Brud rozvodit' voshi, vosha-rozsadnik tifu. Tif - smert' lyudyam ... [Dirt leads to lice, lice transmit typhus, typhus kills people ...], a Ukrainian-language sanitary education poster. Published by the “Front and Transport Weekly” newspaper of the Kiev District Commission, c. 1919-1921, 70 x 40 cm.

The 1918-1922 typhus epidemic in Russia and the Ukraine claimed millions of lives. In Ukraine alone, about 5,000,000 people fell sick in 1920-1922, and the mortality rate was close to 20%. Lenin had famously remarked in 1919, "All attention to this problem, comrades. Either lice will conquer socialism, or socialism will conquer lice." An intensive propaganda campaign was launched to educate the population about the causes of disease. In the Red Army, steam disinfection of clothes, linens, and people became a standard practice, but the efforts to stem the spread of the epidemic were hampered by war, famine, and constant shortages of disinfectants and medicines.

Search extension words: Russian poster, Soviet poster.