Publications in the Lectures section

In the Soviet Union, caricature served as a weapon in the fight against enemies of the state and the vices of society, and satirical drawings were published on the pages of central publications daily. Their heroes became real people And collective images-types, and themes - foreign policy and problems of society. We tell you who and how the cartoonists denounced.

The enemy is tailed and horned

The first humorous drawings appeared in Ancient Egypt. With their help, artists ridiculed their enemies: they grossly distorted the features of the offenders in their caricatures, adding tails, horns and other unsightly features to them. In Russia, caricature traces its history back to folk popular prints of the 17th century with laconic and humorous images. Later, in the 19th century, comical drawings illustrated satirical articles on the pages of newspapers and magazines.

In the Soviet Union, artists ridiculed capitalists and imperialists, truants and slackers, and raised the topic of alcoholism and drunkenness. IN political cartoon From issue to issue there were images of imperialists with a monocle and a bag of money, as well as military men, police officers and priests.

Humorous pictures were devoted to politics, problems of society and family, they were drawn on the topic of the day. As the cartoonist and publicist Boris Efimov noted, by the early 1920s, satirical drawings occupied a special place in Soviet newspapers: in the West, cartoons, as a rule, served for entertainment and were published in humorous publications, while in the Union they were a means of propaganda.

Dmitry Moor: “Let’s finish off the fascist beast!”

Graphics master Dmitry Orlov worked under the pseudonym Dmitry Moor. He was one of the founders of the Soviet propaganda poster: in 1920, his work “Wrangel is Still Alive” was published in the largest circulation of the Civil War period - more than 65 thousand copies. The artist participated in the creation of the magazine “Crocodile”, his cartoons were published in the newspaper “Pravda”, in the atheist magazine “Atheist at the Machine” and other publications.

Moor's topical drawings on political topics and cartoons of foreign politicians were popular with readers. The artist’s posters angrily ridiculed the enemy: representatives of the White movement, clergy and capitalists.

In 1931, a collection of cartoons by Dmitry Moore, “Who Are They,” was published, which included 100 portraits of foreign businessmen and politicians: industrialist Henry Ford, magnates Rockefeller, politician Winston Churchill. Moore retained a portrait likeness: he wrote that “one must ridicule something worthy of ridicule in such a way that its very essence is not subject to deformation”. In the cartoons, politicians are presented as masters of the world, pushing around workers and ordinary people.

Moore also created satirical drawings on religious themes. The grotesque image of the god of hosts was especially popular among the people - an old man with a beard and round black glasses, with a halo above his head. Posters calling for the confiscation of church property in favor of the hungry, satirical images of clergy and believers were posted in cities and villages near churches.

During the Great Patriotic War, the artist depicted the cruelty of the Nazis on propaganda posters; his works “The Beast is Wounded” date back to this period. Let’s finish off the fascist beast!”, “How did you help the front?” He satirically showed the leadership of Nazi Germany - “Everything is in G”, “Ogre Hitler”. The drawings were accompanied by short signatures, for example “Fascism is coming! Down with borders, treaties, agreements, conscience - all these wild democratic prejudices, all this historical trash...". Dmitry Moor's cartoons formed the image of the enemy for the population in the rear and soldiers on the front line; they showed the enemy as cruel and stupid, and he was easily defeated by the hero - the Soviet soldier.

Kukryniksy

The Kukryniksy creative team arose in the early 1920s. This name was formed from the first letters of the surnames of three artists - Mikhail Kupriyanov, Porfiry Krylov and Nikolai Sokolov. The masters worked in a grotesque manner, speaking on the topic of the day. Caricatures, caricatures and book illustrations in a satirical style brought them popularity.

“Our team, to tell the truth, consists of four artists: Kupriyanov, Krylov, Sokolov and Kukryniksy. All three of us treat the latter with great care and concern... What was created by the team could not be mastered by any of us individually.”

