--- title: Life in the Communist Land (Russian Slave Labor Camp) (Thai poster distributed in Asia) url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/russian-slave-labor-camp-life-in-communist-land-thai-1952/ description: A Thai-language sheet headed 'Life in the Communist Land' with five pencil-style drawings of Soviet forced-labour camps. section: Collection --- 1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/) 2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) 3. Life in the Communist Land (Russian Slave Labor Camp) [![Life in the Communist Land (Russian Slave Labor Camp), 1952 US poster: A Thai-language sheet headed 'Life in the Communist](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/russian-slave-labor-camp-life-in-communist-land-thai-1952.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/russian-slave-labor-camp-life-in-communist-land-thai-1952.jpg) # Life in the Communist Land (Russian Slave Labor Camp) (Thai poster distributed in Asia) A Thai-language sheet headed 'Life in the Communist Land' with five pencil-style drawings of Soviet forced-labour camps: a column of people marched under guard with a dog, women carrying a girder, a man pushing an overloaded barrow, prisoners felling timber, and a guard before a lined-up crowd. Captions claim over 15 million held, starvation through impossible quotas, and shootings. The tell is testimonial: the drawings are credited to S. Korolkov, a former camp prisoner, while other views of the Soviet system are absent. ## Propaganda techniques used in this poster [Testimonial](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/testimonial/) [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) ## Text on the object Original (Thai) · read from the image, not independently checked ``` ชีวิตในเมืองคอมมิวนิสต์ ภายใต้ลัทธิเผด็จการคอมมิวนิสต์ ผู้คนกว่า ๑๕ ล้านในสหภาพโซเวียดได้ถูกกลืนหายเข้าไปใน ค่ายคุมขัง กรรมกร บางคนมิได้ทำผิด แต่กระนั้นก็ต้องถูกพรากตัวจากบ้านช่องไปทำงานเยี่ยงทาส -- ภาพเหล่านี้ เขียนโดยนาย เอส. โครอลคอฟ ซึ่งเคยเป็นนักโทษค่ายกรรมกรสมานแล้ว. ผู้หญิงถูกบังคับให้ทำงานหนักเท่าผู้ชาย อาหารไม่มีพอกันกิน เสื้อผ้าแทบไม่มีติดกาย แต่ตำรวจที่ผ้านั้นอ้วนพีตาม ๆ กัน. กรรมกรทาสของโซเวียตจะได้รับอาหารก็ต่อเมื่อทำงานครบตามกำหนด แต่งานส่วนมากตั้งไว้เสียสูงลิ่ว จนกรรมกรอดตายกันเป็นจำนวนมาก. แม้อากาศจะหนาวจนทนไม่ได้ นักโทษก็ยังถูกบังคับให้ออกไปทำงาน คนทางซ้ายมือในภาพกำลังถูกลงโทษให้ยืนบนคอไม้ ไม่ช้าก็คงจะหนาวตาย. นักโทษมากหลายถูกยิงอย่างป่าเถื่อน หลังจากละเมิดกฎค่ายทาส แม้จะเป็นกฎที่ไม่สลักสำคัญก็ตาม แต่ก็มีไม่น้อยที่อยากตายมากกว่าทนอยู่อย่างทรมาน. ``` English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader) ``` Life in the Communist Land Under communist dictatorship, more than 15 million people in the Soviet Union have been swallowed up into forced-labour prison camps. Some had done no wrong, yet were taken from their homes to work like slaves -- these pictures were drawn by Mr. S. Korolkov, who was himself formerly a forced-labour camp prisoner [last words read approximately]. Women are forced to work as hard as men. There is not enough food to eat, hardly any clothing on their bodies, yet the police [guards] are all fat and well fed [wording of this clause read approximately]. Soviet slave labourers receive food only when they complete the set work quota, but most of the work is set sky-high, so that great numbers of labourers starve to death. Even though the cold is unbearable, prisoners are still forced out to work. The man at the left of the picture is being punished by being made to stand on a log; before long he will probably freeze to death. Many prisoners are brutally shot after breaking the camp rules, even trivial ones, yet not a few would rather die than go on living in torment. ``` Small Thai type read at reduced resolution; a few words (marked approximate in the translation) are uncertain. Thai numerals as printed (๑๕ = 15). [← Germ Warfare: Cộng-Sản Nói Dối Bị Lòi Đuôi (Communists' Lies Are Exposed) (Vietnamese poster distributed in Asia)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/germ-warfare-vietnamese-1952/) [他們總是說「不！」 (They Always Say "No!") →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tamen-zongshi-shuo-bu-soviet-no-poster-1952/) ## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques - [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account. - [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking) - [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial) - [Bronze sestertius of Gaius (Caligula), reverse S P Q R P P OB CIVES SERVATOS in an oak wreath](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-caligula-ob-cives-servatos-0037/) (Roman Empire · 0037 · Testimonial, Transfer) - [Bronze sestertius of Trajan, reverse S P Q R OPTIMO PRINCIPI, S C, the emperor on horseback riding down an enemy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-trajan-optimo-principi-0103/) (Roman Empire · 0103 · Testimonial, Glittering generalities) - [Seljuq gold dinar of Sanjar, dated 493 AH, with the Abbasid caliph named on one face](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/seljuq-gold-dinar-sanjar-caliph-name-1099/) (Great Seljuk Empire · 1099 · Testimonial) - [Estoire d'Eracles page with Bernard of Clairvaux preaching the Second Crusade in the initial (Walters W.137, fol. 180v)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eracles-bernard-preaching-second-crusade-w137-1275/) (France · 1275 · Testimonial) - [Opening page of the Estoire d'Eracles (William of Tyre in French), with the Crucifixion and Pope Urban II preaching the First Crusade in the initial (Walters W.137, fol. 1r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eracles-urban-ii-preaching-first-crusade-w137-1275/) (France · 1275 · Testimonial, Transfer)