When the poster appeared, the motherland is calling. “The motherland is calling” - a poster calling for the fight against invaders

03/17/2004 Woman's face war. Poster ""The Motherland - Mother Calls!""

""Dear Editor! I am sending you a postcard “The Motherland is Calling!” and a photograph of my mother Anna Ivanovna Tsibizova. The photograph was taken with the "Tourist" camera in 1941. This is the story. In the morning, my mother went to buy bread cards at the bakery on the corner of Ostozhenka and 1st Zachatievsky Lane. In the morning, my mother stood in line for bread. The artist, out of everyone in the queue, chose her to pose in the studio. Then my mother told me about this incident. She was dressed in a dark robe and tied with a light brown shawl.

From Tsibizov Vladimir Akimovich, Veteran of the Great Patriotic War.

Alas, we have to disappoint the author of the letter: the woman depicted on the poster “The Motherland is Calling!” has a real and only prototype. However, everything is in order.

""In my little pocket there is your card...""

The author of the poster ""The Motherland - Mother Calls!"" is a famous Soviet artist Irakli Moiseevich Toidze, many years after the end of the Great Patriotic War, told a story he heard from a front-line soldier he knew.

"Our troops defended the city from superior enemy forces. And as happened quite often in the first months of the war, the city could not be defended. When the soldiers were leaving the city, one soldier, seeing a poster on the wall of a dilapidated house, exclaimed: “What about my mother?” He fell behind his comrades, took the poster off the wall, neatly folded it and, putting it under his tunic, rushed to catch up with his subdivision. And then an enemy bullet overtook him...""

This incident is very symbolic: it speaks of the enormous emotional impact that the poster had on front-line soldiers. It seems that the influence on people of this work and, perhaps, the song “Holy War” was much stronger than the conversations of political instructors on the topic: why and why it is necessary to defend the Motherland...

Created in the early days, the poster ""The Motherland - Mother Calls!"" was reproduced in multi-million copies, and in different formats. A reproduction from it, smaller than even a postcard, was kept by front-line soldiers on their chests, next to their party and Kosomol membership cards, with photographs of mothers, wives, brides and children...""

Many-faced image...

I met with the artist’s son Alexander Iraklievich. This is what he said: “My father was very fond of the poet Andrei Bely, the author of the poem “The Tramp.” In the book of poems, some lines are underlined by my father’s hand, and among them there is this: “Allow me, O Motherland - Mother, in your deaf, damp expanse, to weep in your expanse...” I think that maybe this image is taken from there...

And the story of the creation of the poster is this: Mom ran into her father’s workshop shouting: “War!” “Stand there and don’t move!” he answered her. A few days later the poster was ready. On that June morning, in that stunning moment, Tamara became the personification of all women - young and old, who had the difficult fate of seeing off their sons to war that day. And this gesture, which she, a Russian woman, unnoticed by herself, adopted from her husband’s fellow countrymen - Georgian women, and which was so familiar to him, helped the artist create his best creation...

History has shown that Irakli Toidze was right. ""The Motherland is Calling!"" is not a portrait of the artist's wife. This is a portrait of the Mother, in which each of us, looking carefully, will find the features of a face dear to him...

Dear editors! I am sending you a postcard “The Motherland is Calling!” and a photograph of my mother Anna Ivanovna Tsibizova. The photograph was taken with a “Tourist” camera in 1941. This is the story. Mom went in the morning to buy bread cards at the bakery. The bakery was located on the corner of Ostozhenka and 1st Zachatievsky Lane. In the morning, my mother stood in line for bread. The artist, out of everyone standing in line, chose her to pose in the studio. Then my mother told me about this incident. She was dressed in a dark robe and tied with a light brown shawl.
From Vladimir Akimovich Tsibizov, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War and a labor veteran. Alas, we have to disappoint the author of the letter: the woman depicted on the poster “The Motherland is Calling!” has a completely real and only prototype. However, everything is in order.

In my little pocket there is your card...

