Polish-Soviet War Poster

We usually associate anti-Soviet propaganda posters with the Second World War. But, here's a Polish one from the Polish-Soviet War, fought between 1919 and 1921. Lenin had ideas about bringing his newborn revolution West, and was stopped by the Poles.

TO ARMS!

this is what a Polish village captured by the Bolsheviks looks like

The image is pretty straightforward. The Bolsheviks will destroy not only the body, but also the soul. The Christian imagery is the focus, with the wounded Christ and the many crosses, but there are a few other touches as well: the extinguished candles, a menacing red sky, bodies buried beneath the rubble, and a woman who's been raped. A raised fist, breaking through the destruction, suggests the need to fight to prevent this scene from taking place. Blood trickles down wooden frames.

I post this, primarily, because the image of the Christ reminds me of similar images in Andrzej Wajda's celebrated 1958 Ashes and Diamonds. There, a Polish resistance fighter with mixed loyalties ends up in a bombed-out Church whose greatest feature is its imposing, upside-down Christ.

Unfortunately, there's also a gruesome historical twist to the elements in the poster. As the Soviets advanced into German territory during the Second World War, starting in 1944, they engaged in both mass rape and mass murder. Although the numbers are disputed, high estimates on the number of rape victims alone is two million. In both cases, victims or their bodies were sometimes crucified on home and barn doors.