Kukryniksy is a creative team of Soviet graphic artists and painters, which included full members of the USSR Academy of Arts (1947), People's Artists of the USSR (1958), Heroes of Socialist Labor Mikhail Kupriyanov (1903—1991), Porfiry Krylov (1902-1990) and Nikolai Sokolov (1903—2000).
Mikhail Kupriyanov Porfiry Krylov Nikolai Sokolov
The pseudonym "Kukryniksy" is made up of the first syllables of surnames Ku priyanov and Kry fishing, as well as the first three letters of the name and the first letter of the surname Nick olaya With around.
Three artists worked by the method of collective creativity (each also worked individually - on portraits and landscapes). They are best known for their numerous skillfully executed caricatures and cartoons, as well as book illustrations created in a characteristic caricature style.
The joint work of the Kukryniksy began in their student years at the Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops. Artists came to Moscow VKHUTEMAS from all over Soviet Union. Kupriyanov from Kazan, Krylov from Tula, Sokolov from Rybinsk. In 1922, Kupriyanov and Krylov met and began working together in the VKHUTEMAS wall newspaper as Kukry and Krykup. At this time, Sokolov, while still living in Rybinsk, signed Nix on his drawings. In 1924, he joined Kupriyanov and Krylov, and the three of them worked in the wall newspaper as the Kukryniksy.
The group was looking for a new unified style that used the skill of each of the authors. The heroes of literary works were the first to fall under the pen of cartoonists. Later, when the Kukryniksy became permanent contributors to the Pravda newspaper and the Krokodil magazine, they took up predominantly political caricature.
The milestone works for the Kukryniksy were grotesque topical cartoons on themes of domestic and international life (series "Transport", 1933-1934, "Arsonists", 1953-1957), propaganda, including anti-fascist, posters ("We will ruthlessly defeat and destroy the enemy! ”, 1941), illustrations for the works of Nikolai Gogol, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin (1939), Anton Chekhov (1940-1946), Maxim Gorky (“The Life of Klim Samgin”, “Foma Gordeev”, “Mother”, 1933, 1948-1949 ), Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov ("The Golden Calf"), Miguel Cervantes ("Don Quixote").
A significant moment in the work was the military poster "We will mercilessly defeat and destroy the enemy!". He appeared on the June streets of Moscow as one of the first - immediately after the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR. The Kukryniksy went through the whole war: their leaflets accompanied the Soviet soldiers all the way to Berlin. In addition, the cycle of posters "Windows of TASS" was very popular.
Kukryniksy at the front, 1942
They became the classics of Soviet political caricature, which they understood as a weapon in the fight against a political enemy, and did not at all recognize other trends in art and caricature, which manifested themselves fully in the first place in the new format of the Literary Gazette (the department of humor "12 Chairs Club" ). Their political cartoons, often published in the Pravda newspaper, belong to the best examples of this genre (“Ticks to Ticks”, “I Lost a Ring ...”, “Under the Eagle Backfired, Responded in Rome”, “Wall Haircut”, “Lion’s share”, a series of drawings “warmongers”, etc.). The team owns numerous political posters (“Transformation of the Fritz”, “Peoples warn”, etc.). The Kukryniksy are also known as painters and masters of easel drawing. They are the authors of the paintings "Morning", "Tanya", "The Flight of the Germans from Novgorod", "The End" (1947-1948), "The Old Masters" (1936-1937). They made pastel drawings - “I. V. Stalin and V. M. Molotov”, “I. V. Stalin in Kureika”, “Barricades on Presnya in 1905”, “Chkalov on Udd Island”, etc.
ABOUT THE CREATIVITY OF THE ARTISTS OF KUKRYNIKS
The famous Soviet poet Alexander Zharov recalls that in 1925, when he was the editor of a youth magazine, three art students somehow came into his office and offered their services. "What can you draw?" Zharov asked. Then the young people immediately set to work and, in the process of transferring the drawing to one another, quickly sketched several well-aimed cartoons on the writers who were present, which aroused general admiration. Since then, sharp and expressive drawings by young authors, signed with the compound name Kukryniksy, began to appear regularly in the magazine.
It was at the dawn of the joint creative activity of talented Soviet artists Mikhail Vasilyevich Kupriyanov, Porfiry Nikitich Krylov and Nikolai Aleksandrovich Sokolov.
The creativity of the Kukryniksy is striking in its diversity. Thoughtful artists work with inspiration and perseverance on large paintings, caricatures, posters, book illustrations, and even on sculptural portraits, achieving high results in each art form. The extraordinary topicality of the subject matter, the ideological orientation and intelligibility of the content, the originality and conciseness of the artistic language - these advantages of the Kukryniksy's works, clearly visible to everyone, make them understandable to the widest circle of Soviet viewers and readers.
CARICATURES OF ARTISTS KUKRYNIKS
Being gifted painters, the Kukryniksy are, first of all and most of all, the most prominent mastersSoviet political graphics, artistic satire. It is difficult to name at least one significant event in international life from the 1930s to the present day, which would not evoke a corresponding response in their work.
At one time, the cartoons of the Kukryniksy mercilessly exposed the conspiracy of the imperialist powers against Republican Spain, the preparations for the Second World War (“The Scheme of Strict Control of the Spanish Borders”, “Continuation of the Last War” and others). In these, as in all other works, the artists act as spokesmen for the views and interests of our people, who tirelessly fight for peace throughout the world.
Kukryniksy perform with no less success in the region household satire. Their blows are directed against everything obsolete, inert and ugly, which hinders the movement of the Soviet people towards a beautiful future. From the extensive cycle of works by the Kukryniksy on everyday topics, one should highlight the series “Transport”, the drawings “Desperate Weekend”, “Memorandum”, “Toadstools” (about young people servile to foreigners).
The caricatures of the Kukryniksy are so peculiar in form that the viewer immediately recognizes their authors, without even looking at the signature. Inexhaustible in artistic invention and ingenuity, the Kukryniksy are able to recreate in front of us the appearance of this or that political degenerate (Stolypin, Kerensky, Wrangel) with a few bold and precise lines, to show the typical in the images of a bureaucrat, a fraudster, a grabber. The sharpness of Kukryniks graphics is a prime example of great importance collectivity in creativity: each of the artists offers his own solution to the topic, in the process of discussion, all the best are selected from them, and then all the efforts of the team are directed to working out the final version.