Author of the poster “The Motherland is Calling!” The famous Soviet artist Irakli Moiseevich Toidze, many years after the end of the Great Patriotic War, told a story he heard from a front-line soldier he knew.
Our troops defended the city from superior enemy forces. And, as happened quite often in the first months of the war, the city could not be defended. When the soldiers left him, one soldier, seeing a poster on the wall of a dilapidated house, exclaimed: “What about my mother?!” He fell behind his comrades, took the poster off the wall, carefully folded it and, putting it under his tunic, rushed to catch up with his unit. And then an enemy bullet got him...
This incident is very symbolic: it speaks of the enormous emotional impact that the poster had on front-line soldiers. It seems that the influence on people of this work and, perhaps, the song “Holy War” was much stronger than the conversations of political instructors on the topic of why and why it is necessary to defend the Motherland...
Created in the first days of the war, the poster “The Motherland is Calling!” was reproduced in millions of copies and in different formats. A reproduction of it, smaller than even a postcard, was kept by front-line soldiers on their chests next to their party or Komsomol membership cards, with photographs of mothers, brides, children...
Long years, until the early 90s, I served in the editorial office of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper. During this time, as a war correspondent, I traveled, if not all, but most of the Soviet Union. I had to visit both the capital and distant garrisons, on ships, airfields and “points”. And since I was an employee of the ideological department, Lenin’s rooms and cabins, Officers’ Houses, clubs of military units and other cultural and educational institutions certainly fell into the scope of my attention during business trips. So, the same mandatory attribute their design, like portraits of the founder of the state and the next Secretary General, was a reproduction from the poster “The Motherland is Calling”!

Many-faced image

I met with the artist’s son Alexander Iraklievich. Here's what he said.
- My father was very fond of the poet Andrei Bely, the author of the poem “The Tramp.” In the book of poems, some lines are underlined by my father’s hand, and among them there is this: “Let me, O Motherland, in your deep, damp expanse, weep in your expanse...” This may not be entirely accurate, but that’s how I remember it... I I think that maybe this image was taken from there.
And the story of the creation of the poster is this: my mother ran into my father’s workshop shouting “War!” “Stay there and don’t move...” he answered her. A few days later the poster was ready. On that June morning, in that stunning moment, Tamara became the personification of all women - young and old, who had the difficult fate of seeing off their sons to war that day. And this gesture, which she, a Russian woman, imperceptibly adopted from her husband’s fellow countrymen - Georgian women - and which was so familiar to him, helped the artist create his best creation.
Let us present the surviving evidence of the participants in the creation of the poster.
Irakli Toidze: “...I was working on a version of the illustration for the poem “The Knight in the Skin of a Tiger.” And suddenly - a message from the Sovinformburo that the fascist army had attacked our country with war. This amazing message immediately switched to creating a poster..."
Tamara Toidze: “As soon as war was declared, I was terribly afraid for the children. I entered Irakli’s workshop... Apparently, I had such a face that he immediately told me: “Stay there and don’t move!” - and immediately began to make sketches.”
This is the very case when a person (in this situation it is Tamara Toidze) was in the right place at the right time.
As Tamara Fedorovna later told her son, already on the same day, June 22, her father sat down at the poster, and she posed for him and was very tired.
Alexander Toidze: “The image of the woman from the poster, of course, is largely generalized. The mother was very beautiful, but the father simplified her image, made it clear to everyone ... "
History has shown that Irakli Toidze was right. The Motherland is not a “portrait of the artist’s wife.” This is a portrait of the Mother, in which each of us, looking carefully, will find the features of a dear face...

Agitation and propaganda played an important role for Soviet society. They allowed the state to control the minds of people and influence their consciousness. And these phenomena were expressed in numerous posters dedicated to different aspects of people’s lives. Many of them gained great fame. In particular, “The Motherland Calls.” The poster appeared as a reaction to the beginning of the most destructive and brutal war for our country.

