Postavíme Se Proti Těm, Kdo Organisijí Atomovou
Artist
Lev Haas
Date1955
Dimensions16 1/2 x 23 1/4 in. (41.9 x 59.1 cm)
ClassificationsPoster
Credit LinePoster House Permanent Collection
Object numberPH.7857
DescriptionIn 1948, a coup by the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia led to the country becoming part of the Eastern Bloc, an informal group of Communist countries influenced by the U.S.S.R. but not officially part of it. The year this poster was printed, Czechoslovakia (today, the Czech Republic and Slovakia) signed the Warsaw Pact, a mandatory military alliance among Comecon (economically socialist) countries proposed by the Soviet Union in response to the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949. While never engaging in military conflict, these two organizations began a proxy war of ideology, constantly attempting to influence other countries and tip the balance of global power in their favor. In this poster, a skeletal American soldier holds a scythe emblazoned with NATO as he stands over a mushroom cloud from an atomic bomb. Meanwhile, a kind-looking Soviet scientist gestures to an abundant apple tree of a similar shape towering over a pristine nuclear power plant. The American soldier also has a dollar bill on his collar and a swastika on his boot. At the time, the Eastern Bloc typically conflated Fascism with capitalism, so many posters exist that align Nazi symbolism with the broader West.
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