Oldal 228 [228]
OCR
226 Liisi Laineste, Margus Laane and that their importance has been exaggerated (Merziger 2007, 2012; Davies 2008). Instead, people’s preferred humour was independent or even deliberately distanced from the political battle and sought to serve the need to forget the difhculties of everyday life. Furthermore, they claim that humour does not function in a straightforward fashion in the first place. The sociologist Peter L. Berger (1997), discussing humour as propaganda and resistance, stated that even if humour can be used as either for a tool to convincing people or as a means of opposition against propaganda, there is also benign humour, which is the most frequent type of all. Christie Davies (2002 and elsewhere) has argued that all humour is basically nonfunctional—i.e. it cannot be used efficiently to achieve serious aims, which is best done through non-humorous means of communication. The Material and its Context The material for this study is taken from sources that can be divided broadly into two, i.e. it comes from the two sides of the front. In the following discussion, we will first describe the comic pictures from the Soviet side, focusing on both their content and general tone. We will then move on to the caricatures printed in Nazi newspapers, and finally to the unpublished caricatures in an attempt to tackle the mystery of their unpublished state. Altogether, the material consists of ca. 95 Nazi and 42 Soviet caricatures from 1942-1944, which includes all the caricatures from the archival funds of the Soviet-minded newspapers Tasuja (‘Avenger’, published between 1942 and 1946) and Punaväelane (Red Army Soldier’, 1942-1947), and wall newspapers from (1) the 354* fire team of the 7" rifle division, (2) the 86" medical-sanitary battalion of the 7" rifle division, as well as (3) the political section of the 7" rifle division. By way of comparison, the material for the second part of the study comes from the Nazi-minded newspaper Postimees (‘Postman’) and Rindeleht (‘Front Newspaper’, issued from May 1943 until September 1944). The political and social context of the sources plays a role in deciphering the data. Most of the caricatures describing the Soviet side originate from the Estonian 7° Rifle which consisted of about 30 000 Estonians originally called for military service in the Red Army on December 18, 1941. This division came under the Red Army and was compiled mainly of Estonians or those speaking Estonian. Most soldiers were recruited from men mobilised in Estonia in 1941, Estonians living in Russia, reservists, rear regiments and soldiers returning from war hospitals, who thus had experience in warfare from their service in the Estonian Army. Due to mistrust of the ideological preparedness of the Estonian soldiers, the division also admitted Russians and other nations, appointing them to higher military positions to report on the Estonians’ anti-Soviet sentiments. This is a telling detail relating to the Estonians’ motivation to participate in “somebody else’s” war (cf. Köresaar 2011: 20). The Nazi-controlled publishing houses in Estonia printed dailies that brought to the local audience verbal, and sometimes also visual, anti-Soviet propaganda.