Kukryniksy

The artists' first drawings were published in the late 1920s; topical satire and unusual signature attracted the attention of readers. The Kukryniksy collaborated with the Pravda newspaper, Krokodil magazine and many Soviet publications. They created a series of ironic drawings “Old Moscow”, which depicted typical Muscovites, their habits and way of life: communal apartments young city, bureaucracy, unsettled life. Among the creative intelligentsia, Kukryniksy’s cartoons on famous poets, writers and literary heroes.

Artists also participated in creating a satirical image of the fascists. Kukryniksy’s military propaganda poster “We will ruthlessly defeat and destroy the enemy!” appeared on the streets of Moscow a few days after the start of the Great Patriotic War. On the poster they depicted Hitler’s insidious attack on the USSR and the non-aggression pact broken by Germany. The enemy attack on the poster is courageously repelled by a Soviet soldier.

The artists' drawings were published in the Pravda newspaper throughout the war. In addition to posters, the Kukryniksy created leaflets for Wehrmacht soldiers calling on them to surrender. Propaganda was thrown en masse behind enemy lines.

Victor Denis: “The Red Army’s broom swept away the evil spirits to the ground!”

Graphic artist Viktor Denis (Denisov) began his creative career with humorous everyday sketches and caricatures of writers and poets: Ivan Bunin, Leonid Andreev, Igor Severyanin. The artist skillfully conveyed the characteristic features of the heroes; over time, friendly cartoons became more and more like caricatures.

During the Civil War, he created posters “Capital”, “Either death to capital, or death under the heel of capital”, “Entente in the guise of peace”. Viewers appreciated Denis’s witty caricatures; they were easily recognizable as generalized images of representatives "old world"- kulak, priest, capitalist. The artist depicted the characters, noting their characteristic features: the capitalist is a fat man in a black suit with a gold chain, the clergyman is no less obese, with a large gold cross. These images were combined in the artist’s drawing “Denikin’s Gang”.

During the Great Patriotic War, Victor Denis created cartoons for magazines and newspapers; small drawings on political topics were included in the series “Denis Toys” and “Denis Christmas Tree Decorations”. Graphic jokes were published with small captions by the author, for example “Here, here! disarmament of the gentlemen! Day and night they are disarming, and more guns are being added!”.

Mikhail Cheremnykh: “Stop being afraid of gods, brothers”

Soviet cartoonist and poster master Mikhail Cheremnykh was one of the founders of the famous “Windows of Satire ROSTA”. In 1919, the artist proposed creating a poster magazine with satirical drawings on topical political topics and hanging the sheets in the windows of empty stores. He was the author of the first drawing that appeared in the center of Moscow, in the window of an empty confectionery shop. This work has not survived to this day, but it is known that it was dedicated to Anton Denikin’s attack on Moscow and the defeat of the communists in Hungary. Soon the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky came to Okna ROSTA, who not only wrote texts for the posters, but also painted some of the “Windows”.

The first posters were produced in one copy once a week and were drawn by hand; they looked like an enlarged magazine page. Then they began to be reproduced using stencils, the number reached 300 copies.

Posters were sent to 47 cities of the Soviet Union, they were hung in shops, train stations, fences and houses. Large and bright, with satirical cartoons and witty poetry, Windows were as efficient as newspapers and as clear as posters. Cheremnykh painted several hundred “Windows of GROWTH”.

Newspapers and magazines published his cartoons on international topics. In them, the artist depicted collective images of military men, money magnates and obsequious diplomats. On the Cheremnykh sheets, the capitalist is shown in the image of a merciless predator: a fat man with a predatory face, with sharp nails reminiscent of the claws of animals. In cartoons on production topics and Everyday life the artist denounced carelessness, arrogance and indifference, his characters "targets" came out funny, but not ugly, the master did not resort to excessive exaggeration.

Mikhail Cheremnykh was considered a recognized master of religious satire. The atheistic poster “Sectarian - Kulak Parsley” shows a doll in the form of a preacher in the hands of a kulak pastor.

The artist was the author of the Anti-Religious ABC, a publication in which satirical drawings with caustic couplets were arranged alphabetically. For example, the letter "B" was accompanied by a signature “Stop being afraid of gods, brothers.”, the next page read - “Faith is harmful, more harmful than wine”.

