Nuclear Threat and the Image of the American Enemy in Soviet Cold War Posters

Abstract

The emergence and evolution of nuclear weapons contributed to the rise of one of the main narratives of the Cold War in both the political and socio-cultural fields. The article aims to study the specifics of the representation of nuclear threat in Soviet posters of the Cold War era and the connection of these representations with the image of the American enemy. As part of this theme’s study, the author characterizes the place and role of the poster in the “cultural cold war”, as well as the peculiarities of the representation of related images. Eighty 80 Soviet posters have been studied to analyze the reflection of topics related to the possible use of nuclear weapons and nuclear war and to reveal their specificity in Soviet popular culture. The author concludes that there is a close relationship between the images of the nuclear threat and of the American enemy

Keywords

• soviet poster
• nuclear weapons
• image of the enemy
• propaganda
• cold war
• ussr.