Original Item. Only One Available. Posters were a popular form of art in the late tsarist and Soviet periods. They have been used for a variety of purposes, including commercial advertising, nationalist slogans, and ideological campaigns. This is a propaganda poster from the period of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5) that contains images reflecting a jingoistic Russian perspective of that war. This is one of the rarest propaganda posters we have ever offered!

This poster features a popular bit of Imperial Russian folklore, the Bogatyr, a stock character in medieval East Slavic legends, akin to a Western European knight-errant. The title of the poster is The Bogatyr & The Yellow Dwarfs, depicting the Japanese military as weak and inferior to the enormous might of the Bogatyr. The text along the bottom translates as follows:

Yellow-faced Japan has become agitated, and has gone to war from overseas.

Apparently, all the power of greed has awakened. Apparently, there is still little grief in the world.

And she looks, worried, from afar, She looks all the time, as in the old days, At the fields of the vast east, And maliciously forges her evil forges.

Is it not in vain! To meet the force of force! In previous battles, firmly tempered, Rus' has not fallen from deeds, Rus' has kept its banners.

Rus' is not averse to measuring strength... Come! If the world needs torment, To disturb the sweetness of peace, We have strengthened hands.

There are swords ready for battle.

The poster is missing much of the top left corner as shown, but thankfully this didn’t ruin any of the actual content of the poster. Outside of this damage, there isn’t much to the poster, besides some small tears along the edges. This is of a series of posters printed during the war, this one being Number 20, dated 1904. There appears to be some period repairs to the back of the poster at the bottom.

Any material from the Russo-Japanese War is extremely difficult to find, making this a truly scarce piece. Comes ready to frame and display!