--- title: Bolszewicy idą! Z czem szli bolszewicy? (The Bolsheviks Are Coming! What Did the Bolsheviks Come With?) url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bolszewicy-ida-biuro-propagandy-poland-1920/ description: A text sheet headed 'The Bolsheviks Are Coming!' compares the invasion to the old cry 'The Tatars are coming!', over six cartoon panels with captions… section: Collection --- [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) **Content note:** Six cartoon panels attributing looting, forced labour, sexual coercion, flogging, starvation and mass suicide to the Bolsheviks, with six-pointed stars drawn on the caps of some figures; Commons files it under Zydokomuna and antisemitism in art. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) [![Bolszewicy idą! Z czem szli bolszewicy? (The Bolsheviks Are Coming! What Did the Bolsheviks Come With?)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bolszewicy-ida-biuro-propagandy-poland-1920.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bolszewicy-ida-biuro-propagandy-poland-1920.jpg) # Bolszewicy idą! Z czem szli bolszewicy? (The Bolsheviks Are Coming! What Did the Bolsheviks Come With?) A text sheet headed 'The Bolsheviks Are Coming!' compares the invasion to the old cry 'The Tatars are coming!', over six cartoon panels with captions that set Bolshevik slogans (land to the peasants, factories to the workers, rights for women, freedom for the masses) against looting, forced labour, sexual coercion, flogging and starvation. The Tatar analogy and the paired promise-and-outcome captions cast the invader as a horde and a threat to every household. ## Text on the object Original (Polish) · read from the image, not independently checked ``` BOLSZEWICY IDĄ! Jak w dawnej Polsce okrzyk: „Tatarzy idą!" budził zgrozę i był hasłem do gromadnej obrony, tak dzisiaj najazd bolszewików wywołał potężny odruch narodowego gniewu. I jak ongi Tatarów, tak dzisiaj rozgromiliśmy bolszewickie hordy! Z CZEM SZLI BOLSZEWICY? [1] Bolszewicy głoszą dla zwabienia włościan: „Wszystka ziemia chłopom"- Ale gdy chwycą władzę, dyktują pięścią w oczy: „Wszystkie plony sowietom, a tobie, chamie, pracować za funt suchara! Od wszelkiej zaś własności wara! Ziemia jest własnością państwa!" [2] Bolszewicy głoszą: Wyrzucić „burżujów" z mieszkań, a dać je biednocie! Ale z kolei pan komisarz wyrzuca biedną „swołocz"— i sam się rozsiada w burżujskiem mieszkaniu. [3] Bolszewicy głoszą: „Fabryki robotnikom", ale „upaństwowiają" t. j. zagarniają nietylko fabryki, lecz wszelkie rzemiosła, zmuszając robotników pod grozą śmierci do 12-to godzinnej źle płatnej — pracy dla sowietów. Strejkować w bolszewii nie wolno! [4] Bolszewicy głoszą niby: „Kobiecie należy się pełnia praw" — ale zarazem dekretują: Kobieta jest własnością sowdepii, i każdy komunista i żołnierz czerwony mają prawo do każdej kobiety! [5] Bolszewicy głoszą szumnie: „Swoboda masom" — a gdy je opanują, oddają je pod bat czerezwyczajek z rozkazem; Karać śmiercią za najmniejszą próbę nieposłuszeństwa! [6] Bolszewicy obiecują solennie dobrobyt; ale gdy władza przejdzie w ręce sowietów, beznadziejna nędza — głód i rozpacz sprawia, że robotnicy popełniają masowe samobójstwa w położeniu bez wyjścia! Nakł. Biura Propag. Wewn. przy Prezyd. Rady Ministrów. 25. № 10. 31/VIII. 1920. Zakł. Graf. Koziańskich w Warszawie. ``` English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader) ``` THE BOLSHEVIKS ARE COMING! As in old Poland the cry 'The Tatars are coming!' aroused dread and was the signal for mass defence, so today the Bolshevik invasion has called forth a mighty surge of national anger. And as once the Tatars, so today we have routed the Bolshevik hordes! WHAT DID THE BOLSHEVIKS COME WITH? [1] To lure the peasants the Bolsheviks proclaim: 'All the land to the peasants' — but when they seize power they dictate with a fist in the face: 'All the crops to the soviets, and you, boor, work for a pound of hardtack! Hands off all property! The land is the property of the state!' [2] The Bolsheviks proclaim: Throw the 'bourgeois' out of their apartments and give them to the poor! But in turn Mr Commissar throws out the poor 'riffraff' — and settles himself into the bourgeois apartment. [3] The Bolsheviks proclaim: 'Factories to the workers', but they 'nationalise', that is, seize not only factories but every trade, forcing workers on pain of death into 12-hour, badly paid work for the soviets. Striking in Bolshevia is not allowed! [4] The Bolsheviks proclaim supposedly: 'Women are entitled to full rights' — but at the same time decree: Woman is the property of Sovdepia, and every communist and Red soldier has the right to every woman! [5] The Bolsheviks proclaim grandly: 'Freedom to the masses' — and when they have mastered them, they hand them under the lash of the Chekas with the order: Punish by death the slightest attempt at disobedience! [6] The Bolsheviks solemnly promise prosperity; but when power passes into the hands of the soviets, hopeless misery — hunger and despair — causes the workers to commit mass suicide in a position with no way out! Published by the Internal Propaganda Office at the Presidium of the Council of Ministers. 25. No. 10. 31/VIII. 1920. Graphic Works Koziańskich in Warsaw. ``` Typeface emphasis (bold and italic) is not reproduced. The wording of panel 1 is read from a 1280 px scan; the dash after 'chłopom"' is as printed. The panels contain no separate printed numerals; [1]-[6] mark the reading order (left to right, top row then bottom row). [← Kurjer Warszawski, no. 220, morning edition, front page (Warsaw, 10 August 1920): "Konferencja w Hythe" and "Do broni!"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kurjer-warszawski-do-broni-hythe-1920/) [W szponach orła białego (In the Talons of the White Eagle): Polish-language Soviet poster →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/w-szponach-orla-bialego-kyiv-1920/) ## Using the same techniques - [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written. - [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers. - [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal) - [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling) - [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms. - [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal) - [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered. - [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)