With the growing interest in digital humanities, the methodology of
digital art history is in some respects lagging behind the trend. Given
the prospects of the new digital image analysis, computer vision, and
visualization methods, a number of questions have arisen as to how
exactly the new digital methods can and should be applied to art
history. Furthermore, when trying to apply these digital methods to the
analysis of Russian art, one encounters a whole new set of questions and
challenges. In this chapter, I examine current and potential
applications of digital methods to the analysis of Soviet political
cartoons published in Pravda during
the “Great Patriotic War,” 1941–1945, as well as the study of Russian
art history more generally. I especially examine how the combination of
quantitative and qualitative analyses of political cartoons enables a
deeper understanding that illustrates cultural, historical, and
political developments over time.