I have an old poster from the USSR which a friend bought for me when he was visiting many, many years ago.
The subject is a man in a stripped shirt throwing a hand gernade.
Along the bottom it says “3A POANHY”
The “A” in POANHY is slightly different then the one in 3A. I don’t think it’s an “A” but it looks pretty close.
The “N” in POANHY is backwards.
Any idea on what this thing says?
In Latin characters it would(could) be spelled Da rotinu. It means “For the Native Country” or “For the Motherland”
For The Motherland!
Comrade.
çà ðîäèíó
Well,. that makes sense.
Thank you Teeming Millions (or Teeming 2 as it were)
I guess I just found out the limitations that this board supports.
With all due respect to Mirage:
The character that looks like a 3 is pronounced like the letter “Z” and that almost “A” character in the second word is a Cyrillic “D”.
IMHO it would be “Za Rodynu”.
Apache: Would it be pronounced “Za Rodnew”?
Misscommunication and typos on my part. Both Za Rodynu and Za Rodinu should be acceptable.
…I don’t suppose you have a picture of the poster available, Seven? It sounds interesting/ (Aesthetically, of course. 
)
Ranchoth
Just a few nitpicks. Za Rodynu would be an incorrect transliteration, as y is generally used to represent the “soft sign” in Cyrillic, which resembles the number 61. Or the word “PI” if you flipped it upside down. The correct transliteration would be Za Rodinu, and the pronunciation “Za RO-dee-noo”.
The translation is, of course, “For the Motherland” and was one of the more popular slogans (or parts thereof, the complete one being “Za Lenina, za Stalina, za Rodinu”) during the Great Patriotic War (aka WWII on this side of the Atlantic). I’d be interested in knowing whether you have an original or a reprint, as if it were an original it might actually be worth something.
[further nitpick]
Your description sounds like the letter “yeri”, not the “soft sign” (aka “tvordiy znak”). The “soft sign” does look like the left half of the “yeri”, though.
[/further nitpick]
:smack: You’d never be able to tell I actually majored in Russian at Georgetown, would you?
Hy, xopowo.
(Pretty close, although the w shouldn’t be so pointy. I wanted to write “Nu, ladna,” but there’s nothing in teh roman alphabet that looks much like the cyrillic “l” or “d”.)
–Cliffy
Ranchoth: I’ll see if I can get something on-line and show you. I’m taking some pictures for a project so give me a couple of days. I’ll bookmark this thread and bounce it with the url.
Olentzero: It looks pretty old IMO. I framed it several years back so it’s been kept in good condition. I don’t know where my friend got it in the old USSR. Even so, if it is a reprint, it’s now at least 20 years old if not more.
Oh yeah Olentzero… thanks for the pronunciation as well.
Da ne za chto. Vsegda rad pomogat’.
A year and a half of Russian and I remember how to say good, excellent, caviar, and I love you.
Anything else, you’re way over my head.
–Cliffy
Here is a great collection of Soviet-era propaganda posters.
Tebia liubliu, xoroshaia otlichnaia ikra!
Çà Ðîäèíó, çà Ñòàëèíà! Óðÿÿÿÿÿ! 
“Ìû ñìåëî â áîé ïîéäåì
Çà ñóï ñ êàðòîøêîé,
È ïîâàðà óáüåì
Ñòîëîâîé ëîæêîé!”
Âû á åùå ïðî ìàòðåøåê ñ áàëàëàéêàìè âñïîìíèëè.
Seriously though, I doubt the poster is worth anything. You can find tons of these over in Russia. They’ve printed way too much of them.