Catalogue Number
NMLH.1994.168.544
Object Name
Poster
Title
Map Review poster - World Communism map.
People
Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Charles De Guille.
Events
The Cold War
Date
1947
Description
A1 poster, double sided, very large, slightly creased. One side of the poster discusses France and Germany, and the other side consists of a large world map, detailing communist party members and where they live. The first side says at the top left "No 40, published November 8th 1947 Map Review, The Bureau of Current Affairs." It appears this poster is from the journal, map review. The overall background of this side of the poster is white, with yellow, black and white as the most prominent colours. There is a large photograph of Charles de Guile in black and white, talking to a large crowd. This photo is on the right hand side of the poster and has a orange, red, yellow and purple border. Next to this photo is a bar chart in black and white measuring voting populations, as well as a box of information titled "The choice before France." This details the election, De Guille's anti-communist stance, and whether France will go "left or right." Below this. on the left hand side of the poster there is a yellow diagram of parts of Germany, one with a British Union Jack flag, and the other part having an American flag. Next to this diagram there is an aerial view photograph of Germany - underneath this photo it says "Pre-war view of Krupp's Armament works at Essen." Underneath the map it says "issued by the Bureau of Current affairs, Carnegie House, 111 Piccadilly, w.1. " These is a black box, with white text, titled ""Dismantling Germany" discussing agreements made at the Potsdam conference regarding the dismantling of Germany's industrial plant. Next to this, on the bottom right of the poster there is a table, tracking infant Mortality, Still-births, birth rates, death rates and maternal mortality from 1939-1946 in Britain. Next to this there is a filled outline of a yellow head, with black text inside, titled "births and deaths." This states that maternity and child welfare were extended. The other side of the poster seems like the most relevant for PHM and its display. The other side of the poster is red, white and black. It is titled "WORLD COMMUNISM" in red, black and white writing. There is a map of the status of Communism throughout the world, with countries conveying different memberships, laws, and parties. The entirely red countries are ones where the Communist party is the only party, The map is from 1947, hence the colonial names for countries and disproportionate sizes of colonial, Northern hemisphere countries. An example of the colonial name is the map saying "Gold Coast" instead of Ghana. This side is entirely printed, however next to South Africa, it looks like someone has written in black ink "Negroes." This is blotted, like ink would, whereas all the other text is clearly printed onto the paper, it is also in a different font/style to the other text. We can assume someone added this as a racist comment onto the map. At the bottom of the map there is a key to the map, an explanation, and a table. The key and information is in a red box with black text saying "This map shows, as far as it is known, the status of communism throughout the world. Since the world 'Communism' has many shades of meaning, the following definition has been adopted here' those parties are communist which base themselves on the teachings as Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin.' The map classifies the countries of the world according to the role communism plays in their government." This is followed by a key to explain the map - Grey countries "are where there no communist party and communism is not illegal." Black and white striped countries "in which communism is illegal." Black with thin red striped countries "in which communism is not illegal but subject to open official discrimination." Red and black striped countries "in which communism is legal, but is not participating in the government." Red and white striped countries "countries and areas as in China and Greece in which the Communist party is participating in the government, in varying degrees and kinds of coalition with other parties." Entirely red countries are in which the Communist party is the only party. A black star signifies countries in which the communist party is the largest single group", and the last signifier on the key is a black shape with a red shape inside which signifies the "countries those communist parties recently associated themselves in the setting up of the Cominform in Belgrade." The bottom of the map has a table - this has a black background and black, red and white text. Next to the table it says "this table gives for each country the Communist published figures of Communist Party membership and the number of Communists elected to the second or lower chamber of each parliament." The categories on the table are "country", "membership" and M.P.s or deputies." The publishing information for the poster is on the bottom - "printed by fosh&cross LTD., London." "issued by the Bureau of Current affairs, Carnegie House, 117 Piccadilly, w.1.