WWII POSTERS IN THE CREATIVITY OF KUKRYNIKSOV
Still fresh in our memory are the numerous posters in the TASS Windows created by the Kukryniksy during the harsh years of the struggle against the fascist invaders: “We will ruthlessly crush and destroy the enemy!” harvest - a formidable blow to the enemy "and others. Responding to the most urgent tasks of the time, extremely expressive, they were a powerful ideological weapon, giving even more strength to Soviet soldiers at the front and the working population in the rear.
On the pages of Pravda, Krokodil, and other Soviet publications, sharp cartoons of the Kukryniksy invariably appeared, pillorying Cold War troubadours and their accomplices. In 1958-1959, the cartoons "The Berlin Question", "The Militant Parrot" and others were published. In No. 2 of "Crocodile" for 1960, dedicated to the memory of A.P. Chekhov, the witty cartoon "Intruder on an international scale" is remembered: the West German Chancellor Adenauer carefully unscrews the nuts from the rails, at which there is a sign "To peaceful coexistence".
PAINTINGS BY ARTISTS KUKRYNIKS
Veliky Novgorod in January 1944. Against the background of a gloomy sky, the majestic bulk of St. Sophia Cathedral rises. Fragments of the barbarically destroyed monument "Millennium of Russia" stick out from under the snow. Around the buildings, Hitlerite warriors fussily rush about with torches. Forced under the mighty blows of the Soviet Army shamefully flee from ancient city, they are in impotent rage trying to destroy the priceless treasures of Russian culture.
Such is the content of the widely known paintings by Kukryniksy The Flight of the Fascists from Novgorod. Despite the dramatic tension of the moment, well conveyed by the contrasts of dark and light spots, the picture is imbued with an optimistic mood. The artists were able to show in it the utter doom of the degenerates who intended to enslave our socialist Motherland.
Other pictorial works of the Kukryniksy, dedicated to the events of the Great Patriotic War, are also imbued with a patriotic feeling - “Tanya”, “Pravda”, “The End”.
"Tanya"
"End"
In the last picture, in images of great artistic power, the inglorious death of Hitlerism is shown, in the defeat of which the Soviet Union played a decisive role.
Illustrating the works of Gogol, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Chekhov and Gorky, the artists strive to reveal to the reader the humanistic orientation of great Russian literature as fully as possible. The most successful in this regard are the Kukryniksy drawings for Gogol's "Overcoat", Chekhov's stories "Tosca" and "I want to sleep."
"Yearning"
"Overcoat"
Fable "Fox and Beaver"
"Tsar Nicholas examines a flea"
It should be noted that each of the Kukryniksy had a bright creative personality and worked a lot independently. So, M. Kupriyanov was especially fascinated by the landscapes of the Moscow region and the Volga, P. Krylov made many portraits and perfectly conveyed the picturesque originality of Paris, Rome and Venice, and N. Sokolov lovingly depicted the life of his native Moscow and the touching beauty of Russian nature. Continuously enriching their knowledge and experience, the artists united them in one or another general idea, stubbornly achieving in each new work an ever greater completeness of the plot and its artistic embodiment.
By the time of the Great Patriotic War, the art of the Kukryniksy satirists had reached full, deep maturity. A creative methodology was finally formed, a very wide range of artistic techniques was defined, and visual technique was honed to a brilliance. And most importantly, the enemy was targeted, studied and understood. It was understood by artists not only concretely politically, but also morally, aesthetically (no matter how strange such words sound in this context). From the tower of socialist humanism, the Kukryniksy vigilantly saw and recognized not only the social essence of fascist concepts, but also all their relationships with the life of the era as a whole and each of its contemporaries separately. Before the eyes of the masters were not abstract theses, but living destinies. And this is the theme of full-blooded art. Exposing inhumanity as the reverse side and internal impulse of any theories and actions of fascism, the Kukryniksy were inspired by a figurative idea full of noble ethical meaning and high content. This is the fundamental principle of their creative and civil feat during the struggle against the fascist invasion.
His first work of the era of 1941-1945 - the poster "We will mercilessly defeat and destroy the enemy!" - Kukryniksy completed on the very first day, "more precisely, on the very first evening of the war - June 22, 1941. On June 24, the poster became an integral part of the instantly changed, severely tense appearance of Moscow, and then of other" our cities. It entered the life of Soviet people like summons and blacked-out windows. In it, with the lapidary clarity of a brief formula, the whole situation of the great struggle that had begun was minted: Hitler throwing off his mask against the Red Army, against freedom; the cannibal against the man. Roughly, to the point of sharpness straightforward? Yes! And some other posters of the Kukryniksy, made during the war years are the same. They could not be otherwise. This is not a spectacle for a slowly thoughtful museum contemplation. It was necessary to create images that could break through the storm of rumbling events and unrest of wartime, capture everyone’s imagination with their anger and passion, tell about the main, decisive features of what is happening in the language of simple, distinctly clear truths.
The Kukryniksy did it. Their art, as never before, has acquired a national character. And it did business in general. It fought. Artists resorted to different genres, as to different kinds of weapons. They hit the enemy with long-range volleys of posters, fired at the hordes of invaders with mines and torpedoes of their caricatures, and threw satirical leaflets into their rear.
The wartime situation required the utmost efficiency of work. For many drawings for newspapers and magazines, for "Windows TASS", the artists had a few hours. There was no question of complex, long searches for an image, options, alterations. If another thing turned out schematically, without a "zest" - it was unthinkable to postpone it, hide it in the archive. The new works of the Kukryniksy in the most literal sense of the word were torn from their hands. And it would be snobbish hypocrisy to condemn artists for the fact that in the huge mass of their works of the war era there is a certain number of “passing”, unsuccessful ones. Moreover, such works served their own, albeit short-lived, but necessary and noble service. But judging by the best works of the period, the Kukryniksy not only generally preserved high level in their work, but also gave it a new strength and sharpness of artistic impact. Generated by lofty pathos, the fierce inspiration of the struggle, the energy of complete self-giving, the internal mobilization of artists, gave their art a living juice to drink, gave it a new impetus for development. The satirical fantasy, the metaphorical structure of the image, so characteristic of artists in their caricatures of the war years, are embodied with a special capacity and lapidarity of allegorical generalization.
