--- title: '''Kiitos tov. Stalinille onnellisesta lapsuudesta!'' (Thanks to Comrade Stalin for a happy childhood): banner over a hut door, Vidlitsa' url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kiitos-tov-stalinille-vidlitsa-1941/ description: A cloth banner hung over a log hut's open door reads 'Kiitos tov. Stalinille onnellisesta lapsuudesta!', the Finnish-language form of the Soviet slogan… section: Collection --- [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) [!['Kiitos tov. Stalinille onnellisesta lapsuudesta!' (Thanks to Comrade Stalin for a happy childhood): banner over a hut door, Vidlitsa](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/kiitos-tov-stalinille-vidlitsa-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/kiitos-tov-stalinille-vidlitsa-1941.jpg) # 'Kiitos tov. Stalinille onnellisesta lapsuudesta!' (Thanks to Comrade Stalin for a happy childhood): banner over a hut door, Vidlitsa A cloth banner hung over a log hut's open door reads 'Kiitos tov. Stalinille onnellisesta lapsuudesta!', the Finnish-language form of the Soviet slogan 'Thank you, Comrade Stalin, for a happy childhood'. The banner names the leader as the giver of a virtue word ('happy childhood') and asks the reader to feel gratitude to him for it. It was photographed by a Finnish military photographer at Vidlitsa on 12 September 1941. - **Date:** September 12, 1941 - **Period:** [Second World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwii) - **Made by:** Soviet slogan on a banner at Vidlitsa (Vitele), banner's author not named; photographed by the Finnish Defence Forces - **Region:** [Eastern Europe and Eurasia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=eastern-europe-eurasia) - **Country:** [Soviet Union](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=soviet-union) - **Medium:** [Photograph](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=photograph) - **Issuer type:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=mixed) - **Regime:** [Soviet Union](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=soviet-union) - **Leader:** [Joseph Stalin](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=joseph-stalin) - **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public) - **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support) - **Theme:** [Home front](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=home-front) - **Techniques:** [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) - **Regime:** [Soviet Union under Stalin](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/soviet-union/) - **Leader:** [Joseph Stalin](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/soviet-union/#joseph-stalin) - **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are - **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons (Finnish Wartime Photograph Archive, SA-Kuva 48189)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vitele,_Koristettu_k%C3%A4mp%C3%A4n_ovi_%22Villen%22_kent%C3%A4ll%C3%A4,_SAKuva-48189.jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026 - **Rights:** CC BY 4.0 (SA-Kuva, Finnish Defence Forces); also public domain in Finland SA-Kuva, Finnish Defence Forces, L. Johnsson, no. 48189 (CC BY 4.0) ## Text on the object Original (Finnish) · read from the image, not independently checked ``` Kiitos tov. Stalinille onnellisesta lapsuudesta! ``` English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader) ``` Thanks to Comrade Stalin for a happy childhood! ``` Read from the banner over the door. The lettering of the first word is stylised; 'Kiitos' is the reading that fits the slogan. Text visible on the curtain in the doorway is illegible. The SA-Kuva logo is archive branding, not part of the object. [← Muscovites at TASS Window No. 5, 'What Hitler Wants' (Chego Gitler khochet)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/what-hitler-wants-tass-window-1941/) [中日基本條約簽訂一週年來矣！ (The Sino-Japanese Basic Treaty's first anniversary has come!), four-panel leaflet for Hankou →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hankou-basic-treaty-anniversary-leaflet-1941/) ## Using the same techniques - [Gold solidus of Constantine I, reverse RESTITVTORI LIBERTATIS](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-constantine-i-restitutori-libertatis-0313/) (0313 · Glittering generalities) - [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities) - [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities) - [Trois Tetes sous l'meme bonnet (three heads under the same cap)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/trois-tetes-sous-le-meme-bonnet-1789/) (1789 · Plain folks, Glittering generalities) - [Proclamation by the Queen in Council, to the Princes, Chiefs, and People of India (printed sheet, Allahabad, 1 November 1858)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/queens-proclamation-to-the-people-of-india-1858/) (Nov 1, 1858 · Glittering generalities, Scapegoating) - [The Great Battle of Ansong Ford: The Valor of Captain Matsuzaki](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ansong-ford-toshikata-1894/) (1894 · Glittering generalities) - ['The Congress Cross or "Swastik"' (Pickings from the Hindi Punch, Bombay, February 1896)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hindi-punch-congress-swastik-1896/) (Feb 1896 · Transfer, Glittering generalities) - [Un combate en el río Zapote (A Fight on the Zapote River), Blanco y Negro](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/un-combate-en-el-rio-zapote-1898/) (Jul 9, 1898 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)