"Lenin, prebuď sa, Brežnev sa zbláznil": wall slogan after the Warsaw Pact invasion, Slovakia
Hand-painted lettering along the base of a cracked plaster wall in a Slovak town: 'Lenin, wake up, Brezhnev has gone mad.' It calls the Soviet leader mad and appeals to Lenin's founding authority against him, turning the Soviet party's own icon on its current head.
A hand-painted wall slogan from Slovakia in 1968, photographed by Tamás Konok id. for Fortepan, after the Warsaw Pact forces entered Czechoslovakia. The author is unknown. The lettering reads 'LENIN WAKE UP – BREZHNEV HAS GONE MAD' and runs along the base of a cracked plaster wall. Name-calling is tagged because it labels the Soviet leader mad. Transfer is tagged because Lenin's founding authority is invoked against the current leader. The entry scores the wording only, not the merits of the invasion.
Propaganda techniques used in this sign or banner
- Date
- 1968
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- Anonymous author of the wall slogan; photograph by Tamás Konok id. (Fortepan donor)
Full record
Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights
- Region
- Eastern Europe and Eurasia
- Country
- Czechoslovakia
- Medium
- Signs and banners
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
- Leader
- Alexander Dubcek
- Audience
- Mixed
- Purpose
- Demonize
- Themes
- War and the military, Elections and party politics
- Event
- Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- Fortepan (donor: Konok Tamás id.), ID 27585, via Wikimedia Commons, retrieved September 29, 2026
- Rights
- CC BY-SA 3.0 (Fortepan release; Commons file page states the licence)
FOTO:FORTEPAN / Konok Tamás id., ID 27585 (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Text on the object
Original (Slovak) · read from the image, not independently checked
LENIN PREBUĎ SA – BREŽNEV SA ZBLÁZNIL
LENIN WAKE UP – BREZHNEV HAS GONE MAD
Read from the committed image. The words are painted in three groups that step up and down the wall: 'LENIN' at left, 'PREBUĎ SA –' above centre, 'BREŽNEV SA ZBLÁZNIL' below right, with a faint trace of paint to the right of the last word. 'BREŽNEV' and 'SA' are run together on the wall.
