This cartoon illustrates an imaged development of Bolshevism after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917. The Bolshevik Revolution was the event in which Vladimir Lenin and his supporters overthrew Czar Nicholas II of Russia. Lenin sought to turn Russia into a communist state run by the proletariat masses, the workers. The first panel is captioned, “Bolshevism Allies in the rear”. The panel shows a people plagued by unrest and the spirit of revolt with the red army (the new Russian government) in the background. The second panel is captioned, “The advance from Moscow”. This panel shows the red army leaving Moscow. The bottom panel is captioned, “Awakened”. This panel shows a man sitting in shock as one of the Bolsheviks passes through his front gate. Notice the papers in the left corner of the bottom panel. These papers indicate that the new Bolshevik government is crumbling under it own weight. These papers clearly contradict the Bolshevik’s appearance at the man’s front gate. This cartoon is an example of the fear of communism caused by the first Red Scare, which began in 1917 and lasted until the early 1920s. Many Americans feared that communists would cause unrest in the United States to cause another workers’ revolution. While many historians debate the rationality of these fears, it is agreed that Americans had a deep-seated suspicion of communism during the the early 1920s. (Summary created by Mary Delano, MU History Intern, Spring 2018)
Published in the Chicago Tribune on March 8, 1919.
"195"--Handwritten on verso.
"March 8 1919"--Handwritten on verso.
Pencil and ink on board.
Original in University of Missouri Special Collections, John Tinney McCutcheon Collection.
Digitized on September 2017. Equipment: Indus Color Book Scanner. Scanning software: bcs-2 version 3.4.9. Image specifications: 400 dpi, color. Access copies: tiffs with LZW compression, rotated and cropped.
Title from caption.