For example, in The Transformation of the Fritz (1943), the ranks of German soldiers, guided by Hitler's pointing finger, are "transformed" first into walking fascist signs, and then into rows of birch crosses on snow-covered Russian fields. The metaphorical action of the caricature with the clarity of an aphorism captures the entire history of the Nazi invasion - from its origins to the finale, which the artists foresaw with complete conviction.
In a similar order, metaphor in many other works - easily visible, clear and catchy in its rapid figurative dynamics - interprets significant events of time in its own way, sums them up, reveals the most important and essential. Hitler tried to encircle his tank divisions with spider paws, to take Moscow in pincers, but ran into the stranglehold of other pincers - a retaliatory strike by the Soviet Army ("Ticks to Ticks", 1941). The same strong, working pincers (the analogy, of course, is not accidental), bending into the number "3", squeeze the Fuhrer's throat with their ends ("Three Years of War", 1944). An empty-headed fanatic in Berlin already “does not boil the pot” - and here is the result of his brainless strategy - the “Russian boiler near Minsk”, into which the butt of a Soviet soldier crushes heaps of Germans (“Two boilers”, 1944).
The traitor Laval is tied with a fascist rope to the chair of the Prime Minister of the puppet government of Vichy, but you cannot sit comfortably on this dilapidated “Rococo” furniture: the blade of the “Fighting France” bayonet pierced through the seat, and the dwarf Laval balances on his hands in despair (“Do not sit down, don't get down...", 1943). This is a whole chapter in the history of the war years, embodied with unthinkable eccentricity, but absolutely true and accurate in essence assessment of the very real state of affairs.
In general, the obvious majority of the satirical allegory created by the Kukryniksy during the war years has a deep and multifaceted expressiveness. They, these allegories, are based on specific situations that the artists have recast and twisted in their works with amazing ingenuity and brilliance of wit. The notorious gospel of fascism - "Mein Kampf" - is transformed by artists into a cash cow with Hitler's muzzle, which Hitler himself milks - after all, the Fuhrer's income from this book was fabulous ("Cash Cow", 1942). Fascist leaders were squeezing the last juices out of their European satellites - and in a 1942 cartoon, Hitler and Mussolini are shown twisting Laval like dirty laundry, while other quislings are already hanging on a rope, like pitiful, spent rags. The Nazis shamelessly inflated the myth about the power of the “Atlantic wall” they created on the northern coast of France - and the Kukryniksy show what this “inflated value” is: a long row of some kind of patched cannon-shaped crackers, which, like football cameras, are inflated by the Goebbels monkey (“Total swindle” , 1943). The content of all these and many similar satirical fantasies is easily deciphered, but they are full of significant historical meaning;
I deliberately lined up the descriptions of several randomly taken cartoons of the Kukryniksy. This not only allows you to get an idea of the range of subjects chosen by the artists. Sometimes the descriptions can serve purely art history purposes. Here they are somewhat paradoxical: the author sought to prove that it is impossible to create an exact verbal parallel to the works of artists: the satirical works of the Kukryniksy constitute an exclusive belonging to the visual range of impressions, the elements of visual images. It may be objected to me that the visual arts, just like music and architecture, have always had their own special and unique artistic speech, for which it is unthinkable to find an exhaustively accurate verbal equivalent. I do not argue, but this well-known truth almost does not apply to modern caricature. A huge part of it is much closer to literature than to fine arts. True, letters and words are replaced in thousands of newspaper and magazine caricatures of the 20th century by dashed hieroglyphs, but by themselves they still do not create either visual images or fine art. These caricatures are reminiscent of ancient pictography - pictorial writing, the depiction of events and actions with the help of conventional signs. The whole essence of these "pictographic" caricatures is in such and such situations, such and such actions, and even more often, the replicas of the characters. Not only the visual image, but even the technical quality of the drawing practically does not matter here. This kind of caricatures are invented and perceived according to the laws of literature; dashed hieroglyphs serve in this case as a kind of printed characters.
Such caricatures can not only be recounted, but without any loss, fully replaced with words. I do not intend to use qualitative criteria, to talk about how good or bad the genre of "pictographic" caricature is - it exists and is a special phenomenon that needs to be understood in detail and thoroughly. But as for the Kukryniksy, their work belongs wholly and undividedly to the fine arts, an age-old tradition of satirical graphics based on the techniques of purely visual characteristics, similes, and metaphors. During the war years, not only the pictorial skill of artists, but also their very visual-figurative thinking reached a deep maturity and virtuoso artistry. The free play of satirical fantasy, the lightness and elastic force of its flight, the ability for instant and every time original figurative improvisation on a topic that has arisen even now - all this has become the everyday atmosphere of the artists' work. In the years 1941-1945 they created hundreds of cartoons, and any of them - even a tiny intro for a leaflet, even a picture of a sticker on a food concentrate wrapper - contains its own satirical image. Kukryniksy simply cannot do otherwise: pictorial metaphor is the native speech of their caricatures. By the way, the organic nature of this speech is one of the obvious proofs of the full-blooded vitality of the classical traditions in the field of satire, the ability of these traditions to give new shoots, to enter into a lively connection with our modernity.
But back to the content of the Kukryniksy military cartoons. Was there not some relief in them, did they not show a strong and merciless enemy as just pitiful and absurdly ludicrous?
This question cannot be answered in one word. Despite the outward simplicity and general intelligibility of Kukryniks' caricatures, they contain several figurative layers. Of course, the fascists are ridiculed in them. The artists sought to ensure that the first emotional reaction that their drawings and posters are capable of evoking was the laughter of Soviet viewers at the Nazis, even in the most difficult periods of the war for us (I would say, especially in such periods). For this laughter gave strength in a deadly battle, turned the myth of the invincibility of the fascist hordes into an empty legend, inspired contempt for the enemy, and a ridiculous and despised enemy is not terrible.
But it is worth considering the nature and basis of this laughter. It is not simply caused by fictional comic situations, not by the deliberate stupidity of the Nazis, their appearance and actions. This is the laughter of historical justice over dirty wrong, laughter from the standpoint of moral and social superiority. When Hitler and his associates are depicted as brainless, empty-headed, then it’s not the same thing that the artists want to convince the audience of the clinical psychopathy of the leaders of fascism, that these “figures” are formal idiots who, by chance, found themselves at the helm of power. This is far as simple, but then the true atmosphere of the great struggle would be subjected to an unacceptable distortion: a tragedy took place on the fields of the Patriotic War, not an operetta.