“Live Targets” by Boris Efimov

Caricatures of Soviet and Russian artist Boris Efimov was published by the largest Soviet newspapers, the Krokodil and Chudak magazines. Cartoon characters - "live targets" Efimova included politicians Winston Churchill, Neville Chamberlain, fascist leaders Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Hitler's associate - propagandist Joseph Goebbels.

The artist skillfully conveyed portrait likeness, while giving precise strokes psychological characteristics to your characters. Some drawings became the cause of diplomatic protests. Once, British Finance Minister Austin Chamberlain was offended by Efimov’s caricature. Things came to a breakdown in relations between the countries; the diplomatic note said: "a grossly offensive and deceitful caricature depicting the British Foreign Secretary applauding the execution of Lithuanian communists".

During the Great Patriotic War, Efimov went to the active army, he was aware of events on the front line and found subjects for cartoons and posters there. Together with artists Dmitry Moor, Victor Denis and Kukryniksy, he made drawings for TASS Windows, the successors of ROSTA Windows.

IN post-war period Efimov’s apt and laconic caricatures served as a source of images of Western politicians for readers. "Targets" for the cartoonist it was mainly the USA as the main stronghold of world imperialism and the abstract capitalist world in the West. The drawings had a lot of details and text: title, caption under the image, explanatory notes. The epigraph determined the reason for which the caricature was drawn; it could be a quote from a work or a statement famous person, as, for example, in the cartoon “They will be curbed.”

Over the years, Efimov has drawn tens of thousands of caricatures, posters, illustrations and cartoons. He wrote in his memoirs that the form of caricature is clearer and more visual literary form because the drawing "translates facts from language logical concepts into the language of visual images».

Caricature has been familiar to us since childhood. We meet it everywhere: on the pages of entertainment newspapers and magazines, in serious scientific publications and even in school textbooks. What is a caricature? This is a satirical or humorous image that gives a critical assessment of certain socio-political and everyday phenomena or specific persons and events. To achieve a comic effect, the artist uses exaggeration and sharpening characteristic features depicted type or phenomenon, unexpected comparisons and likenings.

In connection with his social orientation Caricature has always been inextricably linked with the daily life of society. Therefore, the flourishing of caricature is usually associated with periods of major social conflicts, military and revolutionary events, when it turns out to be a strong and effective means of struggle and propaganda.

The origins of caricature go back to ancient artistic culture; later it can be seen in medieval art, folk art, and especially in popular print. Today the caricature is used in various types and genres of art, for example, in posters, newspaper and magazine graphics.

At the exhibition in the Russian National Library you will get acquainted with the history of the development of the caricature genre in our country. In Russia, caricature developed under the influence of two traditions: on the one hand, the original Russian folk lubok (“funny pictures”), on the other, in accordance with the European tradition of caricature itself (in our usual understanding). G.Yu. Sternin in his book “Essays on Russian satirical graphics” (1963) points to the close relationship between caricature and popular print in the 18th century, which at that time developed in a similar vein.

The exhibition opens with the section “The Origin of Russian Caricature.” Presented here the brightest example“Lubok caricatures” - the painting “Mice are burying a cat.” It is believed that this plot correlates with 1725 - the funeral of Peter the Great. Perhaps this is a schismatics’ caricature of Peter the Great, “an indictment of his state and historical deeds.”

The heyday of Russian caricature occurred in early XIX century, associated largely with the cartoon campaign against Napoleon and his troops during the Patriotic War of 1812. On the occasion of the centenary of this military victory, a collection of Russian caricatures of that time, “1812 in Caricature” (1912), was published, in which the works of artists A.G. occupied a significant place. Venetsianov and I.I. Terebeneva.

Hereafter the caricature XIX century moved mainly in social and political directions. In particular, the cartoons of the Social Democratic magazines Iskra and Gudok were highly valued by contemporaries; the works of N.V. enjoyed particular success among the reading public. Ievleva and N.A Stepanova. A large niche in the satirical press of that time was allocated to the everyday sphere, it was covered by the magazines “Alarm Clock”, “Dragonfly”, “Entertainment”, etc.

