Viktor Ivanov's Poster "Our Banner Is the Banner of Victory!"

A 1943 poster by Viktor Ivanov. Soldiers in helmets with stars charge under a red regimental banner; on the cloth one can read "…Rifle Regiment". One soldier swings back to throw a grenade, another, wounded, falls backwards, and in the foreground a soldier crouches with his weapon at the ready. In the sky behind them appear the silhouettes of mounted warriors in pointed helmets, with banners and spears.

Viktor Ivanov (1909–1968) was a graphic artist and poster designer. He studied at the Moscow art school "In Memory of 1905", at the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and in the studio of Dmitry Kardovsky. Before the war he made about twenty political posters, and during the war he produced, among others, "Let Us Multiply Our Glory" (1942) and "To the West" (1943). He later won State Prizes in 1946 and 1949, became a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Arts and wrote the book "How a Poster Is Made".

The sheet is letterpress-printed on paper and measures 332 × 243 mm. The imprint at the bottom names the Iskusstvo publishing house, Moscow – Leningrad.