Boris Efimov is a cartoonist. Over a century old

Boris Fridlyand was born on September 15 (28), 1900 in Kyiv. Parents - Fridlyand Efim Moiseevich (1860-1945), an artisan shoemaker, and Rakhil Savelyevna (1880-1969). Boris began drawing at the age of five. Since 1920, Efimov has been working in Odessa as a cartoonist for the newspapers Kommunar, Bolshevik, etc. Since 1922, the artist has moved to Moscow, where he collaborates with the newspapers Pravda and Izvestia, and with the magazine Crocodile". Author of politically topical cartoons on international topics. After the arrests at the end of 1938, the artist was fired from the Izvestia newspaper and was forced to switch to work in book illustration (works by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin). He actively participated in all political campaigns of the Soviet government: the fight against the “social fascists” - the social democratic parties of the West, the fight against the Trotskyists, Bukharinists, etc., with cosmopolitans, with geneticists - “Weismannists-Morganists, murderers-fly-lovers”, with the Vatican , “killer doctors” (the so-called Case of Doctors, Case of Doctors-Poisoners, in the investigation materials Case of the Zionist conspiracy in the MGB - a criminal case against a group of prominent Soviet doctors accused of conspiracy and murder of a number of Soviet leaders. The origins of the campaign date back to 1948 , when the doctor Lydia Timashuk drew the attention of the competent authorities to the oddities in Zhdanov’s treatment, which led to the death of the patient.), with Marshal Tito, with “enemy voices” - radio stations in Western Europe and America, etc., created a unique phenomenon in world culture - "positive satire"
In 1966-1990, Efimov was the chief editor of the creative and production association "Agitplakat". For the last year of his life (at the age of 107-108 years) he was the chief artist of the newspaper Izvestia.
Died October 1, 2008 IN THE HUNDRED AND NINETH YEAR OF LIFE.

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||

People's Artist of the USSR Boris Efimovich Efimov

Caricatures by Boris Efimov, his satirical and humorous drawings appeared in print after the Great October Revolution in newspapers of Soviet Ukraine, the artist’s homeland. And already in 1922, his works were published in Moscow, on the pages of Pravda and Izvestia. Of course, Efimov the man is a little older, but Efimov the satirist, without a doubt, was born and matured under Soviet power.
For almost fifty years, Efimov’s drawings have been exposing and ridiculing enemies Soviet Union, mock them. Capitalism, militarism, imperialism and fascism are the themes of most of his cartoons. He fully deserves the recognition that he has long won as folk artist.
Already in early drawings Efimov’s thoughts and feelings of the Soviet people were conveyed so clearly and clearly that it was impossible to make a mistake in their meaning. Efimov's artistic style - expressive and purely newspaper - allows him to very clearly reflect the most difficult political problems. His caricatures of political opponents are distinguished by their great portrait resemblance. They always very accurately emphasize those features that reflect the weaknesses of their enemies, weaknesses carefully covered up by a pompous appearance, empty phrases, and superbly tailored clothes. Efimov’s drawings tear off all these clothes from them. In this regard, he is invariably frank and ruthless. At the same time, even the sharpest Efimov’s drawings are full of deep humanity, they always contain playfulness and humor - that is, qualities so inherent to the Soviet people. They express the faith of the Soviet people in their own strength, their conviction in the rightness of their cause. There is so much humor, for example, in Efimov’s drawing from 1937, which depicts the fascist leaders of the “Anti-Comintern Pact” tensely balancing on a lit bomb. Will they fall off it or will they manage to hold on? One way or another, this “circus” anti-communist act will end badly for them.
Even during the difficult years of the war, Efimov’s sense of humor did not change. His contempt for Hitler's horde, for the Nazi leaders, expressed in cartoons, strengthened his will Soviet people to fight against the enemies of humanity and humanity. A drawing from 1942 depicted a greedy Nazi soldier who, in pursuit of a fat pig, ends up at gunpoint with a partisan. Even funnier is the world-famous cartoon in which a Hitlerite, wrapped in a warm blanket, runs through the snow to relieve himself. In this drawing, which combines cheerful comedy and caustic mockery in a purely Efimovian way, the “superman” of the Third Reich is completely exposed.
The ridicule of fascism contributed to its weakening and strengthening of the determination to fight it to the end. Efimov’s pencil reached the enemy before the bullets of Soviet soldiers finally hit him. The artist hanged Hitler's war criminals long before they lost their lives on the ropes of the Nuremberg Tribunal. It was probably a great moment for Efimov when he saw the objects of his cartoons in the dock in Nuremberg. The trial showed that Efimov did not exaggerate anything in his caricatures of the leaders of the “thousand-year” Reich and that, on the contrary, these criminals were in reality even more disgusting and insignificant than in Efimov’s images, representing caricatures of Efimov’s caricatures.
Many of the long-dead enemies of the Soviet Union gained “immortality” in Efimov’s cartoons. They live in his drawings not at all like worthy of emulation samples, but as warning examples of the hopelessness of anti-communist plans. But Efimov, unfortunately, does not yet have to suffer from a lack of topics for satire.
Fascism found “worthy” heirs, who at first hid behind democratic masks, but then exposed their faces. The disgusting US war in Vietnam, launched in order to prevent the people of a small country from ruling it the way they wanted, gave Efimov enough topics. Military dictatorship in Greece also became the object of direct hits.
Who hasn’t Efimov painted over the past years!
His first models were Curzon and Hughes, Sir Austen Chamberlain and the Polish dictator Marshal Pilsudski. These anti-communist “phenomena” have long since disappeared from the historical arena. Mussolini, Hitler, Goering and Goebbels left in the same way. And Efimov’s cartoons, which appeared in their time, today remind us not so much of these ominous ghosts that have sunk into oblivion, but of the resilience and courage of the Soviet people, to whom these ghosts, then powerful and arrogant, threatened with all sorts of troubles and predicted the death of Soviet power. They all found their place in the dustbin of history.
Efimov also reflected brave fighters against fascism in his work. One of his drawings shows Dimitrov, thrown into prison, boldly denouncing German fascism at the Reichstag arson trial that took place in Leipzig. Many drawings pay well-deserved honor to the Soviet soldier.
Efimov condemned the crimes of the fascist dictator Franco against the Spanish people. In the same way, the British lion received what he deserved for his humility, compliance and, frankly speaking, support for fascist aggressive plans in the East. Efimov’s pencil reflected both the predatory campaign of Hitler’s army across Europe and its inglorious defeat in the war against the Soviet Union.
As already mentioned, Efimov did not become unemployed after the end of the Second World War. During the Cold War, the fascist reptile, using dollar support, crawled out of the grave again and took its place in NATO. Anti-communism rolled forward again, this time on the “democratic” wheels of the dollar. The West German eagle began to hatch its revenge plans. Wherever possible, the United States began to install puppet regimes and suppress freedom, hiding behind, naturally, the slogan of “defending freedom.” The Cold War led the United States into a hot war - first in Korea, then in Vietnam - again, of course, in the name of "freedom" and "peace." Yes, unfortunately, Efimov still has a lot of work to do. But he predicts the defeat of imperialism. And we have every reason to believe that he is not mistaken in his predictions, just as he was not mistaken in them before. Sooner or later justice will prevail. The October Revolution showed that the working people are able to defeat the warmongers and exploiters, and now the Soviet Union is for the peoples of the entire globe best example struggle for freedom, independence and peace. Efimov contributed to the fact that the Soviet people remained optimistic even in the most difficult times, and it is very correct that at the beginning of the second half-century of the Soviet state, Efimov’s cartoons are again reproduced. Of course, only a few examples of his countless drawings are given here.
Boris Efimov is one of the most popular artists of the Soviet Union. Perhaps the most popular, although it is difficult for a foreigner to judge this. Now he is the oldest employee of both Izvestia, Pravda, and Krokodil. But he looks wonderful - as if he belongs to the younger generation. This is very good, as it allows us to hope that his pencil will serve to protect the interests of peace, socialism and the happiness of workers for many years to come.
Herluf Bidstrup,
laureate of the International Lenin Prize for strengthening peace between nations.
COPENHAGEN.

The civil war ended with the victory of the young Soviet Republic. Participants in the “march of fourteen powers” ​​against Moscow broke their foreheads. The last remnants of the White Guards and interventionists were thrown out of the Soviet Union. In 1922, the world's first state of workers and peasants essentially opened the first page of its peaceful existence.
The pulse of the Soviet country speaks of its good health, excellent mood and confidence in the future, which cannot be said about the West. The enemies of the revolution are experiencing a severe moral and mental crisis. So obvious and clinical in form that the international review drawn by the Izvestia cartoonist had to be called “Madhouse “Europe”. Presented here are carriers of a number of mental and political diseases. The central figure of this “Europe” is the French Prime Minister (former President) Raymond Poincaré, nicknamed “Poincaré the War” by the working people of France. Five years have passed since the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, which meant the end of the First World War, and the Prime Minister still cannot part with the steel
helmet, he emits a warlike growl, demanding the seizure of foreign territories, indemnities, and especially the destruction of Bolshevism... Obvious symptoms of violent insanity.
Nearby is the English Minister Lord Curzon of Kedleston (we will meet him again). The lord suffers from an obsession - to get as much oil as possible, and first of all he is attracted to Soviet oil. An extremely serious form of the disease and, as we will see, incurable.
Each madhouse, as a rule, has its own Kai Julius Caesar and its own Napoleon Bonaparte. These are the most banal examples of megalomania. Of course, they are also present in “Europe”. Wrapped in Caesar's toga was a certain Benito Mussolini, the leader of the Italian "Black Shirts" who call themselves fascists. Soon this first fascist in the world will become the absolute master of Italy with the title “Duce” and will do a lot of troubles and bloody crimes before the Italian partisans hang him upside down. But humanity will have to wait another 22 years for this.
The maniac in the Napoleonic cocked hat is a certain Pilsudski, a fascist who seized power in bourgeois Poland. Why he imagined himself to be a great commander, no one knows, but Bonaparte’s laurels clearly clouded the mind of Master Marshal, who turned his gloomy and threatening gaze towards the Soviet borders. We will also meet him again on these pages.
With a noose in his hands - land admiral Miklos Horthy de Nadbanya, the bloody executioner of the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919, Hitler's future satellite, a sadist obsessed with hatred of revolution and democracy. He will finally go crazy after the collapse of the counter-revolutionary rebellion of 1956 and end his days in Lisbon under the wing of the now former fascist dictator Salazar.
Around these large-caliber madmen, smaller-scale “crazy people” are scurrying around - mainly representatives of the White Guard emigration: Cadets, Socialist Revolutionaries, Black Hundreds, monarchists and other anti-Soviet rumps; they went crazy because the October Revolution swept them away from their homes.
Madhouse "Europe".
So, the year is 1923, from the 6th October Revolution. A scarlet banner with a hammer and sickle proudly flies over a sixth of the planet. The Soviet state stretched from the Neman to the Pacific Ocean. Many have already broken their teeth, testing the strength of its boundaries. However, not everyone calmed down...
The seasoned imperialist bison, Lord Curzon, already familiar to us, the former Viceroy of India and one of the organizers of the intervention against the Soviet Union, decided that the time had come for another anti-Soviet attack. On May 8, 1923, he handed M. M. Litvinov his so-called “Curzon ultimatum.” The meaning of this document: Soviet Russia must fulfill a number of provocative British demands within ten days, otherwise - a severance of relations and military measures.
The drawings “Arsonist” and “Cold Shower” quite clearly characterize the further course of events. Faced with the firm position of the Soviet government, the zealous lord was forced to back down, realizing, with all his stubbornness, that it was useless to talk to the Soviet people in the language of ultimatums. The hapless arsonist lord soon ended his political career, but never gave up his anti-Soviet obsessions. Even leaving, “as they say, for another world” in 1925, Curzon declared that recognition of the Soviet Union was “the greatest mistake in the world”...
An arsonist and... a cold shower.
And yet, despite the “dissenting opinion” of Lord Curzon, this “mistake” was made during his lifetime by many European states in 1924, which went down in the history of Soviet foreign policy as the “year of confessions.”
This is also evidenced by the drawing “New Year's Prediction”, published on January 1, 1924 in Izvestia with the note that the first page of the newspaper depicted in the cartoon is specifically allocated to Senator Hughes. Who is Yuz? And why didn’t they spare a whole page of Izvestia for him?
Lawyer Charles Hughes had been at the helm of American foreign policy for several years at that time, in no way inferior to his British colleague Curzon in terms of the degree of anti-Soviet violence.
brilliance He more than once burst out with abuse and threats against the Soviet country. Hughes was especially enraged by those articles and speeches by Soviet statesmen that were published on the front page of Izvestia, to which the irritable senator attached some special, offensive meaning to himself. This manic sensitivity of Hughes to the first page of Izvestia was the reason for the caricature.
The “principled” Mr. Hughes, of course, did not recognize the existence of the Soviet Union. It will take several more years before US statesmen "notice" on the map that one-sixth of the earth's landmass is colored red.

