were distributed abroad by VOKS, the Soviet Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. Their messages helped present the USSR favorably to its new allies, including the U.S. The Museum has six of these posters received in 1943 through VOKS. Other collections outside Russia include the University of Nottingham in England and Columbia and Cornell universities in the U.S.
label: Description
content: TASS window poster No. 512 shows a man and a woman making hand grenades. In vivid Socialist Realist style, the poster both encourages and supports the war effort.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Associated Place
content: Soviet Union
topic: label: Subject
content: Firearms
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Graphic Arts
label: See more items in
content: Military
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content: Work
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: SOVIET WAR POSTERS, c1940-1945, The Tass Poster Series from the Hallward Library, University of Nottingham
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Dr. Ales Hrdlicka
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: GA.18849
label: accession number
content: 164567
label: catalog number
content: 18849
objectType: label: Object Name
content: print
label: Other Terms
content: print; Stencil
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paint (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 162 cm x 135 cm; 63 3/4 in x 53 1/8 in