Content note: Workers shown smashing the Polish white eagle with a hammer, with text calling for revolution in Poland. This object is shown as it was published. Why
W szponach orła białego (In the Talons of the White Eagle): Polish-language Soviet poster
Two workers in red swing a hammer and a flag-draped pole at the neck of a white eagle crushed beneath them, above a Polish-language text saying the proletariat of Poland, Belarus and Ukraine is breaking its chains and a 'Socialist Poland of Soviets' is rising. It labels the Polish state 'Poland of capitalists and gendarmes' and presents the revolution as already under way.
- Date
- September 1920
- Period
- Interwar
- Made by
- Soviet printing house, Kyiv (issuing body not named; Polish-language poster for Polish readers)
- Country
- Soviet Russia
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Soviet Russia
- Leader
- Vladimir Lenin
- Audience
- Enemy civilians
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- War and the military, Labor
- Event
- Polish Soviet War
- Techniques
- Name-callingBandwagon
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons (scan from the Alvin portal), retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (published 1920, before 1931; Commons: PD-old, Public Domain Mark)
Anonymous, 2-ga Radziecka drukarnia, Kyiv, September 1920; scan from the Alvin portal via Wikimedia Commons.
Text on the object
Proletarjusze wszystkich krajów łączcie się! W szponach orła białego jęczał proletarjat Polski, Białorusi i Ukrainy. Dzisiaj robotnicy wsi i miast wyzwalają się z kajdan niewoli i wyzysku. Pod ciosami robotniczych młotów wali się w gruzy Polska kapitalistów i żandarmów, ginie orzeł biały. Pod czerwonym sztandarem wstaje do życia nowa — SOCJALISTYCZNA POLSKA RAD. NIECH ŻYJE REWOLUCJA! 2-ga Radziecka drukarnia, Kijów, Puszkińska 4. [illegible] KIJÓW miesiąc Wrzesień 1920 r. [stamp/mark] № 3
Proletarians of all countries, unite! In the talons of the white eagle the proletariat of Poland, Belarus and Ukraine groaned. Today the workers of village and town are freeing themselves from the chains of bondage and exploitation. Under the blows of the workers' hammers the Poland of capitalists and gendarmes collapses into ruins, the white eagle perishes. Under the red banner a new one rises to life — SOCIALIST POLAND OF SOVIETS. LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION! 2nd Soviet Printing House, Kyiv, Pushkin Street 4. [illegible] KYIV, month of September 1920 No. 3
'Proletarjat' and 'proletarjusze' are the period spellings printed. The small print run figure in the imprint is not legible and is omitted; 'Rad' is the Polish genitive plural of 'Rada' (Soviet, council), rendered 'of Soviets'.