Since the beginning of 1924, recognitions of the Soviet Union have followed one after another. Some bourgeois governments still resist, still cling to the so-called “recognition de facto, but not de jure” (that is, factual, but not legal), but in the end they are forced to submit to the inexorable march historical development. The drawing “New Magnetic Anomaly” tells about this, the plot of which was suggested to the cartoonist by a major event in the national economy of the Soviet country - the discovery of the Kursk magnetic anomaly.
The Soviet Union was recognized by England, followed by Italy, Norway, Greece and many other states. In the reception room of the People's Commissar for foreign affairs Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin becomes a little crowded, and peculiar “Diplomatic friction” arises.
Bourgeois politicians are forced to reckon with very stubborn facts: the growing international authority of the Soviet state, the development of its economy and, last but not least, the strength of the Red Army, protecting the peaceful labor of the Soviet people.

Red Army. 1924
In May 1924, after the parliamentary elections, Poincaré-war very reluctantly parted with the portfolio of prime minister, and soon the new French government of Edouard Herriot recognized the Soviet Union.
The first Soviet ambassador (at that time they were still called plenipotentiary representatives) in Paris
became Leonid Borisovich Krasin. The reactionaries gnashed their teeth. Oh, how the former socialist, and later super-imperialist, the fierce enemy of the Soviet country, Millerand, would like to crush Soviet-French cooperation. But it turned out to be much stronger than his vigorous horns...
Poincaré's farewell aria
You will soon forget me. But I won't forget you!..
At our embassy in Paris
Mr. Millerand kindly confirms that bulls still cannot stand the color red.
In October 1924, parliamentary elections were coming up in England. The Conservatives, who had very little chance of success, resorted to a proven fraudulent trick - they created a sensation: Scotland Yard had uncovered a “Bolshevik conspiracy” against Great Britain! The English reactionary press, with incredible noise, published a brazen forgery depicting the “Instruction of the Comintern to English Communists.” The fraud was soon exposed, but the job was done: Labor
MacDonald's government was defeated, and the Conservatives found themselves back in power. And cheap at the same time: the fake cost them only 5 thousand pounds, as its performers publicly revealed many years later.
Charles Hughes again. And this time for the last time. We won't meet him again. This gloomy figure of American foreign policy, along with her countless anti-Soviet speeches, noisy interpellations, as well as direct threats and malicious warnings - all this has firmly fallen into the dusty folder of the historical archive.
Now let's talk about the Chamberlains. In 1925, two brothers entered the political arena - the offspring of the famous ideologist of British imperialism, Sir Joseph Chamberlain. Neville, the youngest of the brothers, is still a modest Minister of Health (but we will meet him in another, less innocent role), and Austin, Minister of Foreign Affairs. Remember this icy face with a monocle in his right eye. She will appear more than once in the drawings of Soviet caricaturists. That year Sir Austin was awarded the Empire's highest honor, the Order of the Garter, which is worn under the left knee. For what merits it is difficult to answer exactly, but, of course, also for the fact that the elder Chamberlain more than diligently undertook to carry out the line of his predecessor Lord Curzon. It does not change matters that if Curzon got his hand on threats against the Soviets, Chamberlain prefers to shout about the “Red threat”, about “Bolshevik propaganda”, about the “hand of Moscow”.
Mr. Charles Hughes "Hand of Moscow". With a portrait of the inventor.
And it is no coincidence that since the end of 1925, after the conference of the imperialist powers in the Italian city of Locarno, the policy directed by England, hostile to the Soviet Union, has been intensifying and growing. The bosses of the West even then set themselves the goal of insuring themselves
from the revanchist aspirations of Germany and direct them to the East, against the USSR. An ominous fuss is going on in the imperialist general staffs, plans are being developed for a military attack on the Soviet state using its closest neighbors.
An awl in a bag. A picture without words.
The Soviet Union opposes these aggressive plans with a firm peaceful policy and, in particular, takes all measures to strengthen normal good neighborly relations with Germany and Poland.
It is not surprising that G.V. Chicherin’s trips to Berlin and Warsaw cause such alarm and displeasure in the West. It is not surprising that a gentleman with a monocle, already well known to us, was so worried about the peace-loving mission of the Soviet People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs.
In London they are watching Comrade's trip with alarm. Chicherina.
British Empire Model 1926. Everything seems to be in place, but its lifespan is already expiring. IN this moment The English cabinet is headed by Sir Stanley Baldwin. He would leave the political arena in 1937, but would already see how the empire was spreading.
Model of the British Empire. Visual aid for schools.
In 1926, the Conservative government of England went even further down the path of worsening relations with the Soviet Union. Clearly losing his famous British composure, Sir Austen Chamberlain kept sending messages to
Soviet countries curses and threats, both verbally and in writing (in the form of diplomatic notes). The Soviet press also had to remind the enraged diplomat that during the eight years of its existence the Red Army had learned something...
Red Army. 1918 - 1926.
Note Bohr. Efimova. Leaders of British foreign policy are recommended to cut out this drawing and decorate their offices with it.
Where a horse goes with its hoof, there goes... Pan Pilsudsky with his tooth against the USSR.
Back in 1919, he stated that “an attack on the Bolsheviks at any time and in any place” was his cherished dream.
It would seem that after the lessons taught by the cavalry blades, one could calm down. But the warlike gentleman marshal still rattles his weapons to the delight of his English boss.
“Poland should not and cannot remain within its current borders, but must seek to expand its possessions to the East.”
(From Pilsudski's gosets).
Zoological hatred of communism once again united the two friends in a stormy expression of joy over the brutal massacre of the Lithuanian communists.
By the way, Sir Austin reacted very painfully to this cartoon in Izvestia, loudly telling about his grievance in an official note that preceded the severance of diplomatic relations with the USSR.
A crowd favorite.

The year 1927 went down in history amid the “bark of revolvers” of political murders and anti-Soviet provocations. The USSR Plenipotentiary Representative in Poland P.L. Voikov fell from a bullet from a White Guard bandit. Calls for a new intervention against the Soviet Union continued. The atmosphere became tense. It is not surprising that in this situation
The repeatedly beaten White Guards, as well as fragments of the monarchy, became extremely cheerful and began to move. The august “guardians of the royal throne” competing with each other intensively dug up evidence of their rights to the Russian crown in family archives.
To the tenth anniversary of the February Revolution, “August persons who are now happily living.”
Meanwhile, Austin Chamberlain, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize at that time (!!!), tirelessly creates military tension. As befits a purebred lord, he prefers to do this dirty work with the wrong hands: on April 6, Beijing dictator General Zhang Tso-ling organizes a hooligan raid on the Soviet embassy. The emblem of the Nobel Prize and the bow of the Order of the Garter under the left knee quite transparently hint at whom the raider general takes his example from and who stands behind him...
In the same year, Chiang Kai-shek, a traitor to the Chinese people, began his counter-revolutionary career. Having seized the leadership of the Kuomintang - the party created by the great Sun Yat-sen - he trampled on his teacher's covenants about friendship with the Soviet Union. Chan is still here
young Over the course of more than forty years, he will naturally grow old a lot, change his place of residence (he will move to Taiwan), as well as his patrons: he will prefer the American 7th Fleet to English gunboats. But he will not change his habits as an imperialist servant and lackey.
Imitating his idol, Chamberlain, Chiang Kai-shek, of course, also took up arms against Soviet cartoonists. It is good that the satirists of Pravda and Izvestia were beyond the reach of the Chiang Kai-shek police. Otherwise, perhaps, they will not escape the sad fate depicted in the figure... And it is unlikely that a link to popular saying: “There’s no point in blaming the mirror if your face is crooked.” We see that neither the English lords nor the Kuomintang generals take this folk wisdom into account...
Band... Mr. Chamb...
Tso-lin, Peking raider.
Protecting public safety.
In Harbin, the police confiscated all issues of Izvestia and Pravda that contained cartoons on Chinese topics.
Anti-Soviet provocations continue. From Asia they spread to Europe. After the Beijing rehearsal, the action moves to the London stage: the representative of the most reactionary wing of the conservatives, the so-called “hard-headed”, is the Minister of the Interior
Del. Joynson Hicks organizes a wild defeat of ARCOS - the Anglo-Russian Cooperative Society, created to conduct trade operations between the USSR and England. And two weeks after the attack on ARCOS, a sad memory of “Chamberlain’s note” was sent to Moscow about the severance of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. In Europe again
it smelled like gunpowder. Once again, everyone who was waiting and thirsting for anti-Soviet intervention perked up and began to stir. Among them, Karl Kautsky invariably and inevitably appears.
“A mediocre, narrow-minded person. Arrogant,” Karl Marx said about him. “A pedant and scholastic who, instead of unraveling complex issues, confuses simple ones,” Friedrich Engels said about him.
Having followed the inglorious, winding path of a social renegade, Karl Kautsky served everyone who opposed the October Revolution, against the Land of Soviets.
Savages in London Old anti-Soviet inkwell.
In the context of an emerging conspiracy of imperialist states, the Soviet Union is fighting even more decisively in defense of peace and exposing the political machinations of its enemies, which are fraught with war. For the first time in the history of mankind, concrete proposals for general and complete disarmament were heard from the rostrum of the Council of the League of Nations. They were proclaimed by the head of the Soviet delegation, Maxim
Maksimovich Litvinov. The attempts of Western diplomats to weaken the impression made by these proposals and to disrupt their discussion were in vain. And a particularly zealous opponent, the English representative Lord Keshen-den, received from Litvinov such a head-scratcher that, as they said in Geneva then, “even the old-timers will not remember”...
Final preparations for the arrival of the Soviet delegation.
Lord Keshenden received a detailed response to his speech.
“Everything is in the same position...”
In February 1930, His Holiness Pius XI cheerfully joined the anti-Soviet campaign, calling his flock simply to a “crusade” against the godless Soviet state. Despite some subtle differences in church views, the Vatican received
in this matter the fullest support of the Anglican clergy.
And the London Morning Post, with an anathema to the Soviet Izvestia, demonstrated that it wanted to be “more Catholic than the Pope himself.”
Crusade.
The Morning Post stated that Izvestia's editorials bore the mark of the Antichrist.
The latest issue of Izvestia in the editorial office of the Morning Post.
During this period, the demand for products of White Guard cuisine increased sharply. The bourgeois press literally snatched this foul-smelling product out of their hands. It's no joke, the former minister of the provisional government Miliukov and the head himself
of this government, Kerensky (who apparently never had time to take off the ladies’ outfit in which he is said to have fled from the Red Guards) brought his heated anti-Soviet concoction to the market.
The trade has revived!
Miliukov and Kerensky are selling stolen goods.
In response to all this pandemonium, in response to the cries and howls of fascists, social traitors, church obscurantists, militarists, White Guards and other sworn enemies, the Soviet people are under
With the reliable protection of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, he successfully completed his first five-year plan. And he not only fulfilled, but also exceeded. At four years old.
The reptile bares its rotten teeth.
Intimate talk. Imperialists without makeup.
Speed ​​running.

