Inoy sud'by vragu ne mozhet byt'. Vraga my bili, I budem bit' [Enemy's Fate Is Predetermined - We Have Crushed Our Enemies Before, and We Will Continue Crushing Them Again and Again], a poster by Victor Deni (Victor Denisov, 1893-1946, Meritorious Art Worker of the Russian Federation), and Nikolai Dolgorukov (1902-1980, Meritorious Art Worker of the Russian Federation). Moscow, 1938 (or 1933?), 88 x 59 cm.
br>The Deni-Dolgorukov collaboration started in 1932 and continued practically until Deni's death. The normally misanthropic Deni took a liking to his younger colleague and periodically invited him to work together on posters. Dolgorukov was an important posterist in his own right; for a very early example of his work, see lot 61.

The poster may have been published to mark the Red Army's XXth anniversary (February 1938); had it been published later, it would probably have mentioned the Soviet success in the major border skirmish with the Japanese at Lake Hassan. We deciphered the date in the imprint as 1938, but it may also read 1933. Come to think of it, the order in which the leaders' effigies are arranged (always a sensitive subject with Soviet posterists), seems a bit more appropriate for a 1933 poster than for a 1938 one.

Search extension words: Russian poster, Soviet poster, space poster.