"The Motherland Calls!": Who is actually depicted on the famous poster

• "The Motherland Calls!": Who is actually depicted on the famous poster of

The woman's face depicted on the famous propaganda poster from World War II, "The Motherland Calls!" Is familiar to all. The main task of the artist Irakli Toidze was to create a generalized image of the woman-mother, in which every soldier could see his mother. Nevertheless, this image-symbol was a real prototype - Tamara Toidze.

Poster was created in the beginning of the war, a few days after the invasion of German troops in June 1941. At that time, there are many similar campaign posters and patriotic songs designed to inspire people to fight the enemy. However, this particular poster has become the most popular and recognizable.

artist Irakli Toidze

Hereditary Georgian artist Irakli Toidze at that time had already become famous as an illustrator - he was the author of graphics to the poem "The Knight in the Panther's Skin". In his stories, he was working on them, when the June 22, 1941 in a room ran his wife, Tamara Toidze, shouting: "War!". Hand, she instinctively pointed to the open door, from behind which came the reports of the beginning of the war the Soviet Information Bureau, passed on the street loudspeaker. The gesture inspired the artist to create a poster. "Stop and do not move!" - he asked if his wife and immediately began to make sketches. Tamara at the time was 37 years old, but she looked much younger, and to create a generalized image of the mother, the artist has depicted a woman older than the prototype.

Tamara Toidze

According to the artist's son, the word "Motherland," the artist borrowed from the works of his favorite poet Andrei Bely. The collection of his poems Irakli Toidze stressed lines in pencil: "Let, O Motherland, in the blind, raw expanse, in the expanse of your sobbed."

Poster * The Motherland Calls! * And its reproduction in the Proceedings * * on July 13, 1941

The poster was ready by the end of the month and multiplied millions. His pasted all over the country - in train stations and collection points, in the factories, on walls and fences. The idea of the poster was so close and clear to everyone that the soldiers wore its reduced size reproductions of a postcard in the breast pockets of their tunics, and if necessary to take the town the Nazis, soldiers, retreating, tore posters "mom" and took with them.

The French poster from the First World War. Fragment

Today, some researchers have expressed doubts about the timing and circumstances of the creation of this poster. Some of them argue that the "Motherland" was created even before the war, and others - that Toidze borrowed the gesture is not a call to action from his wife, and the authors of the existing international campaign posters on military subjects. Still others believe that the raised hand and laid back - a typical gesture of emotional women Georgians.

Propaganda posters France, Greece, the USSR, Division Galicia * * United States

Whatever it was, the force of the impact of "Motherland" was extraordinary: a poster inspired people as well as the song "Holy War". It is unlikely that this would be possible, if the artist has created only a portrait of his wife. The image was indeed a collective, which is confirmed by the son of the artist: "The image of the woman with the poster, of course, generalized in many ways. The mother was very beautiful, but her father has simplified the way, made clear to all ... ". That's why this image has become a symbol of the era and the spirit of people power, risen to fight against fascism.