At this very time, the capitalist world was gripped by a severe economic crisis, aggravating the already tense social contradictions. Capitalism saw the way out of this crisis in a new redivision of the world, in wars of conquest, in huge military profits, in a frantic arms race.
In February 1932 it opened international Conference on disarmament. The Soviet Union did everything in its power to move this issue forward and prevent a military conflagration from breaking out. He decisively exposed the true intentions of the imperialists, who, launching into casuistic rantings about disarmament, thought primarily about the benefits of the military business, about the dividends of arms factories.
The arms race continued. The world was uncontrollably sliding towards military catastrophe. It was approaching: Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany.
Adolf Hitler, aka Alois Schicklgrubber, was a rogue with a dark past. He had the Iron Cross for unknown military merits, served as a police spy-informant, had the ability to speak for five to six hours at a time, took part in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch and wrote a delusional misanthropic book called Mein Kampf ( "My struggle"). With the money of Krupp and other German financial magnates, he organized detachments of stormtroopers and SS men - an entire army of thugs and murderers who terrorized Germany.
This vile type seemed to be born at the request of capitalist monopolies, who dreamed of “destroying communism” and enslaving peoples. It was these “good fairies” who stood at the cradle of the fascist dictator. They handed him power, which he would have for twelve whole years, until he died in the dungeon of his Reich Chancellery under the thunder of Soviet guns.
"The Good Fairies" by Adolf Hitler.
The first steps of the Nazis were directed against Marxism. They understood well that it was the Marxists-Leninists who were the most implacable and consistent enemies of fascism. They knew that it was the communists who would be at the forefront of the anti-fascist struggle.
In 1933, the Nazis were still only banning and cursing Marxist teachings in the same discordant chorus with renegades and churchmen. But in a year, bonfires of books will already blaze in the squares, and in nine years, the stoves of Majdanek will begin to smoke...
Racism, anti-Semitism, and obscurantism became the state doctrine of the German Reich.
Karl and the dwarfs.
Alfred Rosenber Mr. - Please show me your documents!
Einstein Head Prize
F a sh i s t. - And for such a person only one thousand marks! Oh, exploiters!
One of the first and, perhaps, the largest provocations directed against the communists was the arson of the Reichstag, which caught fire on February 27, 1933. It was clear to the whole world that this was the work of the Nazis themselves, who used for this purpose the underground passage that connected the Reichstag building with the residence of Hermann Goering, who put the provocateur Van der Lubbe into action.
The Reichstag fire became the signal for a frantic anti-communist campaign and unbridled terror in Germany.
In September of the same year, the famous trial began in Leipzig. In the dock, in addition to the drugged and speechless Van der Lubbe, there were communists, and among them, in the foreground, was the heroic son of the Bulgarian people, Georgi Dimitrov. From the main accused, Dimitrov became the main prosecutor. He brilliantly exposed Hitler's falsification and angrily denounced the obscurantism and barbarity of fascism before the whole world. The Leipzig mock trial was a disgraceful failure. On December 23, 1933, the court was forced to acquit all defendants, with the exception of Van der Lubbe.
Currently, in the building of the Leipzig court there is a historical museum of Georgiy Dimitrov, organized by decision of the government of the German Democratic Republic.
Signal of provocation.
Improved interrogation of the defendant.
Achievements of fascist justice
Leipzig masquerade.
Dimitrov accuses.
Enraged by the Leipzig failure, the Nazis further intensified their provocative policies and moved on to open terror on an international scale. They commit a whole series of brazen and cynical political murders.
The year is 1934. The world is sliding further and further towards the abyss of war. The Soviet Union continues to fight with all its might to preserve peace, exposes fascist warmongers, and warns against connivance and concessions to aggressors. In Europe, this is Hitler’s Germany, which quickly switched to the path of revanchism and proclaimed the slogan of “living space in the East”; in Asia, this is Japanese militarism, which has already openly launched a war of conquest in China.
Humanity is watching with growing alarm the proliferation of dangerous military bacilli. Meanwhile, the leading figures of the Western powers adhere to the notorious “ostrich policy,” hiding their heads from the fascist military threat.
Salesman of war.
Fascist geography of Europe
Heavy atmosphere
E v r o p a. - Kar-raul! Can't breathe!..
Blood test
War anxiety bacippae detected.
A special breed of European ostrich.

Fascism did not fail to take advantage of the cowardice and compliance of Western European “ostriches”.
On July 18, 1936, according to the conventional radio signal “Fine weather over all of Spain,” a fascist rebellion of the Spanish reactionary military, led by General Francisco Franco, began. All honest people in the world were convinced that the democratic forces of Spain would crush a handful of counter-revolutionary conspirators and defend the people's republic. And this would undoubtedly have been the case if Hitler and Mussolini had not rushed to the aid of Franco, openly and brazenly supporting him with troops, aviation, and all types of weapons. Franco’s “government” was officially recognized by Germany and Italy, which gave the rebel general the impudence to declare himself a full-fledged “belligerent.”
The Nazis counted on quick success. However, in the battles near Madrid, where fighters from the international brigades were already fighting alongside the Spanish Republicans, their first misfire awaited them.
Condoning fascist intervention in favor of rebels against the legitimate government of the Spanish Republic, England and France simultaneously went to the creation in London of an international “Committee for Non-Interference” in Spanish affairs. Its chairman was Lord Plymouth, who saw the task of the “policy of non-intervention” as interfering as little as possible with Hitler and Mussolini, who were carrying out a real intervention against the Spanish people.
The more impudence and impudence of the fascists manifested themselves, the more polite, patient and compliant the English and French diplomats became.
As for the Soviet Union, true to its duty of international proletarian solidarity, it left the headquarters of the useless London committee and provided practical assistance to struggling republican Spain. Transports with weapons and food arrived from Soviet ports, and many Soviet people - pilots, tank crews, political workers, sailors - fought on the side of the Spanish people. At that time it was not customary to talk about this openly, but one could guess without much difficulty. The fives imprinted on Hitler’s face after the battles near Madrid are quite expressive...
Hey, let's go!
Through Ply... cloudy glasses. 1936
Lord Plym T. - I don’t see any German troops. I only see volunteers!
Clear position.
- Firstly, there are no Italo-German troops in Spain, secondly, they went there voluntarily, and thirdly, they will not leave there!
"Mistress of the Seas" Mediterranean Sea
Lush flowering on favorable soil.
Frank O. - Here you are, my Fuhrer, meet the Republicans...
In 1937, the Anti-Comintern Pact, concluded a year earlier between Germany and Japan, was joined by fascist Italy. Thus, an aggressive military-political alliance, or the so-called “Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis”, finally took shape.
This association of predators could arise unhindered only as a result of the indecisive, unprincipled, and sometimes provocative policies of Western states, and especially England.
Seeking to preserve his colonial possessions at any cost, the once proud British lion did not refuse to tenderly and obediently put his head in the greedy maw of the fascist “Duce”. What can't you do to save your skin? (By the way, it was this year that I left political activity Sir Stanley Baldwin. The same one with the model of the British Empire that cracked ten years ago.)
The “guarantees” of security that Chamberlain (this time Neville) extracted from Hitler and Mussolini resembled exactly the kind of circus attraction depicted here.
The poor lion was so successful in training that he resignedly
harnessed to the chariot of fascist dictators. This lowly role of horse-drawn traction is performed by the royal beast under the supervision of Lord Irwin Halifax, the British Foreign Secretary, who in the near future will be an active participant in the shameful Munich agreement.
Hitler and Mussolini no longer make any secrets of their predatory plans. German fascism is feverishly arming itself, trampling all kinds of treaties. The muddy wave of Nazi chauvinism and racist obscurantism rises ever higher. Hitler’s hysterical cries about a campaign to the East for “living space” (“Drang nach Osten!”) are heard louder and louder. In the meantime, Mussolini attacked a poorly armed Ethiopia.
And yet it was not too late to stop the fatal course of events. The Soviet Union persistently puts forward proposals for collective security measures as the only alternative to war. “The world is indivisible,” said M. M. Litvinov, calling for the united efforts of all peace-loving states to curb the aggressors. But it was all in vain.
Fascist beasts freely entered the main European road...
Successful training.
The British lion has become completely tame: he has already learned to put his head in the mouth of his tamer.
Lion and axis. Closely knit relationships.
Unstable equilibrium.
From the heights of non-interference
Animals are on the loose.
Western diplomacy cherishes the idea of ​​paying off Hitler and pushing him against the USSR. And here is the crown of this “cunning policy” - Munich, September 1938. Chamberlain and Daladier (French Prime Minister) gave Czechoslovakia to be torn to pieces by Hitler. Or rather, they sold it for an empty piece of paper with “peace guarantees” signed by the Fuhrer. Landing on the London airfield, Chamberlain theatrically waved the text of the agreement and, ending his boastful speech (“I have brought peace for our generation!”), quoted Shakespeare’s “Henry IV”:
“From the nettles of danger we will extract the flowers of salvation.”
Izvestia then reminded the eloquent prime minister of the following words following this quote:
“The undertaking you have undertaken is dangerous. The friends you listed are unreliable, the timing was unfortunate..."
But the Munich team rejoiced. They imagined that the “genie” of fascist aggression released from the bottle, heeding their spells, would immediately rush not to the West, but to the East.
They did not yet know that in just a year and a half a bloody flag with a fascist swastika would flutter over Paris, and the most beautiful buildings in London would be bombed by Nazi aircraft.
On the big European road
Anglo-French "regulators".
Ga/iodx Daladier chvmverlen
Released Spirit Spell.

