The Deployment of
Soviet Satirists in
the Cold War

Like Stalin’s 1948 poster campaign (click here to read about that), or Lenin’s 1921 poster campaign (read about that here), both were intended to sway thought and inspire patriotic feelings during times of crises; Lenin’s poster extravaganza was launched at a time when disease and hunger were sweeping through Russia. Stalin’s poster crusade took place during his Berlin shenanigans (also known as the Berlin Blockade) – and half way through the Korean War, Stalin set in motion another affair of the printing press – this one involving satirists. In 1952 the Soviet hierarchy began publishing an enormous amount of anti-American cartoons in magazines and newspapers throughout the “worker’s paradise”. As you will see, the Red cartoonists of yore were really big on comparing Americans to bugs and Nazis; they also delighted in making all American senior officers resemble the obese General Walker, who was the American corps commander leading the U.N. Forces in Korea.

The Soviets were very clever in the way in which they used radio to manipulate their people, click here to read about that…

Many of the Soviet cartoonists ridiculed the U.S. for the country’s failure to address the issue of equality for African-Americans, click here to read how the Cold War hastened the civil rights movement.