Important milestones in the development of Russian caricature were the events of the early 20th century. The cartoon reacted vividly to the revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the First World War and Civil War. The events of 1905 gave rise to a whole wave of new satirical magazines (Machine Gun, Zhupel, Signal, etc.), which left a bright mark on the history of Russian satirical graphics. Contemporaries especially appreciated the flagellating humor of the journalists of “Satyricon” and “New Satyricon”, who successfully combined political satire with harmless humor. Many famous artists collaborated with the magazine: I.Ya Bilibin, V.V. Lebedev, Re-Mi (N.V. Remizov), etc.

The formation of Soviet caricature is associated with the names of V.V. Mayakovsky, M.M. Cheremnykh, V.N. Denis, who actively collaborated in the “Windows of Satire of ROST and Glavpolitprosvet”. In the 1920s - 1930s. In the USSR, many satirical magazines were published: “Crocodile”, “Smekhach”, “Prozhektor”, “Behemoth” and a number of others. Works were published in magazines famous artists- K.P. Rotova, B.E. Efimova, I.A. Malyutin and others.

The Great Patriotic War united the country in the fight against fascism. The caricature did not stand aside either. In his book “Fundamentals of Understanding Caricature” (1961), the famous artist B.E. Efimov compares the striking power of a cartoon with a real military weapon. Drawings by B.E. Efimova, V.A. Galba, Kukryniksov, B.M. Leo and many other authors, published in TASS Windows, Combat Pencil and on leaflets, hit the enemy no worse than machine guns. Caricature albums were even published in military printing houses Soviet army: (“Baltic half-underground” (1941), “Sea, swamp and underwater reptiles” (1941)).

The themes of post-war cartoons became more peaceful, mainly relating to everyday issues. A caricature of representatives of capitalist society was also popular. The leading position in the satirical press was occupied by the magazine “Crocodile” and the “Club of 12 Chairs” column of the “Literary Gazette”, which united satirical writers and cartoonists headed by V.V. Peskov.

With the beginning of perestroika, the concept of caricature expanded, censorship weakened, and soon caricaturists no longer had any topics left to cover. Today, caricature is given an important place on the pages of popular newspapers and weeklies, and special satirical magazines are also published.
Materials for the exhibition were provided by the Russian and Foreign Book Funds, the Russian and Foreign Magazine Funds, the Printmaking Department and the Central Reference Library.

Kozhin N.A., Abramov I.S.
Popular popular print second half of the 19th century century and modern / Leningrad. region Bureau of Local History.
L.: Museum of the Island for the Encouragement of Arts, 1929.
Code: 106/172

Golyshev I.A.
An old popular print: “Mice are burying a cat” and some old folk engravings.
Vladimir: I.A. Golyshov, 1878.
Code: 18.130.7.66

Russian popular print / author. text by N. Kuzmin. Vol. 1.
M.: Pravda, 1970. (History of Russian caricature; Album "Crocodile")
Code: E Alis568-63/2-6

Baldina O.D.
Russian folk pictures.
M.: Mol. Guard, 1972.
Code: 72-5/5298

Sternin G.Yu.
Essays on Russian satirical graphics.
M.: Art, 1964.
Code: 64-2/3338

1812 in caricature: [collection] / comp. F.G. Muscatblit.
M.: Alarm clock, 1912.
Code: 37.34.2.48

Uspensky V.M., Rossomakhin A.A., Khrustalev D.G.
Bears, Cossacks and Russian frost: Russia in English caricature before and after 1812. St. Petersburg: Arka, 2014. (Russia through the eyes of the West)
Code: 2014-5/3362

Klindenger F.D.

