From the history of domestic caricature. From the history of domestic caricature The foreign policy of the USSR in caricature

Caricature is familiar to us from childhood. We meet with 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 any specific socio-political and domestic phenomena or specific individuals and events. To achieve a comic effect, the artist uses exaggeration and sharpening of the characteristic features of the depicted type or phenomenon, unexpected comparisons and similes.

Due to its social orientation, caricature has always been inextricably linked with the daily life of society. Therefore, the heyday 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 prints. Today, caricature is used in various types and genres of art, such as posters, newspaper and magazine graphics.

At the exhibition in the National Library of Russia, you will get acquainted with the history of the development of the cartoon genre in our country. In Russia, caricature developed under the influence of two traditions: on the one hand, the original Russian popular popular print (“funny pictures”), on the other hand, in accordance with the European tradition of caricature itself (in the usual sense for us). 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". Here is the brightest example of the "bast caricature" - the picture "Mice bury the cat." It is believed that this plot correlates with 1725 - the funeral of Peter the Great. Perhaps this is a caricature of the schismatics of Peter the Great, "an indictment of his state and historical deeds."

The heyday of Russian caricature came at the beginning of the 19th century, connected to a large extent with the caricature 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 caricature of that time “1812 in Caricature” (1912) was published, in which a significant place was occupied by the works of artists A.G. Venetsianov and I.I. Terebenev.

In the future, the caricature of the 19th 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. Ievleva and N.A. Stepanova. A large niche in the satirical press of that time was assigned to the domestic sphere, it was covered by the magazines "Alarm Clock", "Dragonfly", "Entertainment", etc.

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

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 Glavpolitprosveta". In the 1920s - 1930s. in the USSR, many satirical magazines were published: Krokodil, Smekhach, Searchlight, Begemot, and a number of others. The magazines published works by famous artists - K.P. Rotova, B.E. Efimova, I.A. Malyutina 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 celebrated artist B.E. Efimov compares the striking power of the caricature with a real military weapon. Drawings by B.E. Efimova, V.A. Galba, Kukryniksov, B.M. Leo and many other authors, who were published in TASS Windows, Combat Pencil and on leaflets, hit the enemy no worse than machine guns. Caricature albums were published even in the military printing houses of the Soviet army: (“Baltic Polundra” (1941), “Reptiles of the Sea, Swamps and Podkolodnye” (1941)).

The themes of post-war cartoons have become more peaceful, mainly relating to everyday issues. A caricature of representatives of a capitalist society was also popular. The leading position in the satirical press was occupied by the Krokodil magazine and the 12 Chairs Club section of the Literaturnaya Gazeta, which brought together satirical writers and cartoonists headed by V.V. Peskov.

With the beginning of perestroika, the concept of caricature expanded, censorship weakened, and soon cartoonists no longer had uncovered topics. 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 Journal Funds, the Department of Prints and the Central Reference Library.

Kozhin N.A., Abramov I.S.
Folk print of the second half of the 19th century and modern / Leningrad. region local history bureau.
L .: Museum of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, 1929.
Code: 106/172

Golyshev I.A.
Popular old picture: "Mice bury a cat" and some former folk engravings.
Vladimir: I.A. Golyshov, 1878.
Code: 18.130.7.66

Russian popular print / ed. text by N. Kuzmin. Issue. one.
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 a cartoon: [collection] / comp. F.G. Muscatblit.
Moscow: Alarm clock, 1912.
Code: 37.34.2.48

Uspensky V.M., Rossomahin A.A., Khrustalev D.G.
Bears, Cossacks and the 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 is an ally of Britain: 1812-1942

Vereshchagin V.A.
Russian cartoon. Vol.2: Patriotic War.
St. Petersburg: type. Sirius, 1911-1913.
Code: 37.22.2.3-2; 340/32-2

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

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

Warsaw L.R.
Russian caricature of the 40-50s. 19th century
M.; L.: Izogiz, 1937.
Code: 37-5/430

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

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

Illustrated entertaining companion: coll. anecdotes and various art. o notice. events, new inventions. extraordinary exploits of disinterestedness, virtue, etc. / fig. Lebedev and Ievlev.
St. Petersburg: type. I.I. Glazunov, 1864.
Code: 18.257.2.32

Entertainment: cartoon album. Issue. one.
M.: type. magazine "Entertainment", 1861.
Code: 18.112.2.210

At the dacha: dacha and estate life in photographs and caricatures of the late 19th - early 19th century. XX centuries [album] / comp. E.V. Lavrentiev.
M.: Eterna, 2012.
Code: E AlIr486/2-18

