---
title: '''Builders! The count is in minutes!'' Sobyanin poster'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sobyanin-builders-poster-2020/
description: Poster of Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin jabbing a finger straight at the viewer above the words 'Builders!
section: Collection
---

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

[!['Builders! The count is in minutes!' Sobyanin poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/sobyanin-builders-poster-2020.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/sobyanin-builders-poster-2020.jpg)

# 'Builders! The count is in minutes!' Sobyanin poster

Poster of Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin jabbing a finger straight at the viewer above the words 'Builders! The count is in minutes!', placed on the construction site of an infectious-disease hospital in March 2020. The tell is the borrowed format: the direct-address pointing figure of wartime recruitment posters is lent to a civilian construction deadline.

- **Date:** March 21, 2020
- **Period:** [Contemporary](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=contemporary)
- **Made by:** Moscow City Government (Complex of Urban Development Policy and Construction)
- **Region:** [Eastern Europe and Eurasia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=eastern-europe-eurasia)
- **Country:** [Russia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=russia)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [State](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=state)
- **Regime:** [Putin Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=putin-government)
- **Leader:** [Vladimir Putin](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=vladimir-putin)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Mobilize or secure compliance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=mobilize-comply)
- **Themes:** [Health](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=health), [Labor](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=labor), [Home front](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=home-front)
- **Event:** [COVID-19 pandemic](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=covid-19-pandemic)
- **Techniques:** [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)
- **Regime:** [Russian Federation under Vladimir Putin](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/putin-government/)
- **Leader:** [Vladimir Putin](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/putin-government/#vladimir-putin)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D0%9F%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%82_%D0%A1%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%8F%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BD.jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** CC BY 4.0 (mos.ru terms of use) Complex of Urban Development Policy and Construction of Moscow (stroi.mos.ru), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

## Text on the object

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

```
СТРОИТЕЛИ!

СЧЕТ ИДЕТ НА МИНУТЫ!
```

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

```
BUILDERS!

THE COUNT IS IN MINUTES!
```

Skyline silhouettes (a Stalin-era tower and a domed building) and the crowd silhouette are graphics, not text.

[← 'Let's preserve our native culture and language' Pushkin 'Constitution 2020' billboard](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/pushkin-constitution-2020-billboard-2020/) ["We are woke to your PLANdemic" placard, Columbus, Ohio →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/plandemic-protest-sign-2020/)

## Using the same techniques

- [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/) (0037 · Testimonial, Transfer)
- [Gold coin of Kanishka: King of Kings legend, king at the altar, deity Oesho](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gold-dinar-kanishka-king-of-kings-0130/) (0130 · Transfer)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (1070 · Transfer, Card stacking)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [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)