Less than a year after the Munich Agreement, Hitler invaded Poland. Bound by certain obligations, England and France were forced, albeit very reluctantly, to declare war on Nazi Germany. The world entered the Second World War. However, it is no coincidence that its initial period went down in history under the name “strange war.” It really looked very strange: the warring parties did not conduct any military operations among themselves. German and French armies quietly “coexisted”, separated by the French Maginot Line and the German Siegfried Line. England and France watched in cold blood as the fascist occupiers dealt with Poland and were in no hurry to help it. But how the Parisian and London bosses became more active when the Soviet Union was drawn into a military conflict with Finland! Here the British and French strategists completely forgot about their German enemy and turned all their energy against... the USSR. All their thoughts were now occupied with waging a fierce anti-Soviet campaign, bellicose threats against the Soviet country, discussing the issue of sending an auxiliary expeditionary force to Finland and even a plan to bomb Baku.
Militant activity.
Meanwhile, the “strange war” in Western Europe lasted about eight months, which was quite enough for Hitler to prepare the defeat of many European countries. In May 1940, it was France's turn. She was defeated in 35 days.
On June 22, 1940, an old pro-fascist, former ambassador to the government of General Franco, 84-year-old Marshal Petain signed a shameful surrender on behalf of the French government. Intoxicated by victory, Hitler “generously” declared part of French territory a “free zone” with its capital in the resort town of Vichy. The head of this scanty puppet state was Petain, and its prime minister was a seasoned
traitor Pierre Laval. There is no need to explain that “Vichy” France was actually, like the occupied part of the country, under the rule of the Nazis.
Liberated France gave justice to both high-ranking collaborators (employees of the occupiers). In 1945, Laval was executed and Petain was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Here, perhaps, it would be appropriate to remember the Honorable Neville Chamberlain. What was the fate of this appeaser of fascism? He died quietly in 1940, having still managed to see London set on fire by Hitler's bombs. Here are the “flowers of salvation” for you...
In Neville Chamberlain's personal bomb shelter.
On the memorable night of the summer equinox, June 22, 1941, a huge, mobilized and well-fed, armed with the latest military technology, intoxicated by easy victories in Europe and believing in its invincibility, Hitler’s army attacked the Soviet borders. Carefully developed at Hitler’s headquarters, the “Barbarossa plan” provided for a three-week lightning war - “blitzkrieg”. Hitler proclaimed to the whole world that already in July his standards would be in Moscow.
Hitler's banners did reach Moscow, but a little later and as trophies of Soviet weapons. At the Victory Parade on May 24, 1945, they were thrown to the foot of the Mausoleum.
Already in the summer and autumn months of 1941, Hitler’s military machine began to slip, and in December, near Moscow, the Nazi horde received a crushing blow. Hitler suffered his first serious defeat. The myth of the invincibility of the fascist army turned out to be... a myth.
The immediate consequence of the defeat near Moscow was the purge of Hitler's generals. Some of the generals, for various and not always clear reasons, went to the next world. Field Marshal Brauchitsch was relieved of his duties as commander-in-chief, who became Hitler himself.
Having come to his senses after the defeat in Moscow, Hitler hoped to improve matters in the summer of 1942. Almost the entire industry of Europe, captured by Nazi Germany, works to supply and arm Hitler’s army in the East. All economic and human resources are mercilessly squeezed out of the satellites of the Third Reich.
By the summer campaign of 1942, Hitler increased the number of his divisions on the Soviet-German front to almost three hundred. Moreover, the fight against the partisans, who disorganize Hitler’s rear and do not give the invaders rest day or night, takes a lot of troops away from the “Führer.”
We performed and had fun!
They did the math and shed a tear...
Blitz... scream. Stuck.
Funeral near Moscow.
At the Fuhrer's headquarters.
After the Battle of Moscow, Hitler carried out a number of successful operations with his generals...
The increase in morbidity in Hitler's headquarters.
- How is your health, Field Marshal!
- Don't know. I haven't read the latest official announcements yet.
Who is next!
Funeral at public expense!
Gestapo men: The Fuhrer sent wreaths for you to choose from, General!
Some of the most unsuccessful German ersatz (substitutes)
Ersatz felt boots.
Ersatz sausage.
Ersatz culture.
Ersatz Commander-in-Chief,
“The little bird started singing early...”
Baron von Bilderling came from Germany to the state farm named after Volodarsky in the Luga region and announced the transfer of the lands and property of the state farm to his ownership. The Baron did not manage to rule on Russian soil for long. He was killed by partisans.
The landowner Herr Baron von Bilderling took possession...
..the land plot allocated to him.
In Hitler's rear
Word and deed
and off your shoulders!
ORDER
Preparation for the “winter campaign”.
Additional wool removal.
Blood tax collector.
Romania
What made it possible for Hitler to gather such large military forces against the Soviet Army? First of all, of course, the absence of a second front in Europe.
Despite the solemn promise to open a second front in 1942, the United States and England avoided fulfilling their allied duty in every possible way. This was the case in the days of the mortal battle on the Volga, when the fate of humanity was decided in the Battle of Stalingrad, when the active assistance of the Allies could quickly turn the tide of the struggle in favor of the anti-Hitler coalition in all military theaters. The Anglo-American leaders not only did not open a second front, but also fulfilled their obligations to deliver military equipment to the Soviet Army very sluggishly and sparingly.
The well-known energy of Sir Winston Churchill was manifested mainly
way in that he personally arrived in Moscow to inform the Soviet government that the second front would not be opened immediately, but at the “appropriate time”...
And yet, at the very beginning of 1943, the back of the fascist beast was broken. The Battle of Stalingrad ended with a great historical victory for Soviet weapons.
This is what Adolf Hitler said then: “The possibility of ending the war in the East through an offensive no longer exists.” This time the “Führer” did not lie.
A turning point came in the Second World War.
And nothing could save the situation of the fascist army: neither the super-powerful Tiger and Panther tanks, nor the hysterical cries of the Reich Minister of Propaganda Dr. Goebbels, nor the term “elastic defense” invented by him.
Under the broom...
Hitler gathers, Churchill watches.
Discussion of the issue of opening a second front.
Sewing on the last button.
Urgent change of program.
Two calendars
The German lies, the Soviet beats.
In the summer of 1943, after the “second Stalingrad” - the defeat of the Nazis on the Orel-Kursk Bulge, the “Rome-Berlin axis” deafeningly cracked. In Italy they realized that it was time to get out of the lost game. By decree of the king, Mussolini was removed from the post of head of government and Marshal Badoglio was appointed in his place, who immediately signed the act of surrender. Italy as an ally of Germany was lost. The only thing that Hitler managed to save was the pretty battered Duce himself, who was kidnapped by a special detachment of SS saboteurs and taken to Hitler’s headquarters. Mussolini still held the title of head of the puppet “Italian Social Republic” for some time, but he did not have long to wait before his fateful meeting with the Italian partisans.
The New Year 1944 came under volleys of artillery salutes to commemorate
the creation of new and new victories of the Soviet Army. Retribution is inexorably approaching the borders of Germany. And no total and super-total mobilizations, no propaganda tricks to raise the spirit of German soldiers can delay the formidable wave of advancing Soviet armies.
At the "Fuhrer's" headquarters there is an attempt on Hitler's life, who is shell-shocked by the explosion of a bomb planted by the conspirators. A wave of bloody massacres and executions follows. The fascist ship is wrecked, and the most prudent “rats” are preparing to escape.
The “living space” of Hitler’s Reich is narrowing to its extreme limits. Hitler and Goebbels, like scorpions, are destroying themselves in the dungeons of the Reich Chancellery. Their corpses were burned by the SS. Hitler's empire collapsed in blood and shame. The great banner of Victory was raised above the Reichstag.
It backfired near Orel and responded in Rome.
Balance for a decade.
Amputation.
Liberation of Mussolini. Together again.
End of the blockade!
...Russia again triumphs in victory over the enemy
(A.S. Pushkin. “The Bronze Horseman”)
A new total mobilization has been announced in Germany. Goebbels was appointed imperial commissioner for its implementation.
Goebbels takes out...
German Santa Claus 1944
“Don’t listen, don’t read, don’t notice - that’s our slogan...”
(From the Nazi press)
New "secret weapon".
Very bad...
Goebbels is already losing his temper. Himmler takes control of the “strengthening of the spirit” of the Germans...
G i m m l e r. Radical measures have been taken against the conspirators, my Fuhrer: I have increased the number of doubles.
The German press made a big fuss about the visit of Hitler and Goebbels to the front line on the Oder.
Performance by a visiting vocal and acrobatic duet.
According to German radio, Hitler's chief of general staff, Guderian, said that he was "with feverish impatience" awaiting the reconquest of Germany's eastern provinces.
Guderian is shaking...
German newspapers report that Gauleiter Hanke's speech from besieged Breslau "was the most stunning speech that has recently been broadcast..."
Radio roll call from the boilers.
Pipe!
Where to go!! Trying on camouflage suits.
Nimble "dead men". Thrust to the West.
"Living space". May 1945.
Victory Banner.
This is not a chronological error. The drawing, marked 1942, recalls that even at that harsh time, when Hitler’s hordes stood on the Volga and besieged Leningrad, the Soviet government threateningly warned the fascist leaders that the hour of reckoning for their vile atrocities would inevitably come, that they would not leave from the answer.
True, the closer the collapse of Hitler’s Reich came, the more often there were such compassionate gentlemen who advocated a “humane attitude” towards the SS murderers, “gentlemen” who would like to avert fair retribution from these executioners.
But the will of the people was adamant - the Nazi gang was in the dock!
A dire warning (1942).
Compassionate gentleman:
Poor Nazis! How hot it must have been for them near these stoves...
The front edge of the dock.
In Nuremberg.
Reliable defense personnel...
And so the leaders of Hitler’s beast were caught, neutralized and brought before the people’s court in Nuremberg. They are almost all here, with the exception of Hitler, Goebbels and Himmler. Let's name these disgusting inhabitants of the fascist jungle, who for so long reveled in human grief and blood with impunity.
The fat, bloated python is Hermann Goering, Hitler’s “faithful paladin”,
as he called himself. Already in 1918, his name appeared on the list of war criminals of the First World War. Four years later, he met Hitler for the first time and since then became person No. 2 in the fascist hierarchy, and grabber and robber No. 1. In the dock, in Hitler’s absence, he took first place, and even this flattered his monstrous arrogance.
This humanoid is Rudolf Hess, the party deputy of the “Fuhrer,” who served with Hitler in the same regiment during the First World War. In the 20s, chance brought them together again - they were sitting in the same prison cell. There, on the bunk, Rudolf took shorthand, under Adolf’s dictation, of the book that became the bible of Nazism - Mein Kampf. Under the same dictation, Hess subsequently drew up and signed the notorious Nuremberg racial laws - the quintessence of obscurantism. Before the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR, Hess, on behalf of the Nazis,
top, made his “unauthorized” flight to England in order to enlist the support of the English reactionary clique.
This mangy hyena is the once brilliant veil and elegant diplomat Joachim von Ribbentrop, former Reich Foreign Minister, whose main profession is a champagne merchant. He won Hitler's favor with his extraordinary skill in international intrigue, provocation and blackmail, for which he was awarded the honorary title of SS Obergruppenführer.

One of the most disgusting Gestapo vultures is Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Himmler’s deputy chief executioner and head of the SD (security service) - the so-called “Gestapo within the Gestapo”. Organizer of the most terrible death camps - Mauthausen, Buchenwald, Auschwitz, Treblinka...
Seasoned fascist wolf Wilhelm Keitel. Not so long ago, sparkling feld-
wearing marshal's regalia, he posed with Hitler for photographers, accepting the surrender of France. And in May 1945, in Karlshorst, he had to, placing the field marshal’s baton on the table, sign the act of complete and unconditional surrender of Germany. It is deeply symbolic that it was this constant co-author of all Hitler’s military adventures who signed for the collapse of the fascist strategy.
The cowardly and evil jackal is Alfred Rosenberg, Hitler’s assistant in the “ideology” and “philosophy” of Nazism, the author of a number of “works” preaching the “cult of Wotan”, “Aryan purity of the race” and similar misanthropic nonsense, which he, unfortunately , had the opportunity to turn it into reality as Reich Minister “for the Eastern Occupied Territories.”
A ferocious and poisonous reptile is Hans Frank, the governor and executioner of the Polish “Government General”, who destroyed millions of Poles.
Perhaps there is no need to show other Nazi criminals sitting in the dock - no less vile and bloody fascist beasts. I would just like to note that Soviet cartoonists had a rare stroke of luck: they were able to sketch the models of their anti-fascist cartoons from life. And they did this in Nuremberg - the same city that the Nazis proclaimed as the “holy capital” of Nazism and which, during the Nuremberg trials, became the place for the Judgment of Nations and severe retribution for criminals.

The International Military Tribunal completed its work at the end of September 1946. Despite the sophisticated casuistry of the lawyers of fascism, despite the shameless lies and cowardly evasions of the accused, the judges - representatives of four powers: the Soviet Union, the United States, Great Britain and France - irrefutably established crimes against peace, humanity, morality and international law, committed by Nazi robbers, and 12 of them were sentenced to death.
This verdict was greeted with a feeling of deep satisfaction by all the honest people of the earth, who saw in it not only a merciless punishment for what the fascists had committed, but also a stern warning to all future warmongers, all organizers of aggression against freedom-loving peoples.
Such a warning was far from unnecessary.
After all, although the world had only just sighed after the war tragedy it had experienced, although burnt cities still lay in countless ruins and the hellish ovens of Majdanek and Auschwitz had not yet cooled down, although the mental and physical wounds of millions had not yet healed, and children had not yet become accustomed to the peaceful sky above their heads , - and have already appeared politicians, who began to unite the forces of reaction and counter-revolution and sat down to develop plans for a new anti-Soviet imperialist war.

The twelfth hour of fascist criminals.
Happy New [and last for them] Year!
Hitler’s aggressors were still sitting in the dock in Nuremberg, and the world was once again filled with hysterical cries about the “communist danger”, about the “Soviet threat”, about a new “crusade” against the USSR, about the “throwing back” of socialism.
These warlike calls were made on March 5, 1946 by none other than Sir Winston Churchill, our old acquaintance from the “Campaign of the Fourteen Powers.” The declaration of the Cold War on the Soviet Union came from the lips of a seasoned English imperialist in the American town of Fulton and symbolized a kind of passing of the anti-Soviet baton into the hands of the senior Washington partner, who from now on assumed the functions of the main international gendarme. Then-US President Truman, who brought Churchill to Fulton, was delighted. Still would!
Big American business, fattened on war profits, was uncontrollably rushing to war-torn Europe. He hoped that a dollar handout to the Old World would not only allow the weakened Western European countries to be enslaved under the banner of their “protection from Bolshevism,” but would also result in huge profits. Direct use
The implementer of this plan was the US Secretary of State, General George Marshall, and the plan named after him became synonymous with unceremonious economic expansion and the strangulation of the national independence of countries reaching out for American “help.”
Almost twenty years will pass before, for example, the French Marianne escapes from the tenacious embrace of Uncle Sam.
The economic dictatorship of the United States was reinforced by military-political: co-
NATO was created - the North Atlantic Pact, the aggressive sting of which is directed against the USSR and other socialist countries. Soon many more blocs and pacts will appear, aimed against social progress, freedom and independence of peoples.
US secretaries of state changed - after Marshall came Ache-son, John Foster Dulles and others, but the US imperialist course of exacerbating international tension remained unchanged. The principle of unanimity of the permanent members of the Security Council, the so-called “veto power,” has come under particularly vehement (albeit fruitless) attacks.
Scares the faint of heart...
Noise concert of Anglo-American blackmailers.
Dollar system...
Path of some European politicians.
On the surface and in the depths...
Anti-Soviet stuff in a “defensive” bag.

