This article presents a profile of the satirical weekly Szopka (A Puppet Show) published in Warsaw between 1922 and 1925 under the auspices of the National Democracy (ND). Committed to a nationalist ideology, Szopka published cartoons and satirical texts lampooning the alleged enemies of Poland and the Poles. Its favoured technique was to caricature and ridicule its targets, both individuals and institutions. Among them were Józef Piłsudski, his policies and his political associates, the Bolsheviks, the Germans and the Jews. To propagate their nationalist worldview the editors made use of a broad range of persuasion techniques.
This article examines the representations of Marshal Józef Piłsudski, his collaborators and political allies in two satirical magazines published in Wielkopolska in the interwar period. While the liberal Pręgierz Poznański [The Poznań Pillory] (1928–1929) took a moderately critical view of Piłsudski, the nationalist Pokrzywy [Nettles], which appeared in the 1930s nineteen thirties, brimmed with vitriol against the whole Piłsudski establishment (collectively dubbed 'The Sanation').