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.

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)
Region: Western and Central Europe
Country: Finland
Medium: Poster
Issuer type: Mixed
Regime: Ryti Government
Leader: Risto Ryti
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Warn or inform
Themes: Security and surveillance, War and the military
Event: Winter War
Techniques: Fear appeal
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.