London, 1942.
Code: Is31 G-7/2

Klindenger F.D.
Russia – Britain’s ally: 1812-1942.
London, 1942.
Code: Is31 G-7/2
Russia - an ally of Britain: 1812-1942

Vereshchagin V.A.
Russian caricature. T.2.: Patriotic War.
SPb.: type. Sirius, 1911-1913.
Code: 37.22.2.3-2; 340/32-2

Russian caricature from the era of the Patriotic War of 1812: [album] / State. ist. museum; author: E.M. Bukreeva.
M.: Historical Museum, 2012.
Code: E AlIr336k/2-3

Gudok: a satirical sheet with cartoons.
St. Petersburg, 1862-1863
Code: 2/284niz

Varshavsky L.R.
Russian caricature of the 40-50s. XIX century
M.; L.: Izogiz, 1937.
Code: 37-5/430

Varshavsky L.R.
Nikolai Alexandrovich Stepanov (1807-1877).
M.: Art, 1952. (Mass library)
Code: Is30 G-2/512

Binewich E.M.
Cartoonists go to the theater.
St. Petersburg: Petropolis, 2011.
Code: 2013-7/4805

Illustrated entertaining companion: collection. jokes and various articles. oh they will notice. events, new inventions. extraordinary exploits of selflessness, virtue, etc. / fig. Lebedev and Ievlev.
SPb.: type. I.I. Glazunov, 1864.
Code: 18.257.2.32

Entertainment: cartoon album. Vol. 1.
M.: type. magazine "Entertainment", 1861.
Code: 18.112.2.210

At the dacha: dacha and estate life in photographs and cartoons late XIX– beginning XX centuries [album] / comp. E.V. Lavrentieva.
M.: Eterna, 2012.
Code: E AlIr486/2-18

Jester: artist magazine with cartoons.
SPb.: A.A. Grigoriev, 1899. No. 35-37
Storage code: 1/503 bottom

Alarm clock: satirical magazine. with cartoons.
SPb.: N.A. Stepanov, 1891. No. 26.
Storage code: 2/73 bottom

Postcards: types of students / art. Nayadin (V. Kadulin). 1911.
Code: E OIr486k/7-106, 105, 115, 117, 119

Collection of cartoons of the Great Russian Revolution.
Berlin, b.g.
Code: Вп 7823а

Golikov A.G., Rybachenok I.S.
Laughter is a serious matter. Russia and the world turn of XIX-XX centuries in a political cartoon.
M., 2010.
Code: 2010-2/2500

Satyricon: weekly. lit.-art. magazine of satire and humor.
St. Petersburg: M.G. Kornfeld, 1910. No. 14-26.
Code: 1/415 Bottom

1905 in caricature: album “Crocodile”.
M.: Publishing house "Working Gas.", .
Code: 123/30

Album of revolutionary satire 1905-1906. / ed. S.I. Mitskevich; preface B. Zaks; Museum of the Revolution of the USSR.
M.: State. ed., 1926.
Code: 33/36

Shards: weekly. artistic and humorous magazine with cartoons.
St. Petersburg: K. Mikhailov, 1906. No. 1.
Code: 1/314 bottom

Open letter: [caricature of a State Deputy. Duma V.M. Purishkevich]
Code: E OIr580r/1-197

Post cards
Code: E OIr655k/16,14,15,1-11,1-9.

Open letters.
Code: E OIr580r/1-197.18-5.18-3.18-2.18-9

Filippova T.A.
Asps and Hottentots: Germans in Russian satirical journalism // Rodina. 2002. No. 10. pp. 31–37.
Code: P32/3295

War cartoons, 1914. Vol. 1.
Code: Sat.25.

Post cards.
Code: E OIr638r/1-472,1-590,1-143
(colored)

Scrambled eggs, or Not serious about serious things: who and what they laughed at in Russia in 1917 / comp. A.P. Nenarokov [and others]; preface V.V. Zhuravleva; thin L. Nezlobina, P. Sorokin.
M.: Britan; Business Club Ros. independent institute of social. and national Probl., 1992.
Code: 92-7/1196

Chukovsky K.I., Dreyden S.
Russian revolution in satire and humor.
M.: Publishing house "Izv. Central Executive Committee of the USSR and All-Russian Central Executive Committee", 1925.
Code: 15/171

The history of the USSR, like a drop of water, is reflected in the history of Soviet cartoons. As the revolution of 1917 went further into the depths of time, less and less freedom became a satirical caricature.

