Two days after Hitler's invasion of Russia in 1941, the Union of Artists revived its propaganda efforts by re-launching TASS Windows, published by the state news agency. During World War II, Soviet artists produced over a thousand posters of Russian heroes, Nazi cowards, and scenes of the Red Army advancing under slogans such as "The Time for Vengeance Is Approaching" and "For the Motherland!" During the course of the conflict, posters were created in Moscow by groups of over seventy artists and writers working 24 hours a day. Each image was stencilled and reproduced in up to 1000 copies in three or more colors. The posters, hung in storefront windows across Russia and sent around the world to allied nations, enhanced public morale with their powerful images of soldiers and peasants overcoming opposition.
Nearly 126 TASS windows were collected by the Library of International Relations, which became a part of the Chicago-Kent College of Law Library in 1983. Due to their large size and the cheap wartime paper used to produce them, most are too damaged to display, though several can be seen hanging in the Library. The current collection of photographed posters spans the years 1942-1944.
