ROSTA Windows Although Lenin negotiated peace with Germany in 1917, effectively ending Russia’s involvement in World War I, he could not avoid a civil war, which raged from 1918 until 1921. The Bolsheviks faced opposition from numerous groups that included monarchists, militarists, and foreign nations. Collectively, they were known as the Whites, while the Bolsheviks were the Reds. A brilliant strategist, Leon Trotsky became Commissar of War in the Bolshevik government and created the Red Army from the Red Guards (the Bolshevik workers militias), which eventually won the Russian Civil War. ROSTA (Russian Telegraph Agency) Windows were unique in the patriotic propaganda poster campaign. From 1919 to 1922, ROSTA Windows were issued daily in Moscow and Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) and distributed throughout the country. Reproduced manually using cardboard cutout stencils and linocuts, and finished by hand, they were strategically displayed in the empty shop windows of the war-devastated country. Less time-consuming in production than lithographed posters, this public broadcast medium instantly reacted to the frantic happenings of the day with the speed of a newspaper. Suitable for viewing from a distance, the eye-catching posters used lubok-style sequences to unfold a dramatized plot with rhyming captions. Placed in well-trafficked areas, the window instructed, campaigned, and entertained the public with simple images and catchy slogans.