Военный 5½% заём (Russian War Loan postcard, 1916)

Two soldiers with a searchlight on a rampart look down on a burning town behind barbed wire, above the printed line "Our cities, villages and churches await liberation from the enemy's invasion" and the request to subscribe to the War Loan. The blazing town and the invasion line put a threat in front of the buyer before the financial ask.

Date: 1916
Period: First World War
Made by: Russian imperial government war-loan campaign (publisher not stated on the card)
Region: Eastern Europe and Eurasia
Country: Russian Empire
Medium: Postcard
Issuer type: Mixed
Regime: Russian Empire
Leader: Nicholas II
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Fundraise
Themes: War and the military, Economy and finance
Event: World War I
Techniques: Fear appeal
Source: Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source: Estonian War Museum - General Laidoner Museum (MuIS / Europeana), retrieved September 29, 2026
Rights: CC0 1.0 (museum image and metadata, per Europeana record); printed c. 1916, public domain
Eesti Sõjamuuseum - kindral Laidoneri muuseum, KLM ET 1588:106 F (CC0 1.0)

Text on the object

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

Наши города, села и храмы
ждутъ освобожденія
отъ вражескаго нашествія.

Помогайте арміи
въ ея великомъ дѣлѣ
и подписывайтесь на

ВОЕННЫЙ 5 10/20 ЗАЕМЪ.

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

Our cities, villages and churches
await liberation
from the enemy's invasion.

Help the army
in its great cause
and subscribe to the

WAR LOAN 5 10/20 [5.5 per cent].

Pre-1918 Russian orthography (hard signs, yat). The rate is printed as a stacked fraction, 10 over 20, after the 5.