Content note: Cartoon with gallows, a noose and an axe. This object is shown as it was published. Why

Krokodil No. 35 (145), September 1925: In the School of Hangmen (cover, Radakov)

Magazine cover: a bald teacher with a pointer stands at a blackboard where two gallows frames read as the letters 'PP'; a stout pupil in a sash, with a noose-shaped moustache, and a seated pupil with an axe and rope beneath his desk look on. The caption has the pupil name the letters as the Polish Socialist Party. Spelling out a party's initials with gallows is the name-calling tell: the label is the claim.

Date: September 1925
Period: Interwar
Made by: Krokodil (Крокодил), illustrated satirical weekly published in Moscow by the Pravda publishing house; cover by Aleksei Radakov
Region: Eastern Europe and Eurasia
Country: Soviet Union
Medium: Print
Issuer type: Media
Regime: Soviet Union
Leader: Alexei Rykov
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Demonize
Themes: Security and surveillance, Elections and party politics
Techniques: Name-calling
Source: Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source: Wikimedia Commons, retrieved October 2, 2026
Rights: Public domain (published 1925, before 1931); also PD-Russia on Commons
Krokodil No. 35 (145), September 1925, cover by A. Radakov. Scan on Wikimedia Commons (PD-Russia; artist died before 1952). US basis: first published 1925, before 1931.

Text on the object

Original (Russian) · read from the image, not independently checked

ГОД ИЗДАНИЯ ЧЕТВЕРТЫЙ.
Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!
МОСКВА, СЕНТЯБРЬ 1925 г.
№ 35 (145)
Цена 15 коп.
КРОКОДИЛ
Рис. А. Радакова.
В ШКОЛЕ ПАЛАЧЕЙ.
В Польше организуется институт палачей для выполнения приговоров над революционерами. (Из телеграмм).
— Янек, милый! Ты знаешь, какие буквы выходят из этих фигур?
— Как же не знать! Это П. П. С.— наша кормилица — Польская Партия Социалистов.

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

FOURTH YEAR OF PUBLICATION.
Proletarians of all countries, unite!
MOSCOW, SEPTEMBER 1925
No. 35 (145)
Price 15 kop.
CROCODILE
Drawing by A. Radakov.
IN THE SCHOOL OF HANGMEN.
In Poland an institute of hangmen is being organised to carry out sentences on revolutionaries. (From telegrams).
— Yanek, dear! Do you know what letters these figures make?
— How could I not! That is P. P. S., our breadwinner, the Polish Socialist Party.

Literal translation by Claude (machine translation, not fluent-reader verified). Handwritten numeral at top is a library annotation and is not transcribed.

Krokodil No. 35 (145), September 1925: In the School of Hangmen (cover, Radakov)

Text on the object

Using the same techniques