There is no such distortion in the works of the Kukryniksy. Hitler, Goering, Goebbels, Mussolini and others act in their satire not so much as specific individuals, but as personified images of fascism as a whole. Mr. Adolf Hitler may have been naturally smart or stupid, talented or mediocre, but the Nazi dogma that propelled him into the political arena was historically doomed, hostile to reason and the prospects for the development of human civilization. Mr. Joseph Goebbels could have remarkable eloquence, but everything he said was a dirty lie and vile demagogy aimed at justifying the most cruel crimes and disgusting injustice - this was determined not only by his personal qualities, but above all by the nature of the cause to which he devotedly served. In the same way, Goering, Himmler, Ribbentrop, Rosenberg, Frank, Hess, Bormann, Kaltenbrunner and other large and small demons of Nazism could have certain shades of individual qualities, but they were all bloody monsters, cannibals, just because they became active practitioners fascism: only such types he needed. He selected someone as an already established villain, someone gradually turned into a voluntary executioner - the shades are insignificant, the result is important. In the dark fascist kingdom, the logic of the formation of individual characters, the logic of individual destinies was determined by the general logic of fascism, its social content and historical function. All this Kukryniksy perfectly felt and understood. "Hitlers of all stripes" appear in their caricatures as typical representatives of fascism in general. Artists sarcastically ridicule and stigmatize not the pathology of individuals, but the perverted, hostile to humanity nature of the Nazi abomination.
It is precisely with the fact that fascism so vilely and vilely distorts the human in a person, monstrously deforms the human soul and human actions, that such a frequent appearance of the motifs of “animal likeness” in the anti-fascist caricatures of the Kukryniksy is naturally connected. It has already been said that these motifs were found in the pre-war works of artists on similar topics. Now the "brutal beginning" is being developed by masters with special sharpness and strength.
The resemblance to the fable transfer of concepts here is purely external and secondary. After all, the artists had no need for Aesopian language. The inner spring of the "brutal" images in the cartoons of the Kukryniksy is completely different. Atrocity is the soul of fascism; the power of base instincts lies at the basis of all the motives and actions of its agents. Therefore, everything animal in their depiction is quite portrait, and everything human is implausible, fake, looks like a mask. This paradox - terrible, but absolutely real - lies in the very essence of "nature", which was used in their works by the authors of anti-fascist cartoons.
The Kukryniksy play on this disgusting paradox not only as material for artistic metaphors and hyperbole, but also as a “formula of accusation,” to use the language of jurisprudence. They throw into the bestial muzzle of fascism the prosecutor's charge of their satire, "drenched in bitterness and anger." They accuse fascism of inhumanity. They accuse visual images of cartoons are perceived as material evidence of the most vile crimes. The fantastic eccentricity of the drawings, which are absolutely far from "external verisimilitude", not only does not interfere with their vitality, but, on the contrary, is here its surest guarantee. Is there any resemblance between the appearance of the patient and the virus that caused the illness? And the Kukryniksy show precisely the virus of the fascist epidemic, revealing its hidden, hidden essence.
The animals in the cartoons of the Kukryniksy are of a special kind. You will not find them in any zoos. They have nothing to do with the animalistic genre. This is not surprising: after all, even the most arrogant jackal, the most poisonous snake, the most vicious shark is much nobler and more attractive than a fascist. They, jackals and snakes, in fact, have nothing to blame - they live according to the laws that nature itself prescribed for them. And fascism is a vile perversion of human nature, a desecration of it. He is the culprit of a disgusting metamorphosis: people, while maintaining a human appearance, behave like predators and reptiles. These are monstrous centaurs, equally dissimilar to both normal "homo sapiens" and ordinary animals. By the way, it is precisely this collision that the artists very accurately embodied in one of the TASS Windows (Krylov's Monkey about Goebbels, 1934); a pitiful, dejected monkey looks at the portrait with frightened amazement. The last times have become, perhaps, even more severe and harsher in their sharp and angry sarcasm, they do not entertain, they do not amuse at leisure. They call for a struggle, for a high exertion of forces in the name of protecting the ideals of goodness and justice. Assessing specific political situations from the standpoint of socialist ideology, the Kukryniksy give their work a universal character, reflect on the fate of the entire human civilization, and fight for its bright future. Artists fall upon the enemies of peace and freedom with all the striking force of their mature, unquenchable talent. They could, turning to the former to the newly-minted "Hitlers of all stripes", whip them with the scourge of angry and contemptuous Pushkin's lines: "I will torment all your bastards with the execution of shame." This furious tirade would have sounded like the motto of all their work in satire, like an oath that they kept, to which they are sacredly faithful to this day.
1969
Alexander KAMENSKY
From the album "KuKryNixy POLITICAL SATIRE 1929-1946", "Soviet Artist", 1973
Soviet poster of the Great Patriotic War
If we use the conditional division of the fronts of the Great Patriotic War into the first and second, adopted in the USSR, where the first were all defensive and offensive operations Red Army, and the second - the actions of the allies, then the third, in this case, was the information front. During the war years, the Soviet propaganda machine produced a whole series of famous brands that became the same symbols of Victory as the famous “thirty-fours” or “Katyushas”, not inferior to them in efficiency and in the degree of impact on fellow citizens and enemies.
Motherland is calling
From the very first days of the war, the Soviet political poster, which at that time was one of the main means of visual propaganda and agitation, experienced a real rebirth. The symbolic, deliberately simplified images, born back in the famous "Windows of GROWTH", were replaced by extremely emotional works proclaiming the inevitable crushing of the aggressor.The largest centers for the mass publication of posters in 1941-1945 were the Moscow and Leningrad branches of the state publishing house "Art", "Combat Pencil", the studio named after M.B. Grekov, publishing houses in the republics Central Asia and Transcaucasia, cities of Siberia and Far East, visiting editorial offices of central newspapers and teams of artists created at creative unions, art institutes, special departments of the political agencies of the Red Army and the Navy.
Poster Kukryniksy "We will mercilessly defeat and destroy the enemy!"
