Wilhelm's Merry Go Round: "Outside of Paris My Army Is Being Defeated...". by Malevich, Kazimir Severinovich, 1878-1935 Artist.

Malevich, Kazimir Severinovich, 1878-1935 Artist.

1914-01-01

photo, print, drawing

Library of Congress

This World War I propaganda poster, designed by Kazimir Malevich (1878--1935), depicts the German army defeated by the Allies on the outskirts of Paris in the fall of 1914. On the right, German soldiers are seen dying under a barrage of artillery. Gunfire belches from behind the city walls of Paris, visible in the top-left corner. In the center the figure of Kaiser Wilhelm II helplessly observes the collapse of the German offensive. The verse under the picture by Vladimir Mayakovsky reads: "Outside of Paris my army is being defeated while I run around, unable to do anything about it." In the early stages of the war, a number of Russ