In the initial days of the German invasion of 1941, Soviet propaganda was of a piece with the messages of the 1920s and 1930s, emphasizing revolutionary and Leninist themes. Later efforts, however, reveal a dramatic shift in tactics. Instead of presenting the clash between the Soviet Union and Germany in ideological terms, Soviet propaganda focused on the essential emotional response of Soviet citizens to invasion, emphasizing nationalism and the defense of the motherland, and reviving Great Russian historical figures, even some from the tsarist era, as examples of heroic resistance to would-be conquerors. The poster featuring a massed Soviet army marching to victory under the banner of Lenin epitomizes the early approach to wartime propaganda. The poster below it, linking the fates of Hitler and Napoleon, illustrates the later approach.

[top] akg-images/RIA Novosti. Attributed to A. P. Voloshin. [bottom] Snark Archives (c) Photo 12/The Image Works.