The poster also depicts modern double-barrel artillery (a design that increased weight but decreased recoil) and a covered rack of swords and spears. “Buy 5 1/2% bonds – War Bonds for Victory.” The twin-headed eagle was the Russian czar's Imperial standard during WWI, as well as its coat of arms, and still is today.

As Nicholas II was assassinated and his government destroyed during the revolution in 1917, all of the loans issued defaulted and lost all of their value. Rates for the loans were standardized at 5 1/2% return per month. Instead, Nicholas II’s government released pamphlets encouraging people to buy government bonds to fund the war. The largeness of the Russian steamroller ensured that no drafts would be needed to fuel the army, so recruitment posters were never used. Russia in the Great War was in the midst of a messy, massive, change. The czar was being forced to rapidly cede power to elected officials and the Duma the people were in a messy riot, with student sitdowns, vandalism of government property, mass strikes and large protests rampart. Even before World War I had started, reaching back to 1905, Russia had been in turmoil and general strike. War propaganda was prominent in other European countries, but not seen very often in Russia at the time.

It did move faster then the Germans had counted for, true, but it was still weeks behind the other European nations, which were already in the blitz of it. And, typical to form, the large but slow Russian army spent weeks rushing its troops to the war front. Russia had a large army, but it suffered from low morale, lack of equipment, transportation, and training.

During World War I, a critical part of the German Schlieffen Plan was based on the typical slowness of Russian mobilization.

Russo japanese war propaganda