It may seem that after the revolution the caricature cheerfully ridiculed only various “bourgeois”, but did not in any way affect its own leaders. However, it is not.
The Soviet press of the early 20s is replete with caricatures of the leaders of the revolution. Especially often, leaders were painted in the form of saints, gods and Orthodox priests. Apparently, the very likening of the planet’s main atheists to saints in those years was endlessly amusing, like the height of absurdity. For example, one of the cartoons depicted Vladimir Ilyich in the image of the husband of the Virgin Mary - righteous Joseph, with a halo around his head (and the role of the Virgin Mary was played by Leon Trotsky) ... But here is a famous drawing - Trotsky in the image of St. George the Victorious:

Let's look through the files of the Red Pepper magazine for 1923–1924. The magazine features a picture of a set of wigs, beards and mustaches. By sticking them in different ways to a bald, beardless and mustacheless blank, you can get portraits of leaders - Marx, Lenin, Trotsky... (The set even includes Lenin's wrinkles around the eyes). During his lifetime, Lenin was drawn in cartoons in the form of Ilya Muromets, a lighthouse keeper of communism, a football player, a chess player... In one of the caricatures, Lenin was piercing a pot-bellied bourgeois with a flag pole. The most famous Soviet cartoon of Lenin is a drawing by Denis (also printed in poster form) - the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars as a janitor with a broom, cleaning Earth from all evil spirits - kings in ermine robes, millionaires with tight bags of gold...

By the way, in 1917, the same Denis was an opponent of the Bolsheviks and drew much more evil caricatures of Lenin, for example, like this one in the Beach magazine, depicting Vladimir Ilyich in the image of Judas Iscariot, in ancient Jewish clothes, with a rope noose around his neck . Lenin accepts from a certain “unknown person” in a mask and with a mustache a la Kaiser Wilhelm a bag of silver coins: “Please receive and sign, Herr Lenin... Thirty in full!” “Loyal service is an honest account,” the artist sneered...

There were other similar caricatures of Denis. At the beginning of 1923, the Soviet magazine “Red Pepper” decided to remind Denis of this long-standing sin of his. The magazine reprinted an old drawing of Denis in the form of a riddle - an ugly man, looking like a tavern drunkard, with a royal crown. The drawing originally appeared in Beach magazine in late 1917 with the caption “Lord of our days. His Majesty Ham I." The picture was accompanied by a meaningful caption: “By printing this picture, Red Pepper invites all readers to rack their brains over the following three questions:
1. Who drew it?
2. When did you draw it?
3. Who did you draw???

One of the masters of Soviet caricature, Boris Efimov, spoke about this incident: “Frightened Denis became alarmed and ran to seek protection from Maria Ilyinichna, Lenin’s sister. As she later told the editorial office, when she showed the issue of “Red Pepper” to Vladimir Ilyich and began to talk about how well Denis was working in “Pravda,” Lenin just waved his hand and said:
- God, what trifles people do! Please tell Red Pepper on my behalf to leave this Denis alone.”
Caricatures of another master of Soviet caricature, Dmitry Moor, of Lenin are also known.

Vladimir Ilyich as a torchbearer, igniter of the “fire of the world revolution”:

Imaginary appearance of Lenin at the Genoa Conference in 1922:

Another leader of the October Revolution, Trotsky, suffered no less, and perhaps even more, than Lenin.
Lev Davidovich in the image of the devil (“Trotsky as represented by the pious Entente”), drawing by Denis:

Trotsky “according to Bram” (a popular theme in cartoons of that time was to depict leaders in the form of animals), the author was also Denis:

Another caricature of the “zoological direction” is Dzerzhinsky in the image of a pike (“That’s why the pike is in the sea, so that the crucian carp does not breed”), drawing by Ming:

And here Trotsky is playfully compared to Rockefeller - not in favor of the latter:

A favorite target of cartoonists in the 1920s was People's Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky.