Jester: artist. cartoon magazine.
St. Petersburg: A.A. Grigoriev, 1899. No. 35-37
Storage cipher: 1/503 bottom

Alarm clock: satirical magazine. with cartoons.
St. Petersburg: 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: Vp 7823a

Golikov A.G., Rybachenok I.S.
Laughter is serious business. Russia and the world at the turn of the 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 a cartoon: the Crocodile album.
M .: Publishing house "Working gas.", .
Code: 123/30

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

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

Open letter: [caricature of the deputy of the State. thoughts of V.M. Purishkevich]
Code: E OIr580r/1-197

Postcards
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 // Motherland. 2002. No. 10. pp. 31–37.
Code: П32/3295

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

Postal cards.
Code: E OIr638r/1-472.1-590.1-143
(colored)

Soft-boiled scrambled eggs, or Not serious about serious things: who and what was laughed at in Russia in 1917 / comp. A.P. Nenarokov [i dr.]; foreword V.V. Zhuravlev; thin L. Nezlobina, P. Sorokin.
M.: Britan; Business Club Ros. independent in-t social. and national probl., 1992.
Code: 92-7/1196

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

The history of the USSR, as in a drop of water, was reflected in the history of Soviet caricature. As the revolution of 1917 went further and further into the depths of time, the satirical caricature became less and less expanse.

It may seem that after the revolution, the caricature merrily ridiculed only various "bourgeois", but did not affect its own leaders in any way. However, it is not.
The Soviet press of the early 1920s was full of caricatures of the leaders of the revolution. Especially often the leaders were painted in the form of saints, gods and Orthodox priests. Apparently, the very assimilation of the main atheists of the planet to saints in those years was infinitely amusing, like the pinnacle of absurdity. For example, one of the cartoons depicted Vladimir Ilyich in the image of the spouse of the Virgin Mary - the righteous Joseph, with a halo around his head (and Leo Trotsky played the role of the Virgin) ... And here is the famous drawing - Trotsky in the image of George the Victorious:

Let's leaf through the files of the magazine "Red Pepper" for 1923-1924. The magazine puts in the picture a set of wigs, beards and mustaches. Sticking them differently to a bald, beardless and beardless blank, you can get portraits of the leaders - Marx, Lenin, Trotsky ... (The set even includes Lenin's wrinkles near the eyes). During his lifetime, Lenin was drawn on cartoons in the form of Ilya Muromets, the keeper of the lighthouse of communism, a football player, a chess player ... On one of the cartoons, Lenin pierced a pot-bellied bourgeois with a flagpole. The most famous Soviet caricature of Lenin is a drawing by Denis (it was also printed in the form of a poster) - the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, as a janitor with a broom, cleans the globe from all evil spirits - kings-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 some "unknown person" in a mask and with a mustache a la Kaiser Wilhelm a bag of pieces of silver: "Be kind to receive and sign, Herr Lenin ... Thirty full!" “Faithful service is an honest account,” the artist ironically…

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

One of the masters of Soviet caricature Boris Efimov told about this incident: “The frightened Denis got 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 Krasny Pepper to Vladimir Ilyich and began to talk about how well Denis was doing in Pravda, Lenin only waved his hand and said:
- God, what nonsense people do! Please tell Red Pepper on my behalf to leave this Dany alone.”
Also known are the cartoons of another master of Soviet caricature - Dmitry Moor - of Lenin.

Vladimir Ilyich as a torchbearer, inciter of the "fire of the world revolution":

Lenin's imaginary appearance at the Genoa Conference in 1922:

No less, and perhaps even more, Lenin went to another leader of October - Trotsky.
Lev Davidovich in the image of the devil ("Trotsky in the view of the pious Entente"), drawing by Denis:

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

Another caricature of the "zoological direction" is Dzerzhinsky in the form of a pike ("That's why the pike in the sea so that the crucian carp does not breed"), Mina's drawing:

And here Trotsky is jokingly compared with Rockefeller - not in favor of the latter:

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

Without any reverence in the early 20s, cartoonists treated the image of Stalin. In one of the well-known cartoons of those years, the Bolsheviks, like Repin's Cossacks, write a letter to the "Anglican curzon." Party Secretary General Stalin is depicted here as a laughing Zaporozhian Cossack. And on another caricature in "Red Pepper", the artist's brisk pen turned the Secretary General into the sign of the zodiac - Capricorn, with natural hooves and horns ...
Caricatures of Stalin - Dmitry Moor (left) and Boris Efimov:

Later, caricatures and funny drawings with Stalin became softer (like this Denis drawing "Stalin's Pipe"), but did not disappear completely:

