“History repeats itself”: images of the 19th Century in the Soviet agitation of 1941–1945 (based on the materials of the magazine “Krokodil”)

Abstract. The article deals with the peculiarities of the representation of history and culture of the XIX century on the pages of the magazine “Krokodil” in 1941–1945. It was
the 19th century, excluding the events of the 20th century, that received the most coverage in “Krokodil” during this period — a little less than a third of the issues contained one or another reference to works, plots or historical characters of the designated century. Based on the state order, readers’ wishes, or the authors’ collegial decision, the editors of the magazine used old and created new representations, developing a coherent narrative and visual line that reduced to military and cultural representations of the past. While the images of Russian history (military figures, poets, writers, etc.) are reduced exclusively to the support of the Soviet troops, the European images are much more complex. Thus, the authors of “Krokodil” construct an idea of the “real Germany”, a country of poets and scientists, which the Nazis are trying to destroy. Based on the analysis of the corpus of sources consisting of drawings and texts from 56 issues of the magazine “Krokodil” published in 1941–1945, in which there are references and homages to works and personalities from the XIX century, as well as memoirs of the leading cartoonist, the author comes to the conclusion about the dichotomous nature of both domestic and foreign images, divided into military and cultural components. The discovered duality of images and narratives is explained by the close connection of visual agitation with the tendencies of the USSR state policy of the 1920s–1940s.

Keywords: “Krokodil”, agitation, propaganda, XIX century, imagology, Great Patriotic War.