Cornell University Library Digital Collections
Peace Will Defeat War!
- Title:
- Peace Will Defeat War!
- Alternate Title:
- Peace Will Defeat War!
- Collection:
- Persuasive Cartography: The PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Unknown
- Other Creators:
- Agit-Plakat, publisher
- Date:
- 1960
- Date 2:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2321.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2321_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1960 - Present
- Subject:
- Other War & Peace
Imperialism
Pictorial
- Measurement:
- 50 x 37 sheet (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- The Congo became formally independent of Belgian colonial rule on June 30, 1960, and fell immediately into military, political and economic chaos. The army mutinied and went on a violent rampage, and the new nation’s wealthiest mining state, Katanga, promptly declared independence from the new central government. (For a map celebrating the independence of Katanga, see ID #2087.) There followed a lengthy scramble for control of the mineral-rich country among differing nationalist political forces and Belgian mining interests, with the extensive participation of the United States and the Soviet Union. See generally Gibbs 1991, 77-101.
At the request of Congo’s first democratically elected prime minister, the charismatic nationalist leader Patrice Lumumba, UN forces were sent to keep the peace, but they refused to act against the economically crippling secession of Katanga and another rich state, South Kasai. With the U.S. also refusing to provide the help he sought, Lumumba turned to the Soviet Union, which provided military and logistical support against the secessionist states.
This Soviet map, “Peace Will Defeat War!,” puts a peaceful face on its military intervention. The “Congo” in yellow (although not a faithful representation of the nation’s geography) is menaced by a “Belgian” spider bearing handcuffs, with dollar signs on its hat and "occupation" between its claws. The Soviet planes bear the words “sugar,” “milk” and “bread.”
Notwithstanding the Soviet military assistance, Lumumba’s efforts to end the secession failed. In the end, the CIA covertly and aggressively supported the secession in Katanga and a subsequent coup d’etat by Joseph Mobutu that removed Lumumba as prime minister in September 1960. Lumumba was arrested in November, imprisoned, and assassinated in January 1961. The “Congo Crisis” ground on for four more years. With UN help, the central government finally ended the successions by 1963. In November 1965, a second coup brought Mobutu total dictatorial control, which he maintained until 1997.
This poster was a product of Agit-Plakat, a small, innovative Soviet publishing house that flourished in the ten-year period of the “thaw” after Nikita Khrushchev’s 1956 denunciation of Stalin. See generally Kowell 2013. (The brushstroke signature at the upper left is a cursive version of “Agit.”) Agit-Plakat and a few others of the time upended the poster art of Socialist Realism and the Stalin era (for example, ID #2299, 1952). Among other things, the artists of Agit-Plakat used bright, pure colors, childlike illustrations, humor and caricature, all present in this example. The technique was, in short, “satirical-agitational.” Ibid. 66.
The posters of Agit-Plakat were produced by silk-screen in large sizes, typically 160 x 80 cm. This example (50 x 37) appears to be a maquette, a small preliminary study or model in gouache, and shows original pencil edit lines.
For further information on the Collector’s Notes and a Feedback/Contact Link, see https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/about-collection-personal-statement and https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/feedback-and-contact
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.