Under Khrushchev, caricatures of him sometimes appeared, but these were already rare exceptions. One of them, Boris Efimov in Pravda, for example, depicted Nikita Sergeevich as a miner crushing an icy cold war with a jackhammer:

Another depicted him in the form of a statue "Let's beat swords into plowshares." Foreign caricatures of Khrushchev were reprinted: here he is raising glasses high with the US president, and here he is burying the "axe of war" ... In 1960, a friendly caricature of Khrushchev appeared in Izvestia, when he carried out a huge - by a third - reduction in the army. In the drawing, the prime minister good-naturedly commands the army: "Every third, come out!" Soldiers with suitcases get out of order, they remain with machine guns ... Somewhat more often than the prime minister himself, his cars or sea ships, with which he traveled, got into funny drawings. Quite often, cartoons illustrated quotes from speeches - in the 20s of Trotsky and Zinoviev, then Bukharin, Stalin, and finally Khrushchev.

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was the first leader of the USSR, under which there were no more caricatures, even the softest, in the first person of the state, and funny drawings (even in the form of humorous illustrations for speeches) in the open press. Serious paintings depicting the General Secretary, however, were allowed - but not frivolous newspaper drawings. Furthermore. It's hard to believe, but personal caricatures of Western figures appeared in print less and less often. “Out of respect for the (US) president, we didn’t draw him,” said the caption for one drawing in Crocodile. Abstract characters 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 time of the greatest aggravation of relations with China, the liberal Literary Gazette was allowed to publish a couple of cartoons of 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, one can find individual caricatures of Ronald Reagan, but even here the name and position of the President of the United States were chastely not indicated in the signature.

Again, it should be noted that everything here was not at all decided by the personal properties of Leonid Ilyich (the general secretary not only loved satirical drawings, but also drew them himself in his youth, he once admitted to satirical artists: “How do you beat these imperialists on kumpol, by kumpol. And by the way, in my youth I dabbled in such pictures. I should show you - such laughter would be here! "). Everything was decided by the “atmosphere of the era”, with which caricatures of the first persons of the state - and even of the heads of not too hostile Western states - no longer resolutely combined. Boris Efimov, according to his memoirs, publicly asked Brezhnev in 1977:
- Will we soon become unemployed?
“He looked at me for a few seconds in surprise, as if not understanding the question, then he caught himself:
- Cartoonists - unemployed? Eh no! Until then, oh how far away, keep working!

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

Summing up, we can say: of course, caricature and satire in general is a distorted mirror of the real world, but it is its “curvature” that partly allows this world to maintain stability and balance. Laughter, of course, is a destructive element, but only that which relies on laughter, among other things, is firmly established. One of the current ideological "gurus", even calling himself "Red", once seriously argued that a fatal role in the destruction of the USSR was played by Mikhail Bakhtin's book on "laughter culture" (published, by the way, precisely at the dawn of the Brezhnev era, in 1965 year). 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 (although not the main, of course) role in the destruction of the USSR. After all, laughter is like water - “it will always find a hole”, but only if this hole is not provided for by the design of the ship, it can easily be fatal for it ...

Publications in the Lectures section

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

Enemy tailed and horned

The first humorous drawings appeared in ancient Egypt. With their help, the artists ridiculed the enemies: the features of the offenders in the caricatures were grossly distorted, they added tails, horns and other unsightly features to them. In Russia, caricature traces its history from folk popular prints XVII 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 loafers, and raised the topic of alcoholism and drunkenness. In the political caricature from issue to issue, there were images of imperialists with a monocle and a bag of money, as well as military, police and priests.

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

Dmitry Moor: "Let's finish off the fascist beast!"

Under the pseudonym Dmitry Moor, the graphic artist Dmitry Orlov worked. He was one of the founders of the Soviet propaganda poster: in 1920, his work "Wrangel is still alive" came out with 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 atheistic magazine "Godless at the Machine" and other publications.

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

In 1931, a collection of cartoons by Dmitry Moor “Who are they?” was published, it included 100 portraits of foreign businessmen and politicians: industrialist Henry Ford, Rockefeller magnates, politician Winston Churchill. Moore retained a portrait resemblance: he wrote that “It is necessary to ridicule what is worthy of ridicule in such a way that its very essence is not subjected to deformation”. In the cartoons, politicians are presented as the masters of the world, pushing the workers and ordinary people around.

