B. Mukhin. Poster "The Spirit of the Great Lenin…", 1942

This poster by the artist B. Mukhin was issued in 1942, at the height of the Great Patriotic War. Its opening words, "The spirit of the great Lenin and his victorious banner inspire us now…", are taken from Joseph Stalin's speech at the parade on Red Square on 7 November 1941.

In full, the sentence in the speech read: "The spirit of the great Lenin and his victorious banner inspire us now in the Patriotic War just as they did 23 years ago." Stalin spoke these words when the front line stood near Moscow, and the speech was then published in Pravda. The poster translated these words into the language of mass visual propaganda.

The poster was printed in colour by letterpress at the State Publishing House "Iskusstvo". The print run was 20000 copies, and the price was 1 rouble.