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Description: | Obverse design : Tsar Nicholas II, bust, right profile, crowned, high Imperial crown. Behind his caricatured head a knout, handle to left.
Obverse text : "DER.ABGEDANKTE.SELBST HERRSCHER"
Reverse design : throne, Imperial Russian, its back decorated with the Imperial eagle and letter "N", being overturned by a bear. The bear, on all fours facing left, has a broken chain attached to its muzzle and its rear is prodded by the left arm of a soldier wearing a glengarry bonnet who stands to the right holding a flaming torch in his right hand.
Reverse text : "1917" & "15.MARZ"
In this 1917 piece Goetz loudly and unsympathetically commemorates the deposition of Tsar Nicholas II. Military disasters, food shortages, low wages, high prices and the unwillingness of the Russian ruling class to consider meaningful political reform contributed to the outbreak of a series of strikes in Petrograd in early 1917 which eventually developed into a full scale, though unplanned, uprising in March (February in the old calendar). Nicholas II abdicated on 15 March and he and his family were arrested.
The obverse text is translated as 'The discharged despot'. Goetz's reverse design seems to suggest British complicity in the political upheaval, no doubt linked in his mind to the consequences of Russia's role in the armed coalition fighting Germany. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Subjects: | Tsar of Russia satirical Abdication of & 15/3/1917 Nicholas II Russian Home Front & Nicholas II of Russia First World War | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Goetz, Karl | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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