Provocative?

armiya_osvobozhdenya

Definitely. This is not what you think, however. It is a Soviet propraganda poster issued after the joint invasion of Poland by the Soviets and Nazis in 1939. This is the image of a Polish peasant kissing a Russian soldier who has “liberated him.” The Russian text at the top reads: “Our army is an army that liberates workers”, signed “J. Stalin.”

The peasant is giving the Russian soldier a very passionate kiss, but it is not sexual by any means. What I find amazing is that this is presented as a highly visible and probably effective piece of political propraganda. If anyone dared do this today, it would be immediately tainted with homosexual overtones. Perhaps, we are a lot more uptight today than we think we are.

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