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!