Malevich and Mayakovsky's Poster about the Germans near Łomża

"Oh, what a crash and what a roar / The Germans made near Łomża!" is the caption of this 1914 war poster, created by the artist Kazimir Malevich (1879–1935) and the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893–1930). Łomża, mentioned in the caption, was a provincial capital in the Polish lands of the Russian Empire.

From the first months of the war Malevich worked with the Moscow publisher Segodnyashny Lubok ("Today's Lubok"). Mayakovsky, who was not allowed to volunteer for the army in August 1914, wrote captions and made drawings for the same publisher in those months. The lubok, a simple and accessible picture with a caption, became a tool of propaganda alongside the poster during the First World War, and avant-garde artists saw it as a source of inspiration.

Malevich later became the founder of Suprematism. The sheet was printed in Moscow in colour lithography at S. M. Mukharsky's printing and lithographic works.