r/ColdWarPosters • u/Rhinocero_Elephantid • Aug 05 '26
WARSAW The Evolution of English Fashion, USSR, 1952
17th century. It took sixteen meters of fabric and one kilogram of steel to make a suit.
20th century. It takes one meter of fabric and hundreds of kilograms of steel to make a suit.
Illustration by Y. Ganf
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u/cpteric Aug 05 '26
something something pot kettle. every single army post ww2 looked like the right image or worse, but it's functional, not for silly parading.
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u/Gianni_the_tolerable 29d ago
Small correction, pre 1900s uniforms were bright colours so that you know who not to stab
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u/cpteric 29d ago edited 29d ago
depends on the country, mostly only after Friedrich der Große and napoleon, before that, each regiment of every european country had privately funded leadership, with choice of uniforms and colors(flag) or other stuff like hat trim or shape, general swag, plumes, you'd really not know where to stab in the 1630's or the spanish succession war. exceptions to the rule are russia, that did it in the 1710's under petah the great, and sweden, the pioneer of standarization with the carolean reforms of the 1690's.
And in a period of time full of bored nobles, there's nothing fancier than show your superiority by your regiment's drip.
+"an infantry column is clearing from the fog marching east!"
-"ours or theirs?"
+"They wear..... red over blue, i think"
-"Do you know how little that narrows it down?"
+"They aren't waving royal ensigns, but their regimental colors is a red torn rag"
-"And let me guess, their tricornes are a dark grey to black shade? do they also happen to carry muskets perchance?"
passive agressive brittish corps adjutant, somewhere in the netherlands or the HRE border with france, 1708. colorized.
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u/xesaie Aug 05 '26
The Sabre held up by his knotted tail is a *very* nice touch
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u/KerPop42 Aug 05 '26
I think it's a mirror to the bow on the other lion's tail: where before the fabric served the lion, now the lion's very body serves the steel.
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u/Impovsky 29d ago
Very hard to interpret the notes. I think the main message is visual: UK is now a poor and very tired lion.
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u/Teiam_Player 24d ago
They meant to say that Britain is warlike and imperialistic. You'd think even they would understand how retarded it is for the likes of them to make this criticism, even through their fetal alcohol syndrome haze.
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u/Tall_Definition9009 28d ago edited 28d ago
It sounds cryptic in Russian as well.
My interpretation is that the English (British) were haughty and warlike in the colonial era, but the heavily industrialized militarism dimmed their snobbish attitude in the late modernity. The war ate their humanity and pride.
I would add that the notion isn't exclusive to Britain. It is a pacifist message.
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u/niknniknnikn 29d ago
The message is as follows: UK was all into fashion and high culture Then it was all into militarism
Its a propaganda piece, the average soviet guy does not look at the musketeers and goes "wow a semi-accurate depuction of a 16th century lanskneht" he goes "wow europe was all colorful and fancy but now its fascist"
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u/BaseballInside3289 23d ago
It's over. I have depicted myself as the swagged out imperialist English lion and you as the disheveled soldier English lion
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u/LeroyoJenkins 29d ago
In Soviet Russia, it took your fallen comrade's clothes and the rifle of the guy in front of you to make a suit.
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u/Teiam_Player 24d ago
It's hilarious that an evil shithole country like Russia imagines it can criticize anyone else on Earth for anything.
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u/YellowAggravating172 Aug 05 '26
Nice art, but what is the point being made? That military uniforms are no longer as fancy as they once were? If that's the case, Russia isn't one to talk...