Mujahedeen Propaganda Posters and the Struggle for Liberation against Soviet Occupation in the 1980s

• In Event: Paradoxes of Liberation: War and Deliverance in Soviet and Post-Soviet Contexts

Abstract

Focusing on the Soviet-Afghan War of the 1980s, this paper analyzes a sample of propaganda posters from the mujahedeen, "holy warriors" who comprised the opposition to the Soviets and the Soviet-supported Afghan communist government. Poster art, so essential in spreading revolutionary messages in early Soviet history, became an effective form of propagandistic imagery and messaging that likely appealed to a broad spectrum of the population against the communist cause in Afghanistan. In a variety of languages, the posters target a broad audience both within and outside of Afghanistan, particularly the ones that include English-language inscriptions. The posters underscore the political message that the main reason for the Soviet invasion—the infighting between the two main factions of the PDPA, Khalq and Parcham—was in fact a moot point because, from the point of view of the mujahedeen, there was no real difference between the two. The artists compiling these posters utilize internationally accepted imagery like the white dove for peace or the bear and hammer-and-sickle, which appears in a lot of them, to represent the USSR and communism. At the same time, they often personalize the imagery to portray the “bear” as individual Soviet leaders like Brezhnev or Andropov. The posters also clearly mock several of the communists’ key messages, such as their slogans “To the Front” and “Food, Shelter, Clothing,” thereby undermining the regime’s own propaganda.

Author

• Jeff W. Jones, UNC at Greensboro