By the evening of June 22, 1941, the Kukryniksy trio (Kupriyanov, Krylov, Sokolov) created a sketch of the poster “We will mercilessly defeat and destroy the enemy!”, Which has become a classic of its genre. It is noteworthy that in the original version, the bayonet of the Red Army pierced not the head, but Hitler's hand, so the poster looked more like a warning. However, after it was submitted to Stalin for approval - and the leader looked through almost all the propaganda materials - on June 24 the poster appeared on the streets of Moscow in the "correct" form. Posters, cartoons in newspapers, "Windows TASS", book illustrations, leaflets for German soldiers, even packages for food concentrates sent to the front - were used by the Kukryniks to proclaim the slogan that did not require confirmation - the enemy would be defeated.
Poster by Irakli Toidze "The Motherland Calls"
At the end of June 1941, perhaps the main graphic work of the Great Patriotic War, which later became part of all history textbooks, was released - Irakli Toidze's poster “The Motherland Calls”. By the artist's own admission, the idea of creating a collective image of a mother calling for help from her sons came to his mind quite by accident. Hearing the first message from the Soviet Information Bureau about the attack of fascist Germany on the USSR, Toidze's wife ran into his studio shouting "War!" Struck by the expression on her face, the artist ordered his wife to freeze and immediately began to sketch the future masterpiece. In the future, the very concept of "Motherland" became almost the cornerstone of all Soviet propaganda, embodied in countless imitations and migrated to related areas of fine art, including monumental art.
In general, the theme of revenge on the invaders becomes the leading one in the work of poster artists at the first stage of the war. But at the same time, posters were published in mass editions dedicated to the army and the rear, the ideological and practical role of the country's leadership and, first of all, of course, Stalin.
Poster by Nina Vatolina "Don't talk"
The history of the creation of the famous "rear" poster, which in our time has experienced a rebirth in the offices of various commercial structures, is simple and touching in a family way. We are talking about the poster "Don't talk" by the artist Nina Vatolina. In June 1941, the editor of Izogiz, Elena Povolotskaya, offered Vatolina a job - to graphically draw Marshak's famous lines: “Be on the lookout! On days like these, the walls eavesdrop. Not far from chatter and gossip to treason, ”and after a couple of days the required image was found.
The model for this work was the neighbor Vatolina, with whom the artist often stood in the same line at the bakery. So the stern face of an unknown woman became for many years one of the main symbols of the fortress country, permanently located in the ring of fronts.
In general, the poster art of the times of the Great Patriotic War, for all its expressiveness, did not shine with a variety of ideas. The fascist invaders were mostly depicted in caricature, often in the form of all sorts of crawling reptiles, crouching under the tracks of mighty Soviet tanks or choking in the grip of bearded partisans. Some of the poster slogans of 60 years ago, for example, “Fascism is the main enemy of women”, “Grandfather is one, but he has millions of grandchildren in his country” or “Scythes, pitchforks, rakes - in action, the fascist bastard will not leave!” - are now perceived with a certain amount of irony. However, for all the controversy of their content, military publications published in millions of copies campaign posters radiate an almost physically perceptible force. Not so much the power of power, ready to sacrifice millions of its fellow citizens for the sake of maintaining power itself, but the confidence of the people themselves in the inevitability of defeating the enemy.
Even a person who is completely unfamiliar with the heroism and mythology of the Great Patriotic War, this textbook phrase, uttered by "the same" voice, cannot leave indifferent. For anyone who grew up with the feeling that "my address is not a house or a street," such messages cause an almost irresistible urge to get goosebumps and stretch to attention. “All the radio stations of the Soviet Union are working,” and you are already running with bated breath to the radio. "Moscow is speaking" - and you literally feel how the wires from Vladivostok to Brest vibrate.
Yuri Levitan
And it all started almost like in a tabloid novel. A 17-year-old boy from Vladimir came to conquer the capital's cinematic Olympus, with the firm intention of becoming no less famous artist than Kachalov. However, the members of the selection committee of the Moscow Institute were only amused by his ok speech. Quite by accident, the young Vladimirian caught the eye of an advertisement for a group of radio announcers, and he decided to try his luck again. In the next selection committee, he was auditioned ... Vasily Kachalov.
This time, the applicant's extreme provincialism, his frayed trousers and terrifying accent went unnoticed: the examiners were mesmerized by the applicant's voice and clear diction. So Yuri Levitan was enrolled in the group of trainees of the Radio Committee. But even taking into account all the natural data and talents of Levitan, his fate could have been completely different if not for Stalin, who heard one night how an unknown announcer was reading the editorial of Pravda on the air. The leader immediately telephoned the Radio Committee and said that the text of his report tomorrow at the opening 17th Party Congress should be read by "this voice." Within a few hours, Levitan, white as chalk, opened under the benevolent gaze of several strong employees of a well-known organization an envelope with revelations sacred to every Soviet person.
As for the Information Bureau itself, it was created on the second day of the war. It was headed by the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee Alexander Shcherbakov. The bureau included the head of TASS Khavinson, the head of the All-Union Radio Committee Polikarpov and a group of workers from the propaganda department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. The leading role was assigned to the telegraph agency, since it had information about what was happening not only at the fronts and in the rear, but also throughout the world. Newspapers and the Radio Committee received reports from TASS.
Muscovites on Nikolskaya listening to the announcement on the radio about the beginning of the war
In June 41, it was Levitan who read the message about the beginning of the war, for all four years it was his voice that gathered crowds of people at the loudspeakers, and in May 45 it was he who uttered the long-awaited phrase “ unconditional surrender". Hitler, who himself had an undoubted oratorical talent, considered him the number one enemy of the Reich. 250 thousand marks were promised for Levitan's head, and a special SS subversive group was preparing to be sent to Moscow in order to eliminate the announcer. The leadership of the USSR took this possibility more than seriously, so the “main voice of the country” was guarded day and night by NKVD agents with orders to use weapons at the slightest danger.
Oblivion and a ban on broadcasting will come later, after the war. The Kremlin could not allow the announcer, who informed the country about the most important events of the Great Patriotic War, to read reports from the fields of the motherland. But all this will come later. And from 1941 to 1945, Levitan meant almost more to the country than the leader of all times and peoples. It was the voice of victory.
