Posters of the Russian Revolution, 1917-1929, from the Lenin Library, Moscow. New York: Grove Press, 1967 J14

Posters of the Russian Revolution, 1917-1929, from the Lenin Library, Moscow. New York: Grove Press, 1967 J14

Defend to the End Petrograd! Or more loosely translated, "Defend Petrograd with your life!" This poster is from the "other side" in the Revolution, not to say the West, but the anti-Bolshevik White Guards. General Nicolai W. Yudenich, leader of the White Army in the Baltic, began an offensive from Estonia in October of 1919, made it to within 30 miles of Petrograd but was rebuffed by the Bolsheviks. Whether or not the image of the man with the bayonet purports to be a likeness of Yudenich – we don't know. More than 3600 such Soviet posters are known to have been preserved. This reproduction is from a collection at the Lenin Library in Moscow.

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