---
title: Parlano di pace e nascondono il pugnale! (They Talk of Peace and Hide the Dagger!)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/parlano-di-pace-nascondono-il-pugnale-borilli-1918/
description: A grinning, stooped soldier in a field-grey uniform holds out a sheet marked 'Chiacchiere di pace' (peace chatter) while a dagger is hidden behind his…
section: Collection
---

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

[![Parlano di pace e nascondono il pugnale! (They Talk of Peace and Hide the Dagger!)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/parlano-di-pace-nascondono-il-pugnale-borilli-1918.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/parlano-di-pace-nascondono-il-pugnale-borilli-1918.jpg)

# Parlano di pace e nascondono il pugnale! (They Talk of Peace and Hide the Dagger!)

A grinning, stooped soldier in a field-grey uniform holds out a sheet marked 'Chiacchiere di pace' (peace chatter) while a dagger is hidden behind his back; the text calls the enemy 'ipocriti ladroni d'Austria e di Germania' and says true peace will come only from 'our victory'. The caricature and the label 'hypocrite thieves' do the naming, and 'the triumph of free peoples' is asserted without terms.

- **Date:** 1918
- **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi)
- **Made by:** Italian wartime home-front propaganda (sponsor not named on the sheet); artist Borilli; printed by Mondadori, Verona-Ostiglia
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [Kingdom of Italy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=kingdom-of-italy)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=mixed)
- **Regime:** [Orlando Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=orlando-government)
- **Leader:** [Vittorio Emanuele Orlando](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=vittorio-emanuele-orlando)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Home front](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=home-front)
- **Event:** [World War I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-i)
- **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Plakatmuseum Wien, Sammlung Eybl (via Wikimedia Commons)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:9_Sammlung_Eybl_Borilli_Parlano_di_pace_e_nascondono_il_pugnale!_(Sie_reden_%C3%BCber_Frieden_und_verheimlichen_den_Dolch!)._1918._100_x_70_cm._(Slg.Nr._2437).jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (poster published in Italy in 1918, before 1931); Commons PD-old tag; photo CC BY-SA 4.0 Sammlung Eybl, Plakatmuseum Wien / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 (photograph by A. Erhardt); poster by Borilli, 1918.

## Text on the object

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

```
Parlano di pace e
nascondono il pugnale!

[on the sheet the figure holds] CHIACCHIERE
DI
PACE

Vi conosciamo, ipocriti ladroni d'Austria e di Germania!
Ora che vi teniamo alla gola, volete che allentiamo la stretta per avere
il tempo di darci la pugnalata nella schiena!
NO! NOI NON ALLENTIAMO!!
La pace vera, la pace che compenserà i nostri sacrifici, che vendicherà
i nostri morti, che redimerà le nostre terre, che assicurerà il trionfo
dei popoli liberi,
verrà dalla NOSTRA VITTORIA!

[signature, lower right] Borilli
[imprint, lower left] Soc. An. A. Mondadori - Verona - Ostiglia
```

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

```
They talk of peace and
hide the dagger!

[on the sheet the figure holds] PEACE
CHATTER

We know you, hypocritical thieves of Austria and of Germany!
Now that we hold you by the throat, you want us to loosen our grip so as to have
the time to stab us in the back!
NO! WE WILL NOT LOOSEN!!
The true peace, the peace that will compensate our sacrifices, that will avenge
our dead, that will redeem our lands, that will secure the triumph
of free peoples,
will come from OUR VICTORY!
```

Red and black display type over a cream sheet; the imprint line at lower left is small.

[← اودھ کے برہمنوں اور راجپوتوں سے ایک اپیل (An Appeal to the Brahmins and Rajputs of Oudh)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/oudh-appeal-to-brahmins-and-rajputs-1918/) [...per la Patria i miei occhi! per la Pace il vostro denaro. Prestito Nazionale (For the Fatherland my eyes, for Peace your money) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/per-la-patria-i-miei-occhi-prestito-1918/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Exit Liberté a la Francois! or Buonaparte closing the Farce of Egalité, at St. Cloud (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exit-liberte-buonaparte-gillray-1799/) (Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling)