'The concentration camps in the Soviet Union' — French anti-Soviet poster from 1951 allegedly detailing the Soviet gulag system. The hammers and sickles indicate locally-administered camps, while the red dots indicate centrally-controlled camps.
The text at the bottom reads: '"Never that in France" - Vote "Socialist" S.F.I.O.'
("Never that!" was a slogan of anti-communist groups in France at the time.)
("Never that!" was a slogan of anti-communist groups in France at the time.)
The first 'propaganda map' claiming to illustrate the Soviet gulag system appeared shortly after the war, in a 1945 publication authored by the Polish soldiers Sylvester Mora and Pierre Zwierniak. The map was circulated abroad and later reworked, most notably by Isaac Don Levine.
Levine was a Russian-American writer and editor of the anti-communist Plain Talk magazine, in which his new map was first published. The map was subsequently be reproduced in a number of publications, as well as mass printed for use by European anti-communist groups and parties.
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