Campaigning as a means of influencing public consciousness

As already mentioned, posters were a visual means of transmitting impulses from the authorities to the masses. Why posters? The whole point is that visual image, especially accompanied by test inscriptions, had a direct and necessary effect on a person. The absence of television turned these visual aids into a powerful tool for indoctrinating people. All of them were thematic and targeted the necessary areas of life. One of such bright and impressive phenomena was the poster “The Motherland is Calling.” Photos of this call can now be seen on the Internet, as well as in museums where copies of the poster and the original itself are kept. It reflects one of the most important events in the country of the Soviets, and perhaps the most important. It was the irreconcilable resistance of the entire people big country vile invaders from Germany and the countries that support it. It appeared at the first roar of guns and bombs exploding on the territory of the USSR; in July it was already published in millions of copies and was placed at military assembly points and in crowded places. “The Motherland is Calling” is a poster comparable in its degree of influence to another cult work of the Second World War period - the song “Holy War”

Artist's intention

The history of the appearance of this work of Soviet agitprop is very interesting. The author of the poster “The Motherland is Calling” is a famous Soviet artist Georgian origin Irakli Toidze, he was working in his workshop one day when his peace was disturbed by his desperate wife bursting in with him. With sincere bitterness and anxiety, she told her husband about Irakli Moiseevich, how a real artist noticed genuine sorrow and suffering in his wife’s face and decided, without delay, to capture this moment. At the first moment, wife Tamara did not understand that her husband was asking her to freeze in such a position in order to write this look as the concentrated fear and worries of all mothers in the country for the fate of their children. This is how the artist grasped the concept of his creation and embodied it in the form of a call “The Motherland is Calling.” The poster immediately received this name, and everyone, young and old, understood what this woman was calling for with her emotional gestures.

"Soldier's Icon"

The country's leadership really liked the idea and the sketch itself. They perfectly understood the need to inspire the people, to give them unity in the face of such a threat. The considerable authority of Irakli Toidze among the party elite also played a role. He was a recognized master, as evidenced by numerous state awards. The author thought for a long time about what to place in the woman’s hand, and decided that the hand thrown up would symbolize the call itself. IN right hand the woman keeps her words, thereby emphasizing that people took an oath not to the state, but specifically to the Motherland, which is simply impossible to betray. Hundreds of bayonets behind the mother’s figure represented millions of defenders of the Motherland, ready to defend her at her first call. On June 27, work on the poster was completed and it arrived at the printing house. It immediately sold several million copies. But it was constantly reprinted throughout the war. The soldiers died in battle and chanted “The Motherland is Calling” like a spell. The poster was a kind of symbol of the entire era of the formidable forties.

Unforgettable Stalingrad

Volgograd is a city that, during the war, experienced perhaps the most tragic moments of its entire history. It was here that months of bloody battles between German and Soviet troops took place. In order to perpetuate the memory of all the defenders of the city, at the end of the war it was decided to build a monument in the city that would remind new generations of people about the terrible events of that war. Throughout Soviet Union A competition was announced to create a monument. The selection committee received hundreds of thousands of drawings, but all of them were rejected for one reason or another. The commission could not decide on the basic concept of the sculpture. And then a sketch of the famous Soviet artist-sculptor Evgeniy Vuchetich appeared. The government really liked the idea, and the go-ahead was given to begin work on the construction of the monument. Especially for the project, an embankment the height of a five-story building was made on Mamayev Kurgan. Inside it were the burial places of the city’s defenders.

Symbol of the fight against fascism

The second stage was the production of the statue itself. Evgeniy Viktorovich did not like the Moscow model. Therefore, the work stalled for several months, and finally, in Volgograd, they found a woman who liked the architect. The sculpture was made from it. The name of this woman - Valentina Izotova - will forever go down in history. It went on for many years painstaking work. And then 1967 came. Residents of the city were able to see this wonderful creation. It, like Toidze’s famous poster, was given the name “The Motherland Calls.” The statue is located at the highest point of the city, its height is 85 meters. It has been restored twice since its opening. It produces a stunning impression of the bitterness of loss, but at the same time of triumph over the defeated enemy, and the sword seems to speak of all the enemies of our homeland.

Soviet propaganda poster “The Motherland is Calling!” created in July 1941. The author of the poster is Irakly Moiseevich TOIDZE (1902-1985). According to the artist, the idea of ​​creating collective image of a mother calling her sons for help came to his mind completely by accident. Hearing the first message from the Sovinformburo about the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR, his wife Tamara ran into his workshop shouting “War!” Struck by the expression on her face, the artist immediately began sketching the future masterpiece.

