---
title: Бо війна війною (For War Is War), Sich Riflemen postcard series II
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kurylas-bo-viina-viinoiu-sich-riflemen-postcard-1917/
description: A mounted rifleman in field grey with a pipe leans toward a village girl in a headscarf who points down the road, a wagon train behind them, over a strip…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Бо війна війною (For War Is War), Sich Riflemen postcard series II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/kurylas-bo-viina-viinoiu-sich-riflemen-postcard-1917.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/kurylas-bo-viina-viinoiu-sich-riflemen-postcard-1917.jpg)

# Бо війна війною (For War Is War), Sich Riflemen postcard series II

A mounted rifleman in field grey with a pipe leans toward a village girl in a headscarf who points down the road, a wagon train behind them, over a strip of song notation titled 'Бо війна війною'. The homely encounter and the folk song present the legion as the countryside's own sons and voice rather than as a formation of the army.

- **Date:** 1917
- **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi)
- **Made by:** Osyp Kurylas, artist and rifleman of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen legion in the Austro-Hungarian army (publisher not identified on the card)
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [Austria Hungary](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=austria-hungary)
- **Medium:** [Postcard](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=postcard)
- **Issuer type:** [Military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=military)
- **Regime:** [Austria Hungary](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=austria-hungary)
- **Leader:** [Karl I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=karl-i)
- **Audience:** [Diaspora or minority](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=diaspora-minority)
- **Purpose:** [Reassure](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=reassure)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Race and ethnicity](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=race-ethnicity)
- **Event:** [World War I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-i)
- **Techniques:** [Plain folks](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/plain-folks/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D0%9A%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%81_-_%D0%91%D0%BE_%D0%B2%D1%96%D0%B9%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%B2%D1%96%D0%B9%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%8E2.jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (published 1914-1918; artist died 1951, life+70 expired; Commons PD tag) Kurylas, Osyp (1870-1951), artist. Postcard, 1914-1918. Via Wikimedia Commons (scan of the original card).

## Text on the object

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

```
Бо війна війною

[Song notation with two-line text under the staves, too small and low-resolution to read: [illegible]]

[Handwritten inscription, lower left, partly legible, ending in a date that appears to read 1917:] [illegible] О. Курилас [illegible]
```

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

```
For war is war

[Song notation with two-line text under the staves: illegible]

[Handwritten inscription, lower left: illegible, signed O. Kurylas]
```

Only the title is legible. The committed scan is 402 x 604 pixels, so the song lines under the staves and the inscription cannot be transcribed reliably. Translation is a machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader.

[← Virginia Arnold \[holding Kaiser Wilson banner\]](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kaiser-wilson-banner-1917/) [Putting the mortgage on the cradle →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/mortgage-on-the-cradle-1917/)

## Using the same techniques

- [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)
- ["Mora Dravca vsahniti" plebiscite postcard no. 9 (The Drava Must Dry Up)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/mora-dravca-vsahniti-plebiscite-postcard-1920/) (1920 · Plain folks)
- [Gandhi spins while addressing a crowd (1930)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gandhi-spinning-1930/) (1930 · Plain folks, Transfer)
- ["The Good Shopper" (Empire Marketing Board)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/good-shopper-emb/) (1930 · Plain folks, Glittering generalities)
- [Allen in de Nederlandsche Unie (All in the Netherlands Union)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/allen-in-de-nederlandsche-unie-1940/) (1940 · Plain folks, Bandwagon)
- [The More Women at Work the Sooner We Win!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/more-women-at-work-sooner-we-win-1943/) (1943 · Plain folks, Glittering generalities)
- [Sedari Menanam Hingga Memetik (From Planting to Harvest)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sedari-menanam-hingga-memetik-1943/) (1943 · Plain folks)
- [We Can Do It!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/we-can-do-it-1943/) (1943 · Glittering generalities, Plain folks)