Kukryniksy
(Russian, founded 1924)
Dem'ian Bednyi
(Born Gubovka, 1883; died Moscow, 1945)

Impregnable Stronghold, TASS No. 0589, October 25, 1942

Stencil
1640 x 1595 mm
Inscribed on the pages of Hitler’s calendar:
5 July 1941; 1 September 1941: I will be in Moscow; 7 November 1941: Moscow is kaput!; 110 …42: I am in Moscow; 1 April 1942: I’ll capture it; 5; 35 Marchember. (This deranged calendar refers to Gogol’s story “The Notes of a Madman,” which is also referred to in Bednyi’s poem.)
Inscribed at the top of Goebbels's page:
News Digest

Leaflets on top of leaflets.
An endless fountain streams:
-- November! Marchember!...
Ber!...ber!...ber!

The content of the deluded nonsense
Is the same today as yesterday:
“Ber!.. Moscow is kaput! Victory!”
From the cannibal’s broadcasts
The Germans are staggering.

Ber!.. Kaput!... The war continues.
What remains of my "blitz"?
Near Moscow it smashed its head
And the Soviet capital lay "Blitz" [the name of a dog] in its grave.

The wet fall has come again
It’s eerie in the woods and fields.
And already the second winter
Is staring the Fascists in the face.

The krauts whimper in fright:
“Death looks out from the calendar
And their fountain harps on:
“Ber!... ber!... ber!...”

Hitler soon raves a new schedule.
Goebbels lies at full strength.
Only fools believe
These lying prophets.

Hitler, in a wild manifesto
Makes wild plans
And Moscow still stands
Where it always has.
Ne boltai! Collection, Obj: 205727