Victory will be ours
A completely independent and self-sufficient component of Soviet propaganda is the famous speech of the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov, which was broadcast by all radio stations of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. It was Molotov who, almost eight hours after the attack, announced the start of the war. Yes, this speech did not say a word about the catastrophe on the fronts and the unthinkably rapid advance of the Germans into the interior of the country, yes, it did not say a word about the panic that seized the Kremlin in the first hours of the war, and did not explain the reasons for the impotence of the army, which was previously preparing crush the enemy in his territory.But there was the last phrase, which was then repeated by everyone like a spell: “Our cause is just. The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours". Nothing more concise and expressive from the black loudspeakers over the next four years sounded. It was a statement that did not require interpretation. Victory will be ours!
Speech on the radio by the Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars USSR and People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Comrade V. M. Molotov on June 22, 1941.
Citizens and citizens of the Soviet Union! The Soviet government and its head, Comrade Stalin, have instructed me to make the following statement. Today, at 4 o'clock in the morning, without presenting any claims against the Soviet Union, without declaring war, German troops attacked our country, attacked our borders in many places and bombed our cities - Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Sevastopol, Kaunas from their aircraft. and some others, more than two hundred people were killed and wounded. Enemy aircraft raids and artillery shelling were also carried out from the Romanian and Finnish territories.
This unheard-of attack on our country is treachery unparalleled in the history of civilized peoples... The entire responsibility for this predatory attack on the Soviet Union falls entirely on the German fascist rulers.
Already after the attack, the German ambassador in Moscow, Schulenburg, at 5:30 in the morning made a statement to me, as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, on behalf of his government that the German government had decided to go to war against the USSR. In response to this, on behalf of the Soviet government, I stated that until the last minute the German government did not make any claims against the Soviet government, that Germany attacked the USSR, despite the peace-loving position of the Soviet Union, and that thereby fascist Germany was the attacking side. Now that the attack on the Soviet Union has already taken place, the Soviet government has given our troops an order to repulse the piratical attack and drive the German troops out of our homeland.
The Government of the Soviet Union expresses its unshakable confidence that our valiant army and navy and the brave falcons of the Soviet aviation will honorably fulfill their duty to their homeland, to the Soviet people and deal a crushing blow to the aggressor. All our people must now be united and united as never before. Each of us must demand from ourselves and from others discipline, organization, selflessness, worthy of a true Soviet patriot, in order to provide for all the needs of the Red Army, fleet and aviation, in order to ensure victory over the enemy.
The government calls on you, citizens and women of the Soviet Union, to rally your ranks even more closely around our Soviet Bolshevik Party, around our Soviet government, around our great leader Comrade Stalin.
Our cause is right. The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours.
Kukryniksy - the name is nothing more than a pseudonym or abbreviation, according to the first syllables of three graphic artists of the USSR. They were: Kupriyanov Mikhail Vasilyevich, Krylov Porfiry Nikitich and Sokolov Nikolai Aleksandrovich. All of them were popular artists of the USSR and members of the Academy of Arts of the USSR.
Kukryniksy were satirical artists. Thanks to their accurately noticed subjects, they became world famous and received a special place in Soviet art. Initially, this creative union created caricatures on various topics from literature (12 chairs, the Golden Calf, the Golovlevs, the Life of Klim Samgin, etc.). Maxim Gorky, when meeting with them, advised to take ideas for creativity more widely - not only within the life of literary Russia, but also political topics, including those outside the country. Since 1925, they began to act as cartoonists in the newspapers: Pravda and Krokodil. Here they developed their own special style. They celebrated various topical topics with their work, sometimes with caustic overtones and even humiliating the heroes of their cartoons, often there are political themes, posters with denunciations (The flight of the Nazis from Novgorod, the End, the Accusation, etc.) and their response to world events to which the Soviet Union gave extremely negative rating.
They also played a significant role in, which played the role of patriotic education of the Russian people. For the so-called TASS Windows, Kukryniksy were awarded the USSR State Prize and the Lenin Prize.
Near East. Here again both oil and blood flow.
Monopoly. They will go to the bottom, hugging each other, instantly without a lifeline.
NATO. The NATO network is bondage: you can instantly “go bald” in it.
Slyly philosophizing about the world, he set off "at all four" and does not play out of tune in this scale - with his feet.
NATO. These clever figures have a big flaw, alas! There are all warhead systems, but there is no conventional head.
Vietnam. While he did not know the lesson himself, he wanted to teach Vietnam a lesson, but ... snarling along the road, he barely takes his legs with him.
Hegemonism, Anti-Sovietism, Provocations. There are many chances for this barrel to smash the juggler to pieces.
Soviet threat. The card is shield-covered, but it will be beaten all the same.
Kukryniksy (a pseudonym after the first syllables of surnames), a creative team of Soviet graphic artists and painters: Kupriyanov Mikhail Vasilyevich (b. 8 (21) .10.1903, Tetyushi, now the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic), Krylov Porfiry Nikitich (b. 9 (22) . Shchelkunovo, now in the Tula region), Sokolov Nikolai Alexandrovich (b. 8 (21) 7.1903, Moscow). Studied at the Moscow Vkhutemas-Vkhutein (between 1921 and 1929). Active members of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1947), People's Artists of the USSR (1958).
In the first weeks of the war against the Soviet Union, it seemed to the Nazi leaders, fascinated by the successes on the Eastern Front, that the victory in the campaign that had just begun was in fact already won.
The caricature was accompanied by verses by S. Marshak: "The fascist gloomy Caliph, Smoking a fragrant Hookah, Ordered to come in with a report to His Scheherazades. And then Scheherazade came in And read him a report: "One German machine gun Destroyed a hundred thousand pillboxes And three hundred thousand nine hundred Seventeen planes! Two "Messerschmitts" on the fly Captured Alma-Ata with an air barrier, With the moon and a blackout..." Very intricate, I attributed German losses to the Soviet account!
As satirical artists, the Kukryniksy took a leading place in Soviet art and gained worldwide fame. Working together since 1924, the Kukryniksy initially performed mostly caricatures on topics from literary life. The enormous potential of the satirical talent of the Kukryniksy was appreciated by M. Gorky, who, when meeting with them (1931), advised to cover life more broadly, to draw on topics both within the country and abroad. Speaking since 1925 in newspapers and magazines (Pravda, Krokodil, etc.), the Kukryniksy worked out, in close cooperation with journalists, a new type of caricature, marked by acute topicality, a devastatingly sarcastic solution to the topic, caricatured by the specificity of types (series: "Transport" , ink, 1933-34; "On Rubbish", ink, gouache and others, 1959-60).
