Varokaa! Vakoilija! (Beware! Spy!): Finnish Winter War, 1939 Finland poster: A glass-negative photograph of a Finnish poster

Varokaa! Vakoilija! (Beware! Spy!): Finnish Winter War poster

A glass-negative photograph of a Finnish poster that reads 'Beware! Spy!' in stencil capitals around two dark silhouettes: a bearded figure in a long coat with a rifle slung on his back stands behind a hatted man who leans forward and points. The shadow figures and the bare imperative stage a hidden enemy among ordinary people and ask the viewer to watch for him, without saying how many spies there were or how to recognise one.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Fear appeal

Date: 1939
Period: Second World War
Made by: Finnish authorities (issuer not printed on the poster); photographed by an unknown photographer for the Finnish Defence Forces wartime photo archive (SA-kuva)

Full record

Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights

Region: Western and Central Europe
Country: Finland
Medium: Poster
Issuer type: State
Regime: Ryti Government
Leader: Risto Ryti
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Warn or inform
Themes: Security and surveillance, War and the military
Event: Winter War
Source: Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
Source: Finnish Wartime Photograph Archive (SA-kuva), via Finna, retrieved September 29, 2026
Rights: CC BY 4.0 (SA-kuva licence statement on Finna record)
SA-kuva (Finnish Wartime Photograph Archive), record sa-kuva.sa-kuva/114075, CC BY 4.0.