The University of Nottingham

They are powerful images. A mother  sending her son to war to kill the enemy. Triumphant soldiers astride a tank. Hitler as a swastika, blood on his hands and clawed feet.

Produced by TASS — the Central Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union — for shop and office window display, these World War II propaganda posters are incredibly fragile. Most can’t be handled through fear of disintegration.

Painstaking digitisation work originally preserved posters for a 2008/9 exhibition at the University’s Lakeside Arts Centre. This continued collaboration between the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies, Manuscripts and Special Collections and the Web Technologies team at The University of Nottingham has extended the project, making more of the images accessible while preserving the originals.

The new online exhibition, Windows on War: Soviet Posters 1943-1945, features 45 TASS posters from the Manuscripts and Special Collections archive donated by Prof Vivian de Sola Pinto, a former professor of English at the University.

The site features interactive information on the context, history and design of each poster, with the option to focus in on specific details  — incuding translations of Russian text, detailed symbolism within the images and information about how the posters were manufactured.

There are 150 windows and prints in total in the archive. The digitisation of the collection will continue, with new posters added to the exhibition over time. The website will also showcase research from the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies.

Cynthia Marsh, Emeritus Professor of Russian Drama and Literature, curated the exhibition and new online project, which has brought together academics, archivists, photographers and web developers.

“We’ve had to learn a new language so that we can share our skills,” Prof Marsh said. “This is a University archive with immense value — how do we make that accessible? The importance of design to accessibility and impact is something I’ve not previously considered as an academic. It’s been an incredible learning process.

“We hope the website is used as a model for future exibitions, and that the Windows on War exhibition inspires interest and debate.”

The exhibition can be viewed at
windowsonwar.nottingham.ac.uk

You can also follow the exhibition on a range of social media channels — windowsonwar.tumblr.com,
www.facebook.com/windowsonwar and
@windowsonwar on Twitter.