Forrestal is a somewhat tragicomic figure. As US Secretary of Defense, he diligently fanned the war psychosis. But he overdid it so much that he himself ended up in a psychiatric hospital. One day, when I heard a siren from the street fire brigade, Forrestal lost all composure and shouted: “Russian tanks
they're coming!" - jumped out of the window of a multi-story building. Apparently, in this case, the lack of a straitjacket played a fatal role.
Doesn't this remind us of the usefulness of the straitjacket for warmongers and, so to speak, on a larger scale?
In pursuing its aggressive policy, American imperialism made the main
a new bid for monopoly possession of the atomic bomb. The heralds of aggression shouted hysterically about their atomic power, identifying it with international lawlessness and tyranny.
One fine day (we can say more precisely - September 25, 1949) the American atomic blackmail burst like a soap bubble: TASS reported that the Soviet Union possesses atomic weapons, which from now on protect the gains of October, the interests of universal peace, democracy and socialism.
At the same time, the Soviet country is developing a broad, worldwide campaign to preserve and strengthen peace. Millions of people all over the world add their signatures to the Stockholm Peace Appeal.
Forrest L. - Who's next, gentlemen!
Keep it up!
Molded blackmail.
- I’ve already seen these signatures somewhere.
- In my opinion, at the Reichstag...
In the year 1950, the Korean people became a victim of imperialist intervention. For three years in a row, under the cover of the blue flag of the UN, American aggressors will try to enslave this people and destroy the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. For three years in a row, Korean homes will burn, burned with napalm, and human blood will be shed. And at the same time, the mellifluous speeches of Washington diplomats will flow from the UN rostrum and the yapping of the Taiwanese puppet will be heard.
Apparently, not everyone benefits from history lessons...
Indeed: as if there was no Hitler and the fascist intervention in Spain, Munich and Pearl Harbor, Maida Neck and Nuremberg! American imperialism is again feeding the German militarists, it is again nurturing, repairing and mending the Wehrmacht generals hung with Iron Crosses, training them against the Land of the Soviets.
The inhabitants of the White House and the Pentagon have short memories...
It is not surprising that revanchist language was openly spoken in Bonn. On the front stage international politics“Cold War Chancellor” Konrad Adenauer rants. Motley enemies of peace and socialism, united by the slogan of anti-communism, are moving along common rails - Pentagon nuclear generals, “mad” congressmen, half-dead Nazis, West German revanchists, all kinds of counter-revolutionary evil spirits.
Ghosts that return...

On the eve of May Day 1960, Soviet missilemen shot down an American U-2 spy plane piloted by pilot Powers with the first shot in the Sverdlovsk area. The Washington organizers of this provocative flight appeared before the whole world as the perpetrators of a most dangerous adventure, and the open trial of Powers did not at all help to raise the prestige of the United States.
Here is a review of the events of the week, typical for a certain period in the life of the Washington White House. As usual, it is turbulent in various parts of the world and, as usual, very calm on the lawns of the presidential residence. Dwight Eisenhower is busy with his main business - playing golf. This innocent passion of an elderly president sometimes costs the American people dearly.
The adventurism and recklessness of American bosses are challenging the world again
to the brink of war. This time the hottest spot on the planet is the Caribbean Sea. The object of aggression is free Cuba. However, a landing of counter-revolutionaries abandoned from the United States found a grave in the “Bay of Pigs” - Cochinos near Playa Giron.
More than once or twice, the Soviet Union suggested moving from talk to concrete constructive measures for disarmament, which the peoples bearing the burden of military budgets are eagerly awaiting. But this does not suit the imperialists and arms manufacturers. They use all sorts of excuses, speculate in every possible way about the issue of control, and most of all they like to retell the “fairy tale about the white bull.” Performed by bourgeois diplomacy, this work of folklore has long surpassed the classic “Tales of 1001 Nights” in length.
We got into trouble.
Pentabonne torpedo-provocative device.
On the summit meeting, on international cooperation and friendship - come on!
International Games
- Look, Uncle Sam, how high our prestige has risen!
Uncle Sam. - I'm afraid you guys are looking at him upside down.
Cuba is on guard.
Knots for memory...
Megillah
“Darling” is recognized by his gait.
Western sentences (with tricks).
Soviet proposal (without tricks).

This drawing was made in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Its theme is dictated by the atmosphere of the independent policy of peace and neutrality that the Khmer state adheres to. Ancient Cambodia continues to be the target of threats and blackmail from the United States. But... the eye sees, but the tooth numbs.
The consistent and firm foreign policy of the Soviet Union defended peace between nations and prevented the Cold War from escalating into a hot one. But imperialism does not intend to give up its predatory plans; it does not benefit from the easing of international tension. Here and there they appear globe hotbeds of armed conflicts, sabotage, bloody conspiracies and military coups committed in the interests of the colonialists and monopolies. Networks of intrigue are being woven against the young African states that have recently won independence, and the sinister activities of imperialist agents in Asian countries do not stop for a minute.
In the center of Europe, Bundeswehr generals dream of nuclear weapons, using all possible methods and means to make their way to mastering them, using their participation in NATO for this. Specific representatives of revanchist movements appear and disappear from the political scene.
trends. Speidel and Erhard, Heusinger and Seebohm, and various other Bonn politicians and generals flashed before us. The names are different, but the essence remains the same - this is open pandering to neo-Nazis, patronage of yesterday's war criminals, persistent unwillingness to reckon with the existence of an increasingly stronger peace-loving state of German workers and peasants - the German Democratic Republic, arrogant claims to West Berlin, provocative demands for the 1937 borders and admission to atomic weapons. And all this is “within the framework of NATO.”
Yes, it is “within the framework of NATO” that American imperialism is doing everything to revive German militarism and use it as a striking force against the socialist countries, and above all against the USSR.
And in this situation fraught with danger to the world, the British lion again appears in his already familiar subordinate role. It’s a pathetic sight: the lion’s tail is unceremoniously stepped on not only by the foot of the “senior American partner” and the boot of a Bundeswehr soldier, but also by the heel of a “loyal subject” of the British crown, the Southern Rhodesian racist Ian Smith.
The predatory paws of the “free world”.
Colonizers, get out of Africa!
Bonn bell ringer.
Twenty years later
Mission accomplished, my Fuhrer!
Ready to press the button...
Nuclear tête-à-tête.
The Bundeswehr generals are losing their heads.
“Integration” of Latin America according to the Pentagon plan.
Modern means for old architecture.
He's mad. - What, he's mad or something!!
Armaments and business. Speakers in the US Senate.
The second half of the 20th century will resonate in history with the pain of the bleeding wound of Vietnam. Armed to the teeth and brutalized by failure, Yankee imperialism is unable to break the heroic resistance of a small freedom-loving people. Thousands of American aircraft and American soldiers are being sacrificed to the insane “escalation” of the Pentagon, which is trying in vain to find a way out of the impasse of its aggressive adventure on Vietnamese soil. The endless shuffling and “reorganization” of the Saigon puppet does not provide relief either.
more precisely cliques. No matter what barbaric methods of warfare the American aggressors resort to, no matter how they expand their bloody “escalation,” the criminal intervention in Vietnam is doomed to an inglorious failure.
Troubles in NATO are also not helping to keep Washington in a good mood. The position of France, which delicately escorted the headquarters of the North Atlantic bloc from its territory, speaks of a serious crisis for this aggressive organization.
The "freedom" they would like to impose on the world...
American "footholds" in South Vietnam.
Consultations are continuing in Saigon on the issue of government reorganization.
From step to step (Washington “escalator” in Vietnam).
Manila meeting at my high level.
“Seeing off” an overstaying guest.
Birds that were not discussed at the poultry congress.
The Pentagon VULTURE is circling over Vietnam.
The revanchist CAPPIECERY roars.
A worthy successor to McCarthy, Senator Pup, is making noise.
A wet CHICKEN holds up the British Lion in front of the racist TURKEY Smith.
Mad, mad, mad, free world...
A picture for memory.
On the left is a reproduction of a drawing published in Izvestia in 1941.
Our historical review is coming to an end.
Inspired by the light of Lenin's ideas, in the consciousness of their indestructible strength, full of inexhaustible creative energy, the multinational Soviet people, a heroic people, a working people, came to the fiftieth anniversary of the Great October Revolution.
And let those who, for their part, can “celebrate” the fiftieth anniversary of the furious
of numerous and unsuccessful attempts to destroy or at least weaken the Soviet state, let them once again think about the unenviable fate of all who, at different times and at different stages of our history, raised their hands against the Soviet Power.
And let the unlucky enemies and spiteful critics of the Soviet people, repeatedly beaten and shamefully sunk into oblivion, be remembered for the last time with contemptuous ridicule by the caricatures collected here.
I have never met a person indifferent to satirical graphics - caricature, cartoon, humorous drawing. Whether printed in a newspaper or pasted on a stand, a caricature always and everywhere attracts attention. You can miss this or that note, article, even a photograph, but it is impossible not to notice a caricature.
And not only because a satirical drawing among the text is itself an attractive visual spot for the eye. Caricature (I mean, first of all, journalistic caricature) has at all times and eras aroused increased interest as a unique, whimsical and sharp form of art, carrying a civic, purposeful meaning in its cheerful and mischievous form.
The cradle of Soviet political caricature was Lenin's Pravda. And after it, Izvestia and other Soviet newspapers made a satirical drawing the same integral and obligatory element of a newspaper page as an editorial or feuilleton. And it is not surprising: by its very nature, caricature is organically connected with the press, with journalism, being the most mobile, operational genre of fine art, capable of immediately, immediately responding to events, capable of keeping pace with the topic of the day.
There is no greater joy and pride for an artist than the feeling close connection his creativity with the life of society. That is why the political cartoonist experiences deep inner satisfaction, having the happy opportunity to express the feelings and thoughts of the people immediately, without delay, hot on the heels of events.
While easel painting, graphics and even printed posters are still in motion, a newspaper drawing is already carrying throughout the country the emotion of many millions of people expressed by the artist - their ridicule or contempt, indignation or joy.
It is not for nothing that a newspaper cartoon is compared to military reconnaissance, to the dashing cavalry of art, always ready for action, the first to come into contact with the latest events.
These valuable properties of topical caricature, however, dictate special, sometimes very difficult, working conditions for the newspaper artist, very far from those that exist, say, in a satirical magazine.
How is a magazine cartoon made? The theme of the drawing, as a rule, is born at special editorial meetings (“dark”) in a rather heated atmosphere of either serious or funny debates and bickering. Satirical themes and
The plots are proposed by the artists themselves or by satirists and iterators skilled in this matter, called “themists,” each topic is subject to collective discussion, after which it is accepted or rejected. In many cases, the proposed topic is supplemented during the discussion with new details, refined, or, as they say, “achieved.” It happens that the topic just doesn’t work out. Then they return to it at the next meeting, again “finishing off” and “holding out” until, through joint efforts, they find an acceptable solution.
After the topic is approved, the next stage begins: the topic goes into the hands of one of the magazine’s artists who has expressed a desire to work on it.
A few days later, the finished drawing is presented to the editorial board, which reviews the artists’ work together with the entire magazine staff. Various opinions, wishes, and advice are expressed. The caricature is more or less enthusiastically accepted or returned to the author for alterations and corrections. There are, of course, obvious defects.
The drawing, which has successfully passed through all these creative tests, goes into production and ten days later appears on the pages of the magazine.
Apollo, god of the arts. Artemis, goddess of the hunt. Hermes, messenger god.
By the way, about mods
Fashion shown in Newark, Fashion shown Fashion established in Bonn, Munich
Detroit and other US cities. in Greece. and other cities in Germany.
Musical Key of the Athenian Junta
NATO escalator.
Neo-Nazi march on Bonn... with seven castles.
Mutual attraction between Bonn and London.
Thus, from the emergence of a topic to the publication of a cartoon, at least two to three weeks pass.
Working on a cartoon for a newspaper is of a completely different nature. Here the creative production process is calculated not in days and weeks, but in hours and minutes. There are no meetings, discussions or councils in sight. A newspaper cartoonist is both a “themist” and a consultant. We urgently need a drawing for the current issue, and now everything depends on the artist’s ability to quickly and independently navigate the political situation, choose the right topic, find an interesting plot interpretation for it, a funny and intelligible satirical solution.
The artist draws while looking at his watch: after all, the newspaper page is signed for printing at the exact deadline, but you also need to take into account the time required to make the cliche. Often you have to finish your work in a feverish hurry, in the presence of a courier sent for the caricature. You have to draw in the editorial office itself, when a teletype tape with latest information or a still damp typographical print of a telegram, next to which a caricature should appear on the page.
Typically, the newspaper artist acts by saying in chess language, in conditions of acute time pressure, when only the most accurate and correct decisions are needed, and mistakes are already irreparable.
And it happens that with great chagrin and annoyance, a cartoonist reviews his work in the published issue of a newspaper, if this or that successful detail occurred to him too late, if he did not have time to correct this or that error that was not noticed in time. At such a moment, he thinks, not without envy, about his fellow graphic artists working on an easel drawing or book illustration, on which he can work leisurely, calmly, gradually, letting his work “sit down” so that after some time he can look at it with fresh eyes , consult with friends, see shortcomings, correct, improve, “reach out”, “finish off”...
But, alas, one can only dream about this. The pace and specificity of journalistic satire do not allow (and thank God!) to work with “coolness”, with academic slowness.
...A call from the editor: a drawing is needed for the issue. A glance at the clock. The artist has approximately one and a half hours at his disposal. It's not bad. A blank sheet of paper is placed on the desktop, and the plot solution of the caricature and the approximate composition of the drawing begin to take shape in your head.
First pencil strokes.
- What if we do it this way... Hm... No, let's try to rearrange the pieces. What if... Yeah, that's probably more interesting. Stop. This isn't a bad idea. No, it won't do. But there is something here. Come on...
From the chaos of lines, a rough draft of a caricature emerges. Now the pencil shades the back side of the paper, the main contours of the draft are transferred to another, blank sheet, the drawing is refined, acquired with additional details.
waist, the excess is removed, the pencil is replaced with a thin brush, and outlining with ink begins.
Meanwhile, the clock continues to tick inexorably, and the hands rotate around the dial, and the editorial office calls again:
- Darling! What are you doing?!
- Yes Yes! I'm finishing. Send it.
And at that moment, when the editorial courier rings the doorbell, the eraser removes the last traces of pencil from the cartoon and the drawing is put into the envelope. Time does not allow us to look at it again...