An important role in the patriotic education of Soviet people was played by caricatures, posters and "TASS Windows", created by the Kukryniksy during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, combining murderous sarcasm and heroism in symbolically generalized images ("We will mercilessly defeat and destroy the enemy!", 1941) . The post-war satire of the Kukryniksy, which castigates warmongers, enemies of peace and socialism, also has significant political power ("Waiting for War", ink, 1953-57). For political cartoons and posters, Kukryniksy was awarded the State Prize of the USSR (1942) and the Lenin Prize (1965). Since the beginning of the community, the Kukryniksy have also been working hard on the cartoon.
From the 20s. The Kukryniksy also act as illustrators, referring to works of literature with a deep understanding of the features of the depicted era and the language of the writer. The range of their creativity in this area is very wide - from sharp graphic grotesque to lyrical picturesque images. Among the works illustrated by them: "12 Chairs" (ink, 1933 and 1967) and "The Golden Calf" (ink, colored watercolor, 1971) by Ilf and Petrov, "Lord Golovlyov" and other works by Saltykov-Shchedrin (ink, 1939), "Lady with a Dog" and other works by Chekhov (1940-46; State Prize of the USSR, 1947), "The Life of Klim Samgin" (1933), "Foma Gordeev" (1948-49; State Prize of the USSR, 1950) and "Mother" (1950; State Prize of the USSR, 1951) M. Gorky, "Don Quixote" by Cervantes (1949-52) - all black watercolor.
In easel painting, the Kukryniksy also set themselves tasks of great political significance, creatively developing the traditions of Russian realistic art and sometimes using individual techniques of their satirical graphics. They turn to historical subjects (the "Old Masters" series, 1936-37, the Tretyakov Gallery), denounce fascism ["The Flight of the Fascists from Novgorod", 1944-46, the Russian Museum, Leningrad; "The End", 1947-48, State Prize of the USSR, 1949; "Prosecution (War criminals and their defenders at the Nuremberg Trials)", 1967; both are in the Tretyakov Gallery], giving a significant place to the theme of the heroism of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War ("Tanya", 1942-47, Tretyakov Gallery). The working method of the Kukryniks is unique: the masters achieve a single, "Kukryniks" style, combining personal talents in a collective creative process. They work individually as portrait and landscape painters. They were awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree and medals. In 1972 P.N. Krylov, and in 1973 N.A. Sokolov was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
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Everyone lies calendars
The caricature was accompanied by verses by S. Marshak: He promised a lightning war in June, And for an hour he threw saliva, Raging on the podium. He said: - I will decide the outcome of the war in two weeks! - And the fools of his country In response, he clamored. When this period expired, the Unscrupulous oracle Two-month-old appointed a period, And Goebbels "hoh!" croaked. Now by November, then by Christmas, Then on the first of April The Fuhrer threatened to take Moscow, And the months flew by ... "Don't think about the end of the war!" - This is the final order. "Immediately hand over your pants to the treasury!" - Says the order next door. Already there are no leaves of the calendar, except for the forty-eighth of March On the wall in the yellow house ...
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Hitler, seeking to place the responsibility for the defeat near Moscow on individual senior military leaders, dismissed the commander ground forces General Field Marshal W. von Brauchitsch and a number of other generals and, being the supreme commander, also took over the command of the ground forces of the German army.
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Sorrowful help
After the defeat of the Nazi troops near Moscow, Hitler began to remove the generals and field marshals from their posts, there were cases of putting on trial and demoting.
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Dirty laundry
The caricature was accompanied by verses by S. Marshak: Two laundresses, gloomy Laval, press and rub: They twisted the Vichy government into a tourniquet. Although Laval has little conscience and honor, But he can hardly withstand such pressure. And the laundresses squeeze, and rub, and twist, like linen, dirty Laval, Darlan, Doriot.
Names mentioned in the poems: Doriot is the leader of one of the most pro-Hitler fascist organizations in France.
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Golden hands (after the executions in Lyon)
In April 1942, at the insistence of Berlin, Laval became Prime Minister of the collaborationist government in France (Vichy), having established himself as an active supporter of broad, including military, cooperation with Nazi Germany. On his orders, massacres were carried out against French patriots.
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"By order of the German headquarters, an agricultural team is assigned to the occupied area under the command of Lieutenant Weber. The team includes 5 non-commissioned officers of the field gendarmerie, a non-commissioned officer and 11 soldiers of the artillery regiment, a suitable sanitary rank, a cook, an accountant, a motorcyclist ... Signature: Guntzel. That's right: Hauptmann." (Extract from a German document).
The caricature was accompanied by poems by S. Marshak: Agricultural cannons, Gendarmes, together with an artillery regiment, Besiege a village Where it smells of goat's milk. The sky is hot from the cannonade. Guns rumble like thunder. Surrounded by one milkmaid. One goat was besieged. As you can see, goat's milk is not easy for the Germans!
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Well done among the sheep, against the well done - the sheep himself
The caricature was accompanied by verses by S. Marshak: Von-Drappe, a German officer. He was an exemplary attack aircraft. He could valiantly Pierce a child with a sharpened blade. Our daring guards Subdued the insolent rampage And discovered for the first time That he is not Drappe, but a sheep. Losing human form. The Colonel asked for patches And suddenly bleated like a sheep. Hiding in nearby bushes.
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"During the period from January 9 to 22, on the Northwestern and Kalinin fronts, the Germans lost over 17,000 people killed. During the period from January 16 to 25, on Western front The Germans lost over 12,000 soldiers and officers killed.
(From the reports of the Soviet Information Bureau) During the Battle of Moscow (September 30, 1941 - April 20, 1942) in January-April, the troops of the Western, Kalinin, Bryansk, and other fronts defeated the enemy and pushed him back 100-250 km.
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Winter Fritz (experience exchange)
Fritz last year to today: "Last winter, Hitler also promised us new uniforms."
