Do your duty, all of you! · Why are you not in the army?

Italy, 1917; Denikin’s White armies, 1919. Achille Luciano Mauzan; an unknown White Army artist.

On the Italian poster an infantryman in a helmet climbs out of a trench, rifle in one hand, pointing at the viewer with the other. Behind him are the smoke of explosions and a column of soldiers. It was also printed in a giant format and pasted on the façades of public buildings. The slogan: “Do your duty, all of you!” — and an advertisement for a war loan, subscriptions to which were taken by the Credito Italiano bank. On the White poster the pose is the same: a soldier in a field tunic, rifle in hand, climbs over a parapet and points, only the caption is different: “Why are you not in the army?”

In 1917 Italy issued the fourth of its five war loans, and it was one of the country’s hardest years: grinding battles on the Isonzo and, in the autumn, the disaster at Caporetto. Two years later Denikin’s armies were advancing on Moscow and badly needed men. Their propagandists did not shy away from a double borrowing: the gesture came from Kitchener, the pose and composition from Mauzan. A year later the Reds would repaint the same gesture into “Have you volunteered?”.

The technique is a finger raised by an equal. In Mauzan’s poster the call comes not from a minister but from a private in the trenches: I am doing my duty under fire — and you? The White poster carries this reproach into a civil war, where the addressee is no longer the home front of another country but a fellow countryman wavering over which side to take.

Context

1) Italy, 1917. Achille Luciano Mauzan (1883–1952), printed by G. Modiano & C., Milan (Library of Congress copy; Poster House holds a G. Ricordi & C. printing). An advertisement for the fourth war loan; subscriptions were taken by the Credito Italiano bank. 2) Denikin’s White armies (Armed Forces of South Russia), 1919; place of printing not established. A White Army recruiting poster; artist unknown. The pose and composition are borrowed from Mauzan.