Boris Efimovich Efimov(real name Fridlyand, (September 15 (28), 1900, Kyiv - October 1, 2008, Moscow, Russia) - Soviet graphic artist, master of political caricature, People's Artist of the USSR (1967).

Hero Socialist Labor(1990), twice laureate of the Stalin Prize (1950, 1951), corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1954). The last year of his life (at the age of 107-108 years) he was the chief artist of the Izvestia newspaper. The name of Boris Efimov is included in the Guinness Book of Records.

Biography

Boris Fridlyand was born on September 15 (28), 1900 in Kyiv. Parents - Fridlyand Efim Moiseevich (1860-1945), an artisan shoemaker, and Rakhil Savelyevna (1880-1969). Boris began drawing at the age of five. After his parents moved to Bialystok, Boris entered a secondary school, where his older brother Mikhail also studied. There they published a handwritten school magazine together. My brother (future publicist and feuilletonist Mikhail Koltsov) edited the publication, and Boris illustrated. In 1915, he found himself in Kharkov - there was a war going on, and Russian troops were forced to leave the city of Bialystok.

In 1917, Boris Efimov was a 6th grade student at the Kharkov Real School. Having entered the seventh grade, he moved to Kyiv. In 1918, the first cartoons of Boris Efimov on Blok appeared in the Kiev magazine “Spectator”. In 1919, Efimov became one of the secretaries of the editorial and publishing department of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs of Soviet Ukraine.

Since 1920, Boris Efimov has worked as a cartoonist in the newspapers Kommunar, Bolshevik, and Visti, and as the head of the visual propaganda department of YugROST in Odessa.

Since 1922, the artist moved to Moscow, where he collaborated with the newspapers Pravda and Izvestia, with the magazine Krokodil, and since 1929 with the magazine Chudak.

After the arrest of M. Koltsov, he worked in book illustration. Since 1941 he returned to the genre of political cartoons.

In 1966-1990, Efimov was the editor-in-chief of the creative and production association “Agitplakat”. Author of politically topical cartoons on international topics.

Together with Denis, Moor, Brodaty, Cheremnykh, Kukryniksy, he created a unique phenomenon in world culture - “positive satire”.

He actively participated in all political campaigns of the Soviet government: the fight against the “social fascists” - the social democratic parties of the West, the fight against the Trotskyists, Bukharinists, etc., with cosmopolitans, with geneticists - “Weismannists-Morganists, murderers-fly-lovers”, with the Vatican , “killer doctors”, with Marshal Tito, with “enemy voices” - radio stations in Western Europe and America, etc.

In August 2002, he headed the caricature art department of the Russian Academy of Arts.

In 2006, Boris Efimov took part in the preparation of the publication of the book “Autograph of the Century”.

On September 28, 2007, on his 107th birthday, he was appointed to the position of chief artist of the Izvestia newspaper.

And at 107 years old, Boris Efimov continued to work. He mainly wrote memoirs and drew friendly cartoons, took an active part in public life, speaking at all kinds of memorable and anniversary meetings, evenings, and events.

Boris Efimov died on the night of October 1, 2008 in Moscow at the age of 109. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Cousin of the famous Soviet photographer and journalist Semyon Fridlyand.

Ambiguity in assessing Efimov’s activities

Irina Korshikova, the widow of the outstanding and brightest cartoonist of the “new wave” Vitaly Peskov, writes very warmly about the help provided by Boris Efimovich (the book “To Vitaly from Irina. In memory of the artist Vitaly Peskov”, Mir Collection, NY 2007; written in the form of a letter; shortened version of the book original website - http://www.peskov.org, parts 1 and 3; copying the text: Caricaturist.ru and Encyclopedia of Caricature):

part 1:
When your picture of a flock of birds flying in cages (my favorite picture) appeared in Literaturnaya Gazeta, you repeated this drawing for me. You drew it on dark paper - there was no other one. Or rather, there was a little - I got it for you in a special one for work store, the oldest cartoonist Boris Efimov - but don’t waste it on us!), very high authorities called the smaller ones and said over the phone: balance must be maintained! If you publish something like this, then there should be something else nearby, balancing...
part 3:
There is no paper, like anything else, in stores. The artist Boris Efimov gets it for you (he treats you with great love and admiration), and his grandson Vitya brings it. And this paper is not for mere mortals, it is strictly forbidden for me to use it for my notes, it is exclusively for your pictures.

However, there are cartoonists of the subsequent generation who cannot forgive the fact that Efimov did not consider them the best; in particular, M. Zlatkovsky wrote (see Cartunion; http://www.zlatkovsky.ru/text/file/?.txt=efimov), without citing sources, that B. Efimov made every effort in the ideological struggle against all new forms caricatures, “gluing” the labels of “anti-Soviet”, “admiration of the West”, “venality for currency” to the work of the younger generation. According to this version, Efimov regularly wrote denunciations and negative reviews of young authors and prevented their admission to creative unions. However, this version seems extremely unlikely. Much more trustworthy are not idle words, but specific memories of the widow of an outstanding caricaturist, an innovator in modern caricature, who always maintained honor and dignity under any power, and who certainly cannot be caught in an obsequious attitude towards those in power. Against this background, Boris Efimov’s accusations of informing on someone for “anti-Sovietism,” for “selling out for currency,” and the like, seem completely unlikely, especially if they are not supported by any factual materials.

We must not forget that his work fell on a very difficult period of the country’s development. Moreover, he went through a difficult path with her from the October Revolution to post-perestroika society and, unlike so many (for example, the Kukryniks, who did not recognize new aesthetic trends), he understood and accepted both new art and democratic social transformations.

Works

Works published in albums:

• "Political cartoons 1924-1934" (1935),
• “Fascism is the enemy of peoples” (1937),
• "Hitler and His Pack" (1943),
• "International Report" (1961),
• “Boris Efimov in Izvestia. Cartoons for half a century" (1969).

Awards

Essays

• Basics of understanding caricature. - M.: 1961.
• Fourty years. Notes of a satirist artist. - M.: Soviet artist, 1961. - 205 p.
• Work, memories, meetings. - M.: Soviet artist, 1963. - 192 p.
• I want to tell you. - M.: 1970. - 208 p.
• True stories. - M.: Soviet Artist, 1976. - 222 p.
• Contemporary of the century. Memories. - M.: 1987. - 347 p.
• Ten decades. What I saw, experienced, remembered. - M.: Vagrius, 2000. - 636 p. - .

Family

He was married twice; at the time of his death, his eldest son, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren were alive

• Koretskaya Rosalia Borisovna (1900-1969), 1st wife
  • Efimov Mikhail Borisovich (born 1929)
  • Efimova Irina Evgenievna (born 1929), his wife
    • Efimov Andrey Mikhailovich (born 1953)
    • Efimova Elena Vitalievna, his wife
      • Efimov Andrey Andreevich (born 1993)
      • Efimova Ekaterina Andreevna
• Fradkina Raisa Efimovna (1901-1985), 2nd wife
  • Alexander Borisovich Fradkin
    • Fradkin Viktor Aleksandrovich (born 1949)
    • Leskova Vera Anatolyevna, his wife
      • Fradkina Ksana Viktorovna

On October 1, 2008, the famous Soviet cartoonist Boris Efimov died in Moscow at the age of 109.

Boris Efimov (real name Fridland) is a Soviet and Russian graphic artist, master of political caricature, People's Artist of the USSR, academician of the USSR Academy of Arts, younger brother of the repressed famous Russian Soviet writer and journalist Mikhail Koltsov.

Boris Efimov lived a long life, full of historical events, he said: “Fate was favorable to me, he shook hands with Mussolini, dined with Tito, saw Trotsky into exile, spoke with Stalin on the phone and saw off Lunacharsky.”

Boris Efimov was born in Kyiv. Parents - Fridlyand Efim Moiseevich (1860-1945) and Rakhil Savelyevna (1880-1969). Boris began drawing at the age of five. After his parents moved to Bialystok, Boris entered a secondary school, where his older brother Mikhail also studied. There they published a handwritten school magazine together. My brother (future publicist and feuilletonist Mikhail Koltsov) edited the publication, and Boris illustrated. In 1915, he ended up in Kharkov - there was a war, and Russian troops were forced to leave the city of Bialystok.

The first cartoons of Boris Fridlyand were published in 1916 in the illustrated magazine “Sun of Russia”, popular in those years. Since 1920, Boris Efimov has worked as a cartoonist for various newspapers. In 1922, Boris Efimov moved and painted in the genre of political satire for Rabochaya Gazeta, Krokodil, Pravda, Izvestia, Ogonyok, Searchlight and many other publications. In 1932 he was awarded the title “Honored Artist of the RSFSR”. During the Great Patriotic War, Boris Efimov’s works were published on the pages of the newspaper “Red Star”, in the magazine “Front Illustration”, as well as in front-line, army, division newspapers and even on leaflets that were scattered behind the front line. Since 1965 and for almost 30 years, Boris Efimov headed as editor-in-chief the Creative and Production Association “Agitplakat” under the Union of Artists of the USSR, while remaining one of its most active authors.

In August 2002, Boris Efimov headed the caricature art department of the Russian Academy of Arts. In 2006, Boris Efimov took part in the preparation of the publication of the book “Autograph of the Century”. On September 28, 2007, on his 107th birthday, he was appointed to the position of chief artist of the Izvestia newspaper. At the age of 108, Boris Efimov continued to work - he wrote memoirs and drew friendly cartoons, took an active part in public life, speaking at all kinds of memorable and anniversary meetings, evenings, and events.

