Tēvuzemei grūti laiki (Hard times for the fatherland), postcard by Rihards Zariņš, 1916
A woman in Latvian folk dress raises a sword above burning farmsteads and calls on the 'sons' to help. The tells are the folk costume worn by a national allegory, which lends the nation's identity to the appeal, and the burning ruins at her feet that stage the harm the appeal answers.
- Date
- 1916
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- Latvian-language wartime postcard (artist Rihards Zariņš); issuing body not named on the card
- Country
- Russian Empire
- Medium
- Postcard
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Russian Empire
- Leader
- Nicholas II
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- War and the military, Home front
- Techniques
- TransferFear appeal
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (published 1916; artist died 1939, Commons PD-old-80)
Rihards Zariņš, 'Tēvuzemei grūti laiki', 1916, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).
Text on the object
TĒVUZEMEI GRŪTI LAIKI DĒLI, DĒLI, PALĪGA! R. ZARRIN
HARD TIMES FOR THE FATHERLAND SONS, SONS, HELP! R. ZARRIN
Translation is a machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader. 'Palīga' is rendered as an imperative 'help' from the form read on the card.
