On the eve of WWII, Paris hosted the 1937 Expo, and the USSR and Nazi Germany had their exhibitions placed on front of each other.

The German pavillon was crowned by an eagle holding a swastika, symbolizing the authocratic nature of the regime, while the Soviet one had a man and a woman standing together and holding a hammer and sickle, with both pavillons ultimately appearing to be opposing each other.

Neither of them could have asked for a better vehicle to represent the narratives they were constructing for their own governments.