Composed by Lev Revutsky and Maxim Rylsky in 1935, “Song about Stalin” (“Пiсня про Сталiна”) was one of many pro-Stalinist propaganda ballads popularized by the […]
“Song about Stalin” (1935)
Enrico Da Seta, “Here Is the Most Appropriate Weapon” (1936)
Italian Troops Enter Addis Ababa (1936)
On May 5, 1936, Fascist Italy’s troops entered a half-abandoned and destroyed Addis Ababa, the capital city of Haile Selassie I’s east African kingdom of […]
“To the Barricades” (1936)
Written by Valeriano Orobón Fernández in 1936, “To the Barricades” (“A las barricadas“) was one of the most popular anarcho-socialist ballad during the Spanish Civil […]
The Spanish Earth (1937)
In 1937, amidst the ongoing Spanish Civil War, Joris Ivens — with the support of Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos — directed and released […]
German Troops March Into Austria (1938)
In March 1938, Adolf Hitler began his expansionist program of uniting “Greater Germany” by invading, occupying, and ultimately annexing Austria to the Third Reich. Explicitly […]
Neville Chamberlain, On Appeasement (1938)
In September 1938, one year before the beginning of World War II, the British prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, flew to Germany to negociate a peaceful […]
Woodie Guthrie, “All You Fascists Bound to Lose” (1944)
Woodie Guthrie was an influential American folk singer, communist, and outspoken anti-fascist during between the 1940s and 1960s. In 1944, the year before the end […]
“Bella Ciao” (1943-1945)
During the Second World War, as the Allies were making their way northwards up the Italian peninsula, the Italian partisan resistance began carrying out guerilla-style […]
“Don’t Be a Sucker” (1943)
Produced by the U.S. War Department in 1943, and re-released in 1947, Don’t Be a Sucker was intended to admonish Americans that “they will lose […]