TERROR – OBRAZ I SŁOWO STALINOWSKA WIELKA CZYSTKA W KRZYWYM ZWIERCIADLE SATYRY „MUCHY” ORAZ „WRÓBLI NA DACHU” (1936–1938)
TERROR – IMAGE AND WORD: THE STALINIST „GREAT PURGE” THROUGH THE DISTORTING LENS OF THE POLISH SATIRICAL MAGAZINES MUCHA AND WRÓBLE NA DACHU (1936–1938)

Summary/Abstract: The article examines how Polish satirical and humorous periodicals of the interwar period responded, through image and text, to the macabre and absurd events of the Great Purge in Soviet Russia. The material selected from Mucha and Wróble na Dachu – magazines influential due to their high circulation, popularity, and readership in the 1920s and 1930s – includes politically charged satirical illustrations and verbal satire conveying clear anti-Soviet and anti-Stalinist sentiments. Satirical drawings and various forms of verbal satire are treated as distinct modes of journalistic expression that vividly capture the atmosphere of the historical moment. The sources reveal the political awareness of both authors and readers and show how satirists sought to interpret Stalinist totalitarianism and to offer succinct yet pointed responses to reports of terror whose apocalyptic scale shocked not only the inhabitants of the “red paradise”.

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