Soviet Propaganda poster

[IrishEddie]

Hi,

I have a propaganda poster from the Ukraine. I believe the peasant is basically volunteering to work in Germany. Unfortunately, I do not know Ukrainian. The poster is actually two separate sheets. You can see where they come together in the middle. I looked in the margins with a magnifying glass and saw microscopic black dots. Someone told me that was a good sign. I do not know much about these posters. I hope someone on this forum can enlighten me. I have some provenance for what it is worth. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Eddie

[IrishEddie]

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[IrishEddie]

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[IrishEddie]

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[IrishEddie]

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[IrishEddie]

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[IrishEddie]

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[IrishEddie]

Here is the back. I found some interesting watermarks with my UV light. Has anyone ever seen anything like this? They are reverse SS and swastika watermarks.

Edited March 9, 2009 by IrishEddie

[IrishEddie]

Pic: 2

[Ed_Haynes]

Not really Soviet. More fascist collaborator stuff?

[Bryan]

If it glows blue like this in the dark it's 100% postwar paper!

[Guest Rick Research]

I have deleted your "provenance" post since nobody should post their name and address on the internet.

I would have to agree-- if you get the same electric blue "glow" from this paper as from your printer paper, it is new.

Not sure about the language, since all I can manage is Russian. Not sure it is Ukrainian-- might be White Russian as used in current Belarus, which shares some Ukrainian letters.

"Friend I ... ...,

I am going to Germany

TO WORK"

[IrishEddie]

Would a faker go to this kind of trouble? Why would he have put reverse swastika and SS watermarks on the back of a fake poster that could only be seen with a UV light?

Edited March 25, 2009 by IrishEddie

[Guest Rick Research]

Fakers generally have their little private joke "tags" by which they mark their work like urban grafitti sprayers. Badge fakers deliberately mis-spell words etc etc.

I hardly know enough to be sure about this, but I would have to say that the statistical probability of something like this surviving in immaculate condition when anyone caught "cherishing" it would have gone straight to the Gulags with their entire family and very likely all the neighbors up and down the lane is very very slim.

Wouldn't get into wartime collaborator paper, me.

BOTTOM line is: does the PAPER glow bright electric blue under blacklight? Not up close (anything has some reflection if the light is too close) but at the same distance and the same brightness you'll get from computer printer paper on the floor if you're standing there with the blackligh tin your hand?

Period Soviet and German paper does NOT glow.

[IrishEddie]

Hi,

Thanks for all of your help! I feel the lighting is not giving the poster a fair representation. In hope of clarity, I have added a picture of the poster with some computer paper below the markings. I believe I was showing a lot of reflection in the first pictures.

Thanks,

Eddie

Edited March 27, 2009 by IrishEddie

[IrishEddie]

As far as the poster belonging to a Ukrainian, who could have been sent to Siberia (or even worse) if caught with it, I do not believe that was the case. I was told the poster belonged to a German soldier. I believe it remained in his possession for several decades. It probably did not hang around the Soviet Union after WWII. It may have returned to Russia after the Soviet period... I have written a couple of letters to the original owners. I am still waiting to hear from them.

Thanks,

Eddie

[IrishEddie]

I can see the watermarks with my naked eye when I hold the poster up to the natural day light. Someone once told me something about "ghost images" left over from the previous run of the printing press where the plates are recycled or reused. I am not sure if that may be what this is. Perhaps someone could elaborate on this phenomenon.

Thanks,

Eddie