When politics becomes history

Radio Liberty columnist and writer Pyotr Weil talks about Boris Efimov: “On the walls of the Moscow bureau of Radio Liberty there are political cartoons of Boris Efimov, large, poster-sized, neatly framed. Just a dozen. Dated to different years - from the mid-60s to the late 80s. That is, there is also a story about perestroika, 1987, several people in striped trousers, black jackets and bow ties. They are perplexed and proclaim at random: “Perestroika is dangerous for the United States”; “Perestroika must be shackled”; “Perestroika must be welcomed.” The faces of these people are different: from unpleasant - to confused - to enlightened ones. The characters are more early years monotonously unpleasant. For example, those in the picture “Big Business and His Henchmen.” The business itself is a shapeless bag, and on leashes it has humanoid mongrels with names on leashes: “Sabotage”, “Bribery”, “Espionage”, “Corruption”. Humanoid crows cawing from the roofs of skyscrapers in another poster. There are signs on the skyscrapers: “Lie Tribune,” “Brechley News.” The topic of media continues in a variety of ways. Humanoid cats stage what is called the “Anti-Soviet Cat Concert.”

Humanoid snakes protrude from a barrel with the inscription “Provocation, lies, slander”: “Radio Liberty” and “Radio Free Europe”. A humanoid man with the letters “CIA” on his back uses arms and legs, only arms are missing, juggles small monsters: “Voice of America”, “Radio Free Europe”, “Radio Liberty”.
All these cartoons are monochrome, black and white. Two new ones are colored. A group of enthusiasts with joyfully focused faces rushes along, waving nets. Above them is the slogan: “Catch Freedom.” Below is the frequency: AM 1044. The signature is the same, familiar to millions: “Bor.Efimov.” Date - 2001. On the other - an inspired young man, also with a net, also catches "Freedom". Here the date is more precise - September 28, 2001. One hundred and one years is more than a century. In a world of such large, almost incomprehensible numbers, quantity becomes quality. The artist is a witness. Ideology is a chronicle. Politics is history."

Citizen of three centuries

Boris Efimov was twice awarded the Stalin Prize, was a Hero of Labor and a member of the USSR Academy of Arts. Radio Liberty has also repeatedly been the target of Boris Efimov’s propaganda wit. In the last years of his life, the artist was a guest of our radio several times. And three years ago, an exhibition of his cartoons was held in Prague, and the artist visited the headquarters of Radio Liberty, where he answered questions from RS columnist Ivan Tolstoy. Here is an excerpt from that conversation.

Boris Efimovich, in his youth, when a person has a choice of profession, he hesitates between one and the other. You chose to draw, but what did you reject, what did you discard in your career?

You know, somehow it turned out very difficult and unpredictable for me. I didn't have any specific attraction. Besides, I didn't even know who to be. At first it occurred to me to become a lawyer. I really liked the profession of a lawyer. Then the names of Karabchevsky, Plevako, Gruzenberg and so on thundered across the country. I thought it was beautiful and I would go to law school at university. And began to cram Latin language, which was necessary for admission to this faculty. And then it all somehow went wrong, I didn’t turn out to be a lawyer, and then events came that dictated completely different paths, other activities, and I went with the flow, which led me to my profession as a satirical artist. She also came in handy.

Boris Efimovich, what about your first drawings? After all, you were born in the 19th century, and, as you said, you lived 95 days in the 19th century...

Just like a pharmacy. And I consider myself a citizen of three centuries.

And, therefore, before the revolution, before 1917, you were already an adult young man and more than once held a pencil in your hands. What were your first drawings? Are they left?

My first drawings are impressions of the Civil War in Kyiv, in my hometown. The government there changed twelve times. This should not be understood to mean that there were twelve different authorities. These were the main three forces that replaced each other, and not according to a peace agreement, but with battles and bombings, with executions. You had to see all this, experience it, sometimes you had to sit in the basement for several hours while the city was being bombed by the next government. Therefore, childhood and adolescence were restless, frankly speaking. But drawing was a pleasure for me, because all these forces that occupied the city in turn were very picturesque. And I sketched them in their typical uniform, clothing, weapons, with all sorts of details that characterized them. For example, there was such a force - Ukrainian nationalists. They were simply called Petliurists, after their leader Simon Petlyura. These were these hats with long tails. They were called shlyki. Red, green... It was picturesque.

The future famous cartoonist was born on September 15 (28), 1900 in Kyiv in the family of artisan shoemaker Efim Moiseevich Fridland. He took the pseudonym under which he became known first to the whole country, and then to the whole world, in honor of his father. He began drawing at the age of five, but in his own words, he did not think about becoming an artist and never studied to become an artist. Drawing was just a hobby, and he mostly drew funny people.

At the beginning of the new century, the Friedland family moved to Bialystok (now located in Poland), where the future artist entered a secondary school. His older brother Mikhail, the future famous publicist Mikhail Koltsov, author of the famous “Spanish Diary,” also studied there. In August 1914, the First World War began, and in the summer of 1915 the front was rapidly approaching Bialystok - there was a strategic retreat of the Russian army, which went down in history as the Great Retreat of 1915. Residents of Bialystok learned what aerial bombing was - German airplanes and zeppelins regularly appeared over the city. Following the Russian army, Bialystok was also abandoned by those residents who did not want to live under the Germans. The Fridlyand family was divided - the parents returned to Kyiv, Mikhail went to Petrograd, and Boris moved to Kharkov, where he was enrolled as a refugee in the 5th grade of the local real school.

Back in Bialystok, Mikhail and Boris published a handwritten school magazine - Mikhail wrote the texts, Boris drew the illustrations. Boris did not give up his hobby in Kharkov. He sent his drawings to his brother in Petrograd. Mikhail studied at the Psychoneurological Institute and at the same time made a career as a journalist - his feuilletons and essays were published in the capital's newspapers. In addition, he himself edits the progressive magazine “The Path of Students”. Boris, of course, did not have much hope of seeing his drawings - cartoons and caricatures on the pages of the capital's press, but in 1916, leafing through the popular magazine "Sun of Russia", he finds his drawing there - a cartoon of the Chairman of the State Duma Rodzianko occupies half of one of the pages . Under the drawing there is a signature "Bor. Efimov".

The year 1917 arrived. Boris learned that the February Revolution had taken place in the capital in the theater - someone from the theater administration came on stage and read out from a piece of paper the text about the abdication of the Tsar. Both the audience and the actors greeted this news with an ovation and a performance of La Marseillaise.

In the summer, having received documents about graduating from the next class of a real school, Boris goes to his parents in Kyiv. At the same time, the older brother also arrives in Kyiv. In February he was in the thick of things. As part of the student militia, he even took part in the arrest of a number of royal dignitaries. But the summer ended, his brother returned to the capital, and Boris remained in Kyiv and entered the third real school. After graduating, he entered the Kiev Institute of National Economy, from where he transferred to the Faculty of Law of Kyiv University. However, young people at that time had no time for studying - the authorities in the city were constantly changing - German invaders, Petliura, Skoropadsky, Rada, Directory, Hetmanate... But such frequent changes of authorities did not in any way prevent Boris from doing what he loved - drawing. In 1918, a selection of Efimov’s cartoons appeared in the Kiev magazine “Spectator”. The series of cartoons “Conquerors” also dates back to this time - a kind of sketches from life, a kind of graphic account of the modern history of Kyiv.

When Soviet power was established in Kyiv in the spring of 19, the young artist accepted it unconditionally. He goes to work as secretary of the editorial and publishing department of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs of Soviet Ukraine. Boris Efimov manages the production of newspapers, posters, and leaflets. But his brother, an employee of the newspaper "Red Army", who came to Kyiv, asks him to draw a caricature for this newspaper. The first cartoon was followed by a second, a third... According to his own recollections, it was then that Boris Efimov realized that the ability to draw funny is not pampering or a “hobby”, it is a weapon that the revolution needed.
Since 1920, Boris Efimov has worked as a cartoonist for the newspapers Kommunar, Bolshevik, and Visti. Heads the visual propaganda department of YugROSTA (ROSTA - Russian Telegraph Agency) in Odessa. Kyiv, meanwhile, is in the hands of the White Poles and Petliurists. But Boris did not believe that he hometown will remain in the hands of the enemy for a long time and asked to be transferred from YugROST to the political department of the 12th Army, located not far from Kyiv. He had hoped to work in the newspaper of this army, but instead he was appointed as an instructor in visual propaganda for the Administration of Railway Propaganda Posts. In this position, he tries himself in a new genre - he takes part in the creation of a large propaganda panel at the station in Kharkov. Returning to liberated Kyiv, he became the head of the art and poster department of the Kyiv branch of UkrROSTA and led the campaign for the Kyiv railway junction.
At the same time, he publishes his cartoons in popular newspapers in Kyiv.
And in 1922, Boris Efimov moved to Moscow and became the youngest employee of the Izvestia newspaper. Political satire becomes his main genre. His works are published in other metropolitan newspapers, including the main party newspaper Pravda. Leading Western politicians become the heroes of his cartoons. Already in 1924, the publishing house of the newspaper Izvestia published the first collection of his works. By the way, the preface to this collection and an enthusiastic review of it were written by Lev Davydovich Trotsky, at that time still a member of the Central Committee, a hero of the Civil War, one of the leaders.

Efimov also draws leaders. But, of course, he draws not caricatures, but friendly caricatures. True, these cartoons had to be shown to the leaders themselves before being published. A caricature of Stalin by Efimov has been preserved, but according to the artist’s recollection, Stalin did not approve it - he did not like the fact that he was drawn in huge soldier’s boots. However, this unsuccessful cartoon subsequently had no consequences for the artist - Stalin had everything in order with a sense of humor.

Also in 1924, Efimov’s first foreign business trip took place. The first business trip was followed by others. For example, in 1929, he and his brother Mikhail took part in the European tour of the Wings of the Soviets aircraft (ANT-9, one of the first Soviet-made passenger aircraft). The artist had the opportunity to see the heroes of his cartoons “live”. For example, he was part of the Soviet delegation, which was received by Benito Mussolini.
Throughout the twenties and thirties, the artist created a gallery of vivid and memorable images of European politicians - the thug Mussolini, the clown Hitler, the monkey Goebbels, the hog Goering. These characters were drawn by many Soviet cartoonists, but Efimov’s works, thanks to his unique style, were among the most successful. Sometimes they were so successful that they became the cause of protest notes. One after another, collections of Efimov’s cartoons “The Face of the Enemy” (1931), “Caricature in the Service of the Defense of the USSR” (1931), “Political Caricatures” (1931), “A Way Out Will Be Found” (1932), “Political Caricatures” (1935) were published. , “Fascism is the enemy of peoples” (1937), “Warmongers” (1938), “Fascist interventionists in Spain” (1938).

In December 1938, Mikhail Koltsov, the artist’s brother, was arrested. He was recalled from Spain, where he was officially listed as a correspondent for Pravda, and unofficially was a political adviser, a representative of the Soviet Union to the republican government. And, of course, he did various kinds"unofficial" assignments. The republican government consisted of representatives of all varieties of leftist movements in Europe, and directing the activities of this government in the right direction was one of Koltsov’s responsibilities. But he also coped with his correspondent work brilliantly - his “Spanish Diary” was one of the most popular books in our country. He was charged with espionage, standard for the period of the Great Terror, and on February 2, 1940, he was shot.

Boris Efimov, as the brother of an enemy of the people, was waiting for his own arrest. But no one was in a hurry to accuse him of connections with enemies of the people or espionage. True, in the first days of 1939, the editor-in-chief of Izvestia, Yakov Grigorievich Selikh, said that no one was firing Efimov, but no one would publish his work in the newspaper either. And Boris Efimov wrote a statement “on at will"It turned out to be impossible to find a job in his specialty. The only job he found was creating a series of illustrations for the works of Saltykov-Shchedrin commissioned by the State literary museum V. D. Bonch-Bruevich. But in February 1940, a call came from the editorial office of the Trud newspaper - Efimov was offered to work for this newspaper. His cartoons returned to the pages of Soviet newspapers.
And then it happened June 22, 1941. Already on the sixth day of the war, Boris Efimov took part in the creation of "TASS Windows" - the direct successor to the legendary "ROSTA Windows" from the Civil War. Posters for "Windows" are drawn in hot pursuit immediately after receiving the next front-line report and immediately go into circulation. In addition to posters, Efimov continues to draw cartoons for leading newspapers. In search of stories, he often goes on business trips to the front.