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New puppet comedy staged by the Vichy Theater
"According to the German Information Bureau, Laval is appointed head of the Vichy government. Pétain remains "head of state", and Darlan - head of the army, navy and aviation." (From newspapers). The caricature was accompanied by poems by S. Marshak.
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No wonder the whole of Russia remembers the day of Borodin
In the initial period of the Moscow battle, decisive resistance was offered to the enemy on the Mozhaisk line of defense. Successful battles also took place near Borodino at the site of the famous battle of 1812.
In the early spring of 1942, the Soviet-German front temporarily stabilized. The heroic labor of the Soviet people ensured a rapid increase in military production. Great success was achieved by the foreign policy of the USSR. By the summer of 1942, there were already 28 countries in the anti-fascist coalition.
However, the fascist army continued to be a formidable force. The unsuccessful outcome of operations for the Soviet troops in the Kharkov region and on the Kerch Peninsula in May 1942 extremely complicated the situation on the southern wing of the Soviet-German front. In July, a broad offensive of the Nazi troops began. The enemy broke through the front of the Soviet troops, went into a large bend of the Don, creating a threat of a breakthrough to the Volga and the Caucasus. On July 17, a defensive battle near Stalingrad unfolded, which lasted until mid-November 1942. It marked the beginning of the great Battle of Stalingrad. On South Soviet troops in heavy defensive battles between the Don and the foothills of the Main Caucasian Range, in the mountains of the Caucasus and on the Black Sea coast, the Nazi troops were exhausted and in early November they stopped their offensive.
On November 19, Soviet troops launched a powerful counteroffensive near Stalingrad, during which it was surrounded, and in early February 1943, more than three hundred thousandth enemy grouping was liquidated. The defeat of the Nazi troops near Stalingrad was the most important military and political event of the Second World War, marking the beginning of a radical turning point both in the course of the Great Patriotic War and the entire Second World War.
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About how last year's Hitler saw Hitler today
In contrast to the Barbarossa plan, which provided for a strategic offensive by the Nazi troops in 1941 in all main directions, the plan for the summer offensive campaign of 1942, developed after the defeat near Moscow, was more limited in scope. South direction the Soviet-German front became the main and, in fact, the only one where the Wehrmacht intended to carry out its major offensive operations.
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"... In the western regions of Ukraine, 570 large landlord estates have already been created ... The ordinary honest working peasant does not receive land from the Germans and will not receive ... They do not need Ukrainian peasants, but they need slaves who would feed the German lords with their labor" . (From newspapers).
The cartoon was accompanied by verses by S. Marshak: The Nazis are bringing seedlings from Germany to the sowing campaign. In rows on a bloody patch Under the shadow of cannons and bayonets Hundreds and dozens of feudal landowners are imprisoned. The German pan will not plow the fields, the Baron will not harrow... Our feudal lords will not capture our free Ukraine!
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Vile creature - to the lantern!
In September 1942, the Vichy government led by Laval introduced compulsory labor service to supply German industry with labor: all French people between the ages of 19 and 50 could be sent to work in Germany. During Laval's tenure in power (until August 1944), 750,000 Frenchmen were sent to Germany for forced labor.
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ink defense
The caricature was accompanied by verses by S. Marshak: Berlin liars Fire ink anti-aircraft guns In Berlin day and night - They "shoot down" Our combat air fleet. But let the helpful feathers Crack day and night in a row. Inkwells are not artillery, And an inkblot is not a projectile! We give a firm word to the shameless liars from Berlin, That we will send the cars "downed" by them to Prussia again!
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Milch cow
"Hitler's book 'My Struggle' is republished every year, which every German is forced to parade in his apartment. On this one deal, Hitler makes a million marks." (From newspapers)
The poster was accompanied by verses by S. Marshak: This sinewy milkmaid And day and night from under her hand Golden stamps are streaming Rain into open bags. This sonorous downpour filled pockets, safes, cellars ... And the nickname of the golden cow is "Mein Kampf", or "My struggle." "His struggle" milkmaid milks with might and main, worried and in a hurry. She knows that her cow is not worth ipouia. Soon a harsh day will come, Long appointed by fate, When the people will drive the milkmaid and the cow to the slaughter.
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The caricature was accompanied by verses by S. Marshak: Sparkling eyes, colonel-baron Commanded: "Hands at the seams!" But seeing that the whole battalion was itching - He commanded: "Hands on lice!"
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At the broken trough
The defeat of the 8th Italian army near Stalingrad, and then the defeat of the Italian and German troops in North Africa, caused a sharp aggravation of Italy's internal political situation. An acute crisis was also growing in the leadership of the Fascist Party in Italy. The loss of colonial possessions in Africa significantly narrowed the social support of Mussolini's regime, making his alliance with the big bourgeoisie unpromising.
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ONLY A FEW MONTHS HAVE PASSED (LOOKING AT THE FACES...). 1942
The huge losses of the fascist German troops on the Soviet-German front, especially increased as a result of the defeat near Moscow, created considerable difficulties even for such masters of false propaganda as Goebbels.
"No one knows how long the war will last," the propaganda minister lamented in one of his speeches. "The campaign against Russia," he said, "has been going on for eight months now. The stubborn and bitter nature of this war puts more and more difficult problems before the Germans. This was even reflected in the expression on the faces of the German soldiers." (From newspapers)
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blood stains
“Frau Traudel, in a letter to her husband Leonardo on the Soviet-German front, asks to send her some things for her children. “Nothing,” she writes, “if they are stained with blood, they can be washed.” (From newspapers)
The caricature was accompanied by verses by S. Marshak: - My Fritz, my treasure, Write to us about your health. Send us warm underwear, At least covered in blood. I can wash it. It will come in handy for the little one... So writes a woman and mother, A worthy friend of Fritz. When a fascist, branded with a death mark, organized a pogrom, Invisibly with him burst into the house She - with a purse and a backpack.
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Incoherent speeches, tired eyes
After the stunning defeat of the Nazi army near Moscow, unprecedented losses in manpower and equipment, a noticeable despondency reigned in the top military-political leadership of the Third Reich. In a number of public speeches in the winter of 1941 - in the spring of 1942. Hitler was rather pessimistic about the situation. On January 30, 1942, speaking at the Berlin Sports Palace, Hitler was forced to openly admit that he did not know how he would wage the war in 1942 and whether he would be able to win it.