Russian Language.

[Lapa]

Phillip,

Nice and interesting time-dated pieces

The third one, as you rightly guessed, is a cold-war period poster which refers to the flights that the US was frequently undertaking outside of the official air corridors over East Germany in order to map Soviet facilities in that country. The usual "excuse" was "navigational error" Thanks to these "errors", by the early 1960, Western allies had surveyed about 85 to 90% of the East German territory.

On a few occasions, US planes were shot or forced down by Soviet fighters or anti-aircraft fire. All of this culminated when Gary Powers' U2 was shot down over Soviet territory.

Marc

[desantnik]

Phil, #1 and #2 don't have any "hidden" meaning or associations other than playing on obvious visceral or emotional phobias, in these cases "bomb throwing" spoiler enemies lurking outside the mansion (a peacetime version of "loose lips sink ships") and humanity's aversion to both darkness and snakes.

[Lapa]

Originally Posted by desantnik

Phil, #1 and #2 don't have any "hidden" meaning or associations other than playing on obvious visceral or emotional phobias, in these cases "bomb throwing" spoiler enemies lurking outside the mansion (a peacetime version of "loose lips sink ships") and humanity's aversion to both darkness and snakes.

Paul,

"Hodden meaning" may not be the right way to approach these posters, I think that Phillip is also interested in the context in which they appeared and they illustrate.

Hence, the first one refers to the fact that the US is the only country to date to have effectively used atomic weapons, and points to the perceived problem of history being re-written (eg the book about WW2).

The second one dates from the 1930~40's I believe, a period during which Trotsky was the No 1 Enemy of the Soviet people and had to be discredited at all costs, hence his being associated with fascists (going the full circle? ). Bukharin's theses, in part adopted and updated by Trotsky, proved to be divergent and critical of Stalin's chosen way, and as such, it was a matter of survival for the Soviet leadership to discredit them, their authors and their supporters.

Marc

[desantnik]

Originally Posted by Lapa

"Hodden meaning" may not be the right way to approach these posters, I think that Phillip is also interested in the context in which they appeared and they illustrate.

Hence, the first one refers to the fact that the US is the only country to date to have effectively used atomic weapons, and points to the perceived problem of history being re-written (eg the book about WW2).

OK makes sense, but I propose that the book doesn't allude to the US' rewriting history, but serves as a reminder for those that would want to start trouble (Napoleon, Hitler, future capitalist foes).

[CtahhR]

Waving that book around is such a poignant symbol of soviet cock sureness. It is one of my favourite pieces of "public education". More!

[medals73]

It is amazing how the Cold-War propaganda of the USA and the CCCP seemed to mirror one another. It is almost as if they were drafted by folks of the same mentality; maybe they were.

I once enjoyed a long conversation (in Hindi) with a senior Soviet military officer with their embassy in New Delhi, discussing how the military of the CCCP needed the US military and vice versa.

[CtahhR]

Just like the DPRK needs the American Imperialist invaders...

[medals73]

Originally Posted by CtahhR

Just like the DPRK needs the American Imperialist invaders...

. . . well, they've proved that having nukes is a way to avoid the fate of being invaded and occupied (Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan missed -- but demonstrated -- that truth, Iran and others haven't).

[Riley1965]

This fall I will be taking Russian 1 at the Community college. My Russian is horrible and I look forward to reading, Writing and speaking the language.

Doc

[CtahhR]

Good to see someone putting some effort in. Stick with it as it's well worth it.

Don't be expecting the first things you learn to be "Enemy Artillery Fire" or "Medical Evacuation Post" it'll probably be differentiating between Man and Aeroplane, numbers and colours.