The artist’s archive contains numerous reviews from the most demanding critics - fighters from the front line. Here are a few of these reviews:

Dear comrade. Efimov! Draw more... Caricatures are a weapon that can not only make you laugh, but also cause ardent hatred, contempt for the enemy and make you fight even harder and destroy the damned Nazis. Dukelsky Ilya. Field post 68242.

Your weapon, the weapon of the Soviet artist, is a great force in the fight against the Nazi invaders. If you only knew how impatiently we, the army men, await each new issue of the newspaper “Red Star”... P/n 24595. V. Ya. Kornienko.

Happy New Year, dear Comrade Efimov! A group of front-line soldiers from the N unit sends you greetings and wishes you a Happy New Year. We wish you success in your fruitful and great job. It’s hard to convey how impatiently we look forward to each of your caricatures of those who will soon fall under our blows. The day is not far when we will see the leaders of Hitler's Germany hanged on the German Christmas tree. Greetings and good wishes front-line soldiers Leontiev, Evseev, Tleshov and others. P/n 18868.

During the war years, there were works by Efimov that caused an international resonance - his cartoons about the second front were also published in British newspapers. Moreover, the content of these cartoons was retold on the radio. However, the Allies still delayed the opening of the second front until June 5, 1944, i.e. until the moment when the outcome of the war was already obvious to everyone.

Cartoon by Efimov, published in the Manchester Guardian

The famous collection of cartoons “Hitler and His Pack” also received recognition in the Allied countries (we talked about it in more detail). The famous British cartoonist David Lowe (whom Efimov knew personally) spoke of these works as follows:

"Efimov's cartoons, collected in the album, reveal a feature that deserves special attention: their imagination and creative method do not pose any difficulties for British perception. Apparently, Russian feeling humor is very close to the British... Russians love laughter, and, moreover, laughter that is understandable to us, the British.
It is possible that Efimov’s collection will accelerate this discovery, which in the end will have a deeper influence on the mutual understanding of the British and Russian peoples than a whole cartload of diplomatic notes.”

Efimov had a chance to look at those representatives of Hitler’s pack who did not commit suicide following the example of their Fuhrer in Nuremberg on famous trial. Efimov saw Hitler only once, in the early thirties, briefly, when he was returning through Berlin from Paris to Moscow. He happened to be at the Hindenburg Palace (at that time he was still alive) just at the moment when the Fuhrer came out of the palace and hurriedly walked to his limousine. And now, Efimov, one of the accredited Soviet correspondents at the trial, had the opportunity to draw his “favorite” characters from life.

"Hitler. Sketch from life." Efimov caught a glimpse of Hitler in Berlin in 1933

Here, for example, is Efimov’s impression of Hermann Goering, one of the main defendants in the trial:

During one of the short breaks, when the defendants were not taken out of the hall, it happened to go up to the barrier itself and, standing one and a half meters from Goering (you can reach it with your hand...), stare at him intently. So in the terrarium of the zoo you closely and intently study a fat boa constrictor moving its disgusting rings, which, by the way, was very reminiscent of Goering with his cold, evil reptile eyes, frog-like mouth, and sliding movements of his heavy body.
At first Goering pretends not to pay any attention to the annoying staring. Then it begins to irritate him, and he nervously turns away, casting a fierce glance from under his brows. Our eyes meet for a split second, and for some reason I am reminded of the captured Field Marshal Trebon from Feuchtwanger’s “The False Nero.”

Zhdanov continued:
- Comrade Stalin roughly imagines this picture: General Eisenhower with a huge army is rushing to the Arctic, and right there a simple American stands next to him and asks: “What’s the matter, General? Why such vigorous military activity in this deserted area?” And Eisenhower replies: “How? Don’t you see that we are in danger from Russia from here?” Or something like that.
- No no. “Why anything else,” I said hastily. - I think it's very cool. Let me, Andrey Alexandrovich, I’ll draw it like that.
“Well, please,” said Zhdanov. - I will tell Comrade Stalin this.
- Allow me, Andrei Alexandrovich, just one question.
- Please.
- When is this needed?
- When? - Zhdanov thought for a second. - Well, we're not rushing you. But there is no need to delay too much.
Already on the way home, I began to reflect on this vague answer. “We’re not rushing you” means that if I draw a cartoon in a day or two, they might say: “I was in a hurry. I didn’t take Comrade Stalin’s task seriously. I cheated...” This is oh so dangerous. And if you bring the drawing four or five days later, they may say: “Detained... Delayed. Didn’t take into account the efficiency of Comrade Stalin’s task...”. This is even more dangerous.
I decided to choose the “golden mean”: start work tomorrow, finish the next day and on the third day call Zhdanov’s secretariat that everything is ready.
That's what I did. The next morning I put down a large sheet of whatman paper (I made the usual drawings for the newspaper on a quarter of a sheet, but in this case...) and, slowly, got to work. It was not particularly difficult to depict General Eisenhower on a jeep near a stereo tube, leading a formidable armada of tanks, guns and aircraft, as well as an “ordinary American” next to him. But how can one portray in a funny way (“...This matter must be shot with laughter...”) the mythical “Russian danger” - a pretext for invasion? After thinking, I drew a small yurt, near which stands a lonely Eskimo, staring in surprise at the approaching army. Next to him is a small Eskimo holding a popular chocolate ice cream on a stick at that time, the so-called popsicle. Two bear cubs, a deer, a walrus and... a penguin, which, as you know, is not found in the Arctic, also look at Eisenhower and his army in astonishment.
Having completed this entire sketch in pencil, I decided that I had had enough for today. I put the drawing aside, stretched sweetly and... at that moment the bell rang phone call:
- Comrade Efimov? Wait by the phone. Comrade Stalin will speak to you.
I wake up. After a rather long pause, I heard a slight cough and a voice familiar to millions of people:
- Comrade Zhdanov spoke to you yesterday about a certain satire. Do you understand what I am talking about?
- I understand, Comrade Stalin.
- You are portraying one person there. Do you understand who I'm talking about?
- I understand, Comrade Stalin.
- So, this person must be portrayed in such a way that she is, as they say, armed to the teeth. There are all sorts of planes, tanks, guns. Do you understand?
For a split second, an absurd and mischievous flash flashed in the distant convolutions of the brain: “Comrade Stalin! And I already drew it! I guessed it myself!” But naturally I answered out loud:
- I see, Comrade Stalin.
- When can we get this thing?
- Uh... Comrade Zhdanov said that there is no need to rush...
- We would like to have it by six o'clock today.
- Okay, Comrade Stalin.
“They will come to you at six o’clock,” the owner said and hung up.
I looked at the clock - half past three, then looked with horror at the drawing. It was still necessary to clarify various details, so far only sketched out in pencil, then outline this entire complex multi-figure drawing with ink, erase traces of the pencil, write the text - work for at least the whole day. And I felt like I was in the shoes of a chess player, caught in severe time pressure, when there is not a single extra second to think, search for options, correct mistakes, and you only have to make the most accurate, unique, error-free moves. But the chess player still has the opportunity to win back in another game. I didn't have such an opportunity. I knew that the Master did not like it when his instructions were not followed. When he is informed that the drawing was not received on time, he will most likely instruct Comrade Beria to “figure it out.” And it will take Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria no more than forty minutes to get me to admit that I thwarted the mission of Comrade Stalin on the instructions of American intelligence, in whose service I have been for many years. Moreover, with Stalin’s phenomenal memory, or rather rancor, he knew very well that I was the brother of Mikhail Koltsov, who, on his instructions, was arrested and shot as an “enemy of the people” even before the war. Who could know what this terrible, unpredictably capricious man would do in one case or another... But, apparently, it was destined for me that by some miracle I managed to finish the drawing and hand it to the courier who arrived at exactly six o’clock.
The next day passed without any events, but the next morning the phone rang: “Comrade Zhdanov asks you to come to him at the Central Committee at one o’clock in the afternoon.”
“Why might I be needed? - I thought. - If you didn’t like the drawing, then why would they call me? To inform about it? Such ceremonies are hardly possible. They would simply call another artist, most likely the Kukryniksy. And if you liked ? Then, in the best case, they would inform him by telephone. No, there could clearly be some amendments. First, Stalin found that the Eisenhower I recently saw did not look much like him. came to Moscow and stood next to the Boss at the parade of athletes. Second: the northern lights I depicted in the picture do not look like. I carefully redrew it from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, but Stalin saw it personally in Turukhansk exile.”
Zhdanov kindly came to meet me from the depths of his huge office and, friendlyly supporting me by the waist, led me to a long conference table standing perpendicular to the monumental desk. It was on the conference table that I saw my drawing.
“Well,” he said, “we looked at it and discussed it.” There are amendments. They were made by the hand of Comrade Stalin,” Zhdanov added, looking at me meaningfully. I bowed my head silently.
“By the way,” he continued, “half an hour ago Comrade Stalin called and asked if you had arrived yet.” I said that you are already here and waiting in my waiting room.
“Phantasmagoria,” I thought. “A nightmare. Stalin asks Zhdanov about me... Well, well... Tell me about this - who will believe it?..”
Looking at my drawing again, I said:
- Andrey Alexandrovich! As far as I can see, the amendments, in general, relate more to the text, but according to the drawing, it seems...
“Yes, yes,” said Zhdanov, “in general there are no objections to the drawing.” True, some members of the Politburo expressed the opinion that Eisenhower’s butt was too accentuated. But Comrade Stalin did not attach any importance to this. Yes, according to the drawing everything is in order.
What amendments were made to my drawing “by the hand of Comrade Stalin”? First of all, on the top of the sheet was written in block letters "EISENHOWER DEFENSE" in red pencil and underlined with a light wavy line. Below, somewhere under the feet of the surprised Eskimo, “Se” is written in the same red pencil... But then the red pencil apparently broke, then in simple (black) - “... the right pole”, and lower down, along the edges drawing - "Alaska" and "Canada".
“Comrade Stalin said,” Zhdanov explained to me, “it must be absolutely clear that this is the Arctic, not Antarctica.”
Then the Owner took up the text I had written under the drawing. He replaced the words “violent activity” with “combat activity,” and “in this peaceful area” with “in this deserted area.” In what I wrote, “... what are the enemy forces concentrated here,” he, like a real literary editor, rearranged the words with one decisive stroke, so that it turned out - “... what enemy forces are concentrated here.”
The Leader crossed out the phrase “One of the opponents has already swung a grenade at us” (with this I wanted to humorously “beat” the chocolate popsicle in the Eskimo’s little hand) and wrote instead: “This is exactly where the threat to American freedom comes from.” The Leader and Teacher, however, was not satisfied with this: when he called Zhdanov and asked about me, he at the same time ordered to cross out the initial words “precisely” in the last sentence and write “precisely” in their place, which Zhdanov did.
With these amendments, the cartoon “Eisenhower Defends” was published two days later in Pravda. It must be said that the penguin depicted among the inhabitants of the Arctic did not escape the attention of readers. Sad remarks rained down, but when it became known that the drawing was approved by the Boss, the critics bit their tongues and the presence of penguins in the North Pole area was thus highly legitimized. And the cartoon went down in the history of the long-term Cold War as one of the first satirical arrows launched at former allies in the anti-Hitler coalition."

After the Great Patriotic War, Boris Efimov worked fruitfully for more than half a century. Listing the titles and awards that this artist was awarded will take too much space - State Prizes, and the Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor, and three Orders of Lenin, and three Orders of the Red Banner of Labor... One of the last awards of the artist was the Order of Peter the Great, 1st degree . After his 107th (!) birthday, he was appointed chief artist of the Izvestia newspaper.

Yes, he also had numerous critics - he was reproached for serving the authorities all his life. For example, he was friends with Bukharin, and then exposed him in his cartoons, he was one of those who accompanied Trotsky into exile, and then exposed him too. And during the years of perestroika, he drew caricatures of Stalin. But, read the responses of front-line soldiers given above. In our opinion, they “outweigh” any criticism. In addition, his cartoons are a vivid chronicle, reflecting all the main events in the history of our country for almost a century.
He died at the age of 109 on October 1, 2008. He happened to catch last days nineteenth century, live through the entire twentieth century and see the new millennium.