The son of Irakli Moiseevich recalls: “The poster hung at assembly points and train stations, at the entrances of factories and military trains, in kitchens, in houses and on fences. For soldiers and officers, he became a portrait of the Mother, in which everyone saw the features of the face dear to him... Mother said that, having heard the message of the Sovinformburo about the attack of the Nazis, she was terribly afraid for the children... Apparently, the expression on her face was such that the father exclaimed: “Stay there and don’t move!”... Mom stood at the window and posed. Her raised hand kept getting numb.” “The image of the woman from the poster is, of course, largely generalized. The mother was very beautiful, but the father simplified her image, made it clear to everyone...”

Irakli TOIDZE, many years after the end of the Great Patriotic War, told a story he heard from a front-line soldier he knew. Our troops defended the city from superior enemy forces. And, as happened quite often in the first months of the war, the city could not be defended. When the soldiers left him, one soldier, seeing a poster on the wall of a dilapidated house, exclaimed: “What about my mother?!” He fell behind his comrades, took the poster off the wall, carefully folded it and, putting it under his tunic, rushed to catch up with his unit. And then the enemy bullet got him. This incident is very symbolic: it speaks of the enormous emotional impact that the poster had on front-line soldiers.

In Viktor SUVOROV’s book “M-Day” there is an assumption that the poster was created before the war and was sent out in large quantities in secret packages to military commissariats in December 1940 with instructions to open it on M-Day. The author does not provide any documented evidence. Such an assumption should be treated as an artistic fantasy that does not have specific historical confirmation. But it is absolutely known that the earliest of the signal copies stored in the Russian state library, dated July 4, 1941.

The text of the military oath on the poster reads:

“I, a citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, joining the ranks of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, take the oath and solemnly swear to be an honest, brave, disciplined, vigilant fighter, strictly keep military and state secrets, unquestioningly carry out all military regulations and orders of commanders and superiors .
I swear to conscientiously study military affairs, to protect military and national property in every possible way, and to be devoted to my People, my Soviet Motherland and the Workers' and Peasants' Government until my last breath.
I am always ready, by order of the Workers' and Peasants' Government, to defend my Motherland - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and, as a warrior of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, I swear to defend it courageously, skillfully, with dignity and honor, not sparing my blood and life itself for achieving complete victory over enemies.
If, out of malicious intent, I violate this solemn oath of mine, then may I suffer the severe punishment of Soviet law, the general hatred and contempt of the working people.”

KARTASHEV L. “Moscow, 1941.” 1983

PRISEKIN Sergey Nikolaevich (1958-2018) “Portrait of A.V. Alexandrova". 2008
Canvas, oil.

KORZHEV Geliy Mikhailovich (1925-2012) “In the days of war.” 1952-1954
State Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan, Tashkent.

SEVOSTYANOV Gennady Kirillovich (1938-2003) “Anxious 1941.” 2002
Canvas, oil. 120 x 90 cm.
Private collection.

ZHABSKY Alexey Alexandrovich (1933-2008) “1941. At the military registration and enlistment office." 1990
Canvas, oil. 100 x 126 cm.

TITOV Vladimir Gerasimovich (1921-1997) “Letters”. 1970

SHERSTNEV Vasily Alekseevich (b. 1958) “1941.”

NESTERKOV Vladimir Evgenievich (1959) “Good news of August 1943.” 2011

SAVOSTYANOV Fedor Vasilievich (1924-2012), co-authors B.V. Kotik, N.M. Kutuzov, K.G. Molteninov, V.I. Seleznev, Yu.A. Garikov, L.V. Zucchini. "Breaking the blockade of Leningrad." Fragment of a diorama.

The face of a woman depicted on a famous propaganda poster from the Great Patriotic War “The Motherland is calling!”, is familiar to everyone. The main task of the artist Irakli Toidze was to create a generalized image of a woman-mother, in which every soldier could see his mother. Nevertheless, this image-symbol had real prototype– Tamara Toidze.