In the early 20s, cartoonists treated the image of Stalin without any reverence. In one of the famous cartoons of those years, the Bolsheviks, like Repin’s Cossacks, write a letter to the “Aglitsky Curzon.” Party Secretary General Stalin is depicted here in the form of a laughing Zaporozhye Cossack. And in another caricature in “Red Pepper,” the artist’s lively pen turned the general secretary into a zodiac sign - Capricorn, with natural hooves and horns...
Caricatures of Stalin - Dmitry Moor (left) and Boris Efimov:

Later, cartoons and funny drawings with Stalin became softer (like this drawing by Denis “Stalin’s Pipe”), but did not disappear completely:

Under Khrushchev, cartoons of him sometimes appeared, but these were rare exceptions. One of them, Boris Efimov in Pravda, for example, depicted Nikita Sergeevich as a miner crushing the icy, icicle-nosed “Cold War” with a jackhammer:

Another captured it in the form of the statue “Let’s Beat Swords into Plowshares.” Foreign caricatures of Khrushchev were reprinted: here he is raising his glasses high with the US President, and here he is burying the “hatchet of war”... In 1960, a friendly cartoon of Khrushchev appeared in Izvestia, when he carried out a huge reduction of the army by a third. In the picture, the prime minister good-naturedly commands the army: “Every third, come out!” Military men leave the ranks with suitcases, and remain with machine guns... Somewhat more often than the prime minister himself, his cars or sea ​​ships which he traveled. Quite often, cartoons were illustrated with quotes from speeches - in the 20s by Trotsky and Zinoviev, then by Bukharin, Stalin, and finally by Khrushchev.

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was the first leader of the USSR, under whom there were no more cartoons, even the softest, of the first person of the state, and funny drawings (even in the form of humorous illustrations for speeches) in the open press. Serious scenic paintings with the image of the Secretary General, however, were allowed - but not frivolous newspaper drawings. Moreover. It’s hard to believe, but personal caricatures of Western figures appeared in print less and less. “Out of respect for the (US) President, we did not draw him,” said the caption to one drawing in Crocodile. Abstract heroes were ridiculed, such as the American Uncle Sam, the British lion or the Gallic rooster (then the Peking duck was added to them). At the moment of the greatest aggravation of relations with China, the liberal Literary Gazette was allowed to publish a couple of cartoons about Mao - but this was an exceptional case.

And usually it was allowed to ridicule only “marginal”, fascist and semi-fascist world figures like the Chilean ruler General Pinochet or the president of racist South Africa, Peter Botha. Among the drawings of Boris Efimov in the 80s, you can find individual caricatures of Ronald Reagan, but even here the name and position of the US President were chastely not indicated in the signature.

Again, it should be noted that everything here was not decided by the personal qualities of Leonid Ilyich (the Secretary General not only loved satirical drawings, but also drew them himself in his youth, once confessed to satirical artists: “How you beat these imperialists in the crown, on the kumpol. And by the way, in my youth I dabbled in such drawings. If only I could show you, there would be such laughter!”). Everything was decided by the “atmosphere of the era,” with which the caricatures of the top officials of the state - and even the heads of not too hostile Western states - were no longer compatible. Boris Efimov, according to his recollections, publicly asked Brezhnev in 1977:
- Will we soon become unemployed?
“He looked at me in surprise for several seconds, as if not understanding the question, then he realized:
- Are cartoonists unemployed? Eh, no! This is still a long way off, keep working!”

L. I. Brezhnev and B. E. Efimov at the exhibition of satirical artists, 1977

To summarize, we can say: of course, caricature and satire in general are a distorting mirror real world, but it is precisely its “curvature” that partly allows this world to maintain stability and balance. Laughter is undoubtedly a destructive element, but only that which is based, among other things, on laughter is lasting. One of the current ideological “gurus,” who even calls himself “red,” once seriously argued that Mikhail Bakhtin’s book about “ laughter culture"(published, by the way, precisely at the dawn of the Brezhnev era, in 1965). It would be funny if it weren’t so sad... In fact, it was the narrowing of the legal field for political laughter, satire and caricature that played a significant (though not the main, of course) role in the destruction of the USSR. After all, laughter, like water, “will always find a hole,” but only if this hole is not provided for by the design of the ship, it can easily turn out to be fatal for it...