---
title: Za naši samostatnost! Hrr na vraha! Za demokracii! Československá armáda (For our independence! Charge at the murderer! For democracy! Czechoslovak Army)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/za-nasi-samostatnost-1918/
description: A green-and-black recruiting poster shows two soldiers locked in close combat, one in a spike-crested helmet, beneath 'For our independence!
section: Collection
---

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

**Content note:** Stylised hand-to-hand combat between two soldiers; the enemy is labelled a 'murderer' in the headline. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Za naši samostatnost! Hrr na vraha! Za demokracii! Československá armáda (For our independence! Charge at the murderer! For democracy! Czechoslovak Army)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/za-nasi-samostatnost-1918.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/za-nasi-samostatnost-1918.jpg)

# Za naši samostatnost! Hrr na vraha! Za demokracii! Československá armáda (For our independence! Charge at the murderer! For democracy! Czechoslovak Army)

A green-and-black recruiting poster shows two soldiers locked in close combat, one in a spike-crested helmet, beneath 'For our independence! Charge at the murderer! For democracy! Czechoslovak Army.' The tell is the enemy reduced to a single moral epithet, 'murderer', and two virtue words, independence and democracy, offered as the reasons to enlist with no terms or conditions of service.

- **Date:** 1918
- **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi)
- **Made by:** Czechoslovak Recruiting Office, New York (Czechoslovak National Council campaign); designed and printed at the Wentworth Institute, Boston; artist listed by LOC as Vojtech Preissig
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [Czechoslovak National Council](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=czechoslovak-national-council)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [Military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=military)
- **Regime:** [Czechoslovak National Council](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=czechoslovak-national-council)
- **Leader:** [Tomas Garrigue Masaryk](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=tomas-garrigue-masaryk)
- **Audience:** [Diaspora or minority](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=diaspora-minority)
- **Purpose:** [Recruit](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=recruit)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Race and ethnicity](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=race-ethnicity)
- **Event:** [World War I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-i)
- **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2002719423/), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (published 1918; LOC: no known restrictions on publication) Czechoslovak Recruiting Office, New York; Wentworth Institute, Boston, 1918. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-50583.

## Text on the object

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

```
ZA NAŠI SAMOSTATNOST!
HRR NA VRAHA!

ZA DEMOKRACII!
ČESKOSLOVENSKÁ ARMÁDA

ISSUED BY CZECHOSLOVAK RECRUITING OFFICE, TRIBUNE BUILDING, NEW YORK
DESIGNED AND PRINTED AT THE SCHOOL OF PRINTING AND GRAPHIC ARTS OF WENTWORTH INSTITUTE, BOSTON, MASS. U.S.A. · WENTWORTH POSTER NO. [1 or 7, uncertain]

[monogram in image, lower left: WI P.G.A.]
```

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

```
FOR OUR INDEPENDENCE!
CHARGE AT THE MURDERER!

FOR DEMOCRACY!
CZECHOSLOVAK ARMY

(The issuer and printer lines are in English.)
```

Czech headline text and English imprint are as printed; the trailing poster number is uncertain at this resolution.

[← Was England will! (What England Wants!)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/was-england-will-1918/) [Ireland's Solemn League and Covenant: A National Pledge (anti-conscription, 1918) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/irelands-national-pledge-1918/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [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)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Exit Liberté a la Francois! or Buonaparte closing the Farce of Egalité, at St. Cloud (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exit-liberte-buonaparte-gillray-1799/) (Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling)
- [Van Moscouw tot Elba moest ik wyken (From Moscow to Elba I had to give way), Napoleon caricature by Wijnand Esser](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/van-moscouw-tot-elba-napoleon-esser-1814/) (1814 · Name-calling)