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Liisi Laineste, Margus Laane
depicted through the inept or otherwise disillusioned eyes of the Other. Figure 87
shows concern—or, seen from the viewer's perspective, happiness—about the dan¬
ger personified by Soviet snipers.
Thirdly, specific vices of the enemy can be stressed in the images. Visually, the
enemy may be shown as ugly, with exaggerated proportions (very small or gigan¬
tic), crooked, deceitful, cannibalistic etc. Although the conventions applying to
how the enemy is drawn may vary between artists, some symbols permeate the
caricatures (for example using animals from coats of arms to stand for the entire
country; see also Tamas, this volume). In addition, it has been argued that some
targets lend a ready set of visual stereotypes for use by cartoonists: a study that
describes German and British mutual depictions in caricatures claims that British
cartoonists often had easy recourse to imagery connected with twentieth century
military conflicts and the experience of National Socialism, and that such imagery
come to the fore particularly during periods of tension between the two countries.
On the other hand, German cartoonists had a much less colourful palette at their
disposal when depicting the British (see Moyle 2004). A typical motif throughout
the period between the world wars and later is that of the bloody claw-like hand of
the enemy. By way of visual opposition, this homicidal hand is sometimes seen as
being stopped by the strong, sane and courageous hand of ‘us’, in this case symbol¬
ising the Soviet Red Army.
One particular motif needs closer examination here in the Estonian context—
the notion of Kulturtrager. This is the figure of the Nazi official who, on the pretext
of carrying culture to Estonia, instead spreads an alien and threatening ‘culture’: the
culture of dread, poverty, punishment etc. In Figure 88, entitled Kultuuritreegerid
(which is a home-spun version of the German word), the Governor General Karl¬
Siegmund Litzmann sits with his local right hand man Hjalmar Mae and sells
‘cultural goods’ like handcuffs, weapons, spades for the labour camps etc. The same
motif is also present in other images: German soldiers ‘carrying culture—leaving
Estonia, taking local goods, etc. with them. Propaganda leaflets printed by the
Soviet side included short comic verses, with probably the most popular one also
published in the press: “Who said that Litzmann doesn’t carry culture? See, he
can carry like a dromedary, just give him something to carry!”'. Side by side with
specific imagery like that of the Kulturtrdger, globally understandable motifs as
described in the previous paragraph are used.
As a side note, it is worth mentioning that the verbal part of the Soviet (wall)
newspapers carried much stronger stereotypes and spread considerably more sub¬
versive propaganda against the enemy (thus also causing more extreme othering)
than pictures. Tasuja from February 17, 1944, reports in article: “Hitler's followers
murder Estonians on a large scale. On February 5", all Estonians were forced to go
to their barracks and were given poisoned coffee. About 2000 Estonians, among
| Rahva Hääl (The Voice of the People’), no 25, September 2, 1943.