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

During Great Patriotic War on propaganda posters, the artist depicted the cruelty of the Nazis; his works “The Beast is Wounded. We will finish off the fascist beast!”, “How did you help the front?”. Satirically, he showed the leadership of Nazi Germany - "All on G", "Cannibal Hitler." The drawings were accompanied by short author's captions, for example “Fascism is coming! Down with borders, treaties, agreements, conscience - all these wild democratic prejudices, all this historical rubbish ... ". The cartoons of Dmitry Moor formed the image of the enemy for the population in the rear and the 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

Creative team Kukryniksy originated in the early 1920s. This name was formed from the first letters of the names of three artists - Mikhail Kupriyanov, Porfiry Krylov and Nikolai Sokolov. The masters worked in a grotesque manner, spoke on the topic of the day. Their popularity was brought by cartoons, caricatures and book illustrations in a satirical style.

“Our team, in truth, consists of four artists: Kupriyanov, Krylov, Sokolov and Kukryniksa. 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 first drawings of the artists were published in the late 1920s, topical satire and an unusual caption attracted the attention of readers. The Kukryniksy collaborated with the Pravda newspaper, the 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: the communal apartments of a young city, bureaucracy, unsettled life. Among the creative intelligentsia, Kukryniksy caricatures of famous poets, writers and literary heroes were popular.

The artists also participated in creating a satirical image of the Nazis. Military propaganda poster of the Kukryniksy "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 courageously reflects the 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 for surrender. Agitation was massively thrown behind enemy lines.

Victor Denis: "The broom of the Red Army has swept the evil spirits to the ground!"

Graphic artist Victor Denis (Denisov) began his career with humorous everyday sketches and caricatures of writers and poets: Ivan Bunin , Leonida Andreeva , Igor Severyanin. The artist skillfully conveyed the characteristic features of the characters, over time, friendly caricatures became more and more like caricatures.

During the Civil War, he created the posters "Capital", "Either death to capital, or death under the heel of capital", "Entente under the guise of peace." The audience appreciated the witty caricatures of Denis, they easily recognized the generalized images of representatives "old world"- fist, priest, capitalist. The artist portrayed 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 golden cross. These images are 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 politics were included in the Denis Toys and Denis Christmas Tree Decorations series. Graphic jokes were published with small signatures of the author, for example “Here, here! disarmament gentlemen! And day and night they are disarming, and guns are being added!.

Mikhail Cheremnykh: “Come on, brothers, be afraid of the gods”

The Soviet cartoonist and poster master Mikhail Cheremnykh was one of the founders of the famous "Windows of satire ROSTA". In 1919, the artist suggested creating a magazine-poster with satirical drawings on topical political topics and hanging sheets in the windows of empty shops. He was the author of the first drawing that appeared in the center Moscow, in the window of an empty candy store. This work has not survived to this day, but it is known that it was dedicated to the offensive of Anton Denikin on Moscow and the defeat of the Communists in Hungary. Soon a poet came to Okna ROSTA Vladimir Mayakovsky, who not only wrote texts for the posters, but also drew some of the "Windows".

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

Posters were sent to 47 cities of the Soviet Union, they were posted in shops, railway stations, fences and houses. Big and bright, with satirical cartoons and witty verse, Okna was as quick as newspapers and as lucid as posters. Cheremnykh painted several hundred “ROSTA Windows”.

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

Mikhail Cheremnykh was considered a recognized master of religious satire. On the atheistic poster "Sectarian - kulak parsley" in the hands of a pastor-fist, a doll in the form of a preacher is depicted.

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

"Live targets" by Boris Efimov

The cartoons of the Soviet and Russian artist Boris Efimov were published by the largest Soviet newspapers, the magazines Krokodil and Chudak. cartoon characters - "live targets" Efimov were politicians Winston Churchill, Neville Chamberlain, Nazi leaders Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Hitler's associate - propagandist Joseph Goebbels.

The artist skillfully conveyed portrait resemblance, while giving accurate strokes a psychological description of his characters. Some drawings became the reasons for diplomatic protests. Once, British Minister of Finance Austin Chamberlain was offended by a caricature of Efimov. It came to a break in relations between countries, the diplomatic note said: "grossly offensive and deceitful caricature depicting the British Foreign Minister 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 plots for cartoons and posters there. Together with artists Dmitry Moor, Victor Denis and Kukryniksy, he made drawings for TASS Windows, the heirs of ROSTA Windows.

In the post-war period, Efimov's well-aimed and laconic caricatures served as a source of images of Western politicians for readers. "Targets" for the cartoonist, it was predominantly the United States as the main stronghold of world imperialism and the abstract capitalist world in the West. There were many details and text in the drawings: the title, the caption under the image, the explanatory inscriptions. The epigraph determined the reason for which the caricature was drawn, it could be a quote from a work or a statement by a famous person, as, for example, in the caricature "They will be curbed."

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