One of last people who saw Old Russia. A young man from an intelligent family, even before Great War- student of the Bialystok Real School, in 1917 - student of the Kyiv Institute of National Economy.
In 1919 in Kyiv - sketches of combatants of all stripes:
1918
2opena
wrote very well.
Written literally on the eve of death, but everything is true (the title of this post is his):
Boris Efimov. One hundred and eight years without remorse.
“While we are here growing spiritually and improving intellectually, the cartoonist of all times and peoples Boris Efimov celebrated his 108th birthday. But we didn’t notice (that is, we noticed, but a few days later). And the president noticed in time and said:
“You not only reflected, but also shaped the history of the 20th century. You always honestly and devotedly defended the interests of our country and its citizens. And millions of people answer you with sincere gratitude for the joy of meeting with your wonderful creativity.”
As a close friend of mine, whose opinion I respect, once told me: “Maybe God gives talented but unscrupulous people a chance to repent during their lifetime - and that’s why they live so long?”
( bumblebeat notes:
“These people knew how to survive. Molotov died at the 97th year of his life, Kaganovich at the 98th, Malenkov at the 87th, Voroshilov at the 89th, Budyonny at the 91st, ..."
Only in all of the listed cases - including Efimov - we have to talk about talent in a very specific sense - in the sense of talent to do great meanness - approx. )
No answer. Talented but unscrupulous people are in no hurry to chain themselves. They prefer to rewrite words national anthems(under which he cannot stand, but wants to lie down in shame) and portray as enemies those whom those in power point out to him.
The young almost artist Boris Fridland draws dashing anti-anarchist pictures. But, as soon as the wind of change corrects the direction of its blowing, Judas Trotsky appears in the pictures (who, by the way, before turning into Judas, wrote the preface to Efimov’s first book of cartoons):
(But recently he was not only the patron of Bor. Efimov, but also an icon and a good chemist - approx. tapirr)
The fight against enemies continues - you just need to be equipped with ironclad gloves:
Does the government not like capitalists? Get this, fascist nannies:
Has a second front opened? Yes, please – let’s immediately cry over the apotheosis of friendship between peoples of different systems:
Is the leader in charge? Let's draw:
How did life become? Correct, better, correct, more fun:
You can even very, very carefully draw something like... no, not a caricature, but such a pleasant portrait:
And when everything becomes completely permissible, in order not to lag behind the times, let us draw crushed tender beauty under the boot of the executioner and tyrant:
Have the capitalists disappeared? It's OK! The oligarchs remain! So now the clawed paws will belong to them:
And let’s project sweet, kind humor onto all the rulers at once:
Why not “honest and dedicated defense of interests”? Depending on the line and directive. Whatever you order, I will defend. Whoever you order, I’ll shit on him.
It seems disgusting to attack an old man who is over 100 years old - well, we won’t do that.( written, let me remind you, 1 day before death - approx.. ) If an old man for a hundred and eight years has not understood what conscience is, he will never understand. But a state that rewards low sycophancy... uh-uh... let's not talk about the state..."
What's the humor? Who is depicted? (Apparently there was also a signature)
stanis_sadal
“He managed to live 95 days in the 19th century, lived through the entire 20th century and found the 21st...
He saw Nicholas II, Lenin, drew Trotsky, Bukharin, with whom he was familiar. He was present at the cremation of Mayakovsky, with whom he was friends. I saw his hair catch fire in the oven... He said about himself: “I am a citizen of three centuries. Fate was favorable to me, I shook hands with Mussolini, dined with Tito, escorted Trotsky into exile, spoke with Stalin on the phone and saw off Lunacharsky.”
Famous artist Mikhail Zlatkovsky I decided to change the rule - the dead are either good or not at all. This is not the case, he believes:
“Efimov actively participated in all the provocative campaigns of the Soviet regime - his pen nailed right and left during all the trials of the Bukharins-Zinovievs-Pyatakovs in the 30s, he mocked Trotsky (once his patron) with particular sophistication.
And then “sealed” and published in the central press were the “Weissmann-Morganists”, “fly lovers and murderers”, the independent policy of Yugoslavia with the “executioner of the communists” Joseph Tito, “murderers in white coats”.
For young artists Soviet caricature and poster, he wrote denunciations to the KGB, VAAP and wherever possible. Such vigorous activity is easily explained - Efimov painted very mediocrely.
When the famous cartoonist Boris Efimov turned 100 years old, all the newspapers wrote about it excitedly.
He survived the revolution, the Civil and Patriotic Wars, in short, all eras last century. Five years later, Boris Efimovich celebrated his next anniversary. On September 28, 2008 he was already 108! An RG correspondent met with the long-lived artist and asked him several questions.
I don't draw anymore
Russian newspaper:Tell us a secret: how did you manage to live to such a respectable age? Do you follow any special diets or techniques?
Boris Efimov: No way. I like one joke. A centenarian is being honored in the Caucasus, who talks about what he leads healthy image life, does not drink or smoke. Suddenly, drunken screams are heard from the back rows. The old-timer says: “Don’t pay attention, it’s my older brother who got drunk again.”
RG:You are the same age as the century, before your eyes political leaders, artists and scientists have come and gone... The political system, laws, rules of life, communication style, fashion have changed... What is the most interesting period of your life?
Efimov: The century itself was interesting. Every decade had something different. Now it is difficult to single out any one period or decade. We need to look at the era as a whole.
RG:Are you drawing now?
Efimov: No. I don't draw anymore. The period of activity ended a long time ago. But I continue to work, albeit in a different field. I write books, fortunately I have something to talk about. For example, the book of memoirs “About Times and People,” written in collaboration with Viktor Fradkin. By the way, it may just be a detailed, detailed answer to the first question. It tells about the people and the times they filled. There are stories about politicians, actors, writers, and my fellow artists, for example, the Kukryniksy, Ernst Neizvestny, Zurab Tsereteli.
In addition, there are other books of memoirs: “The same age as the century”, “Ten decades” and others.
RG:What else do you do, how do you spend your time, what books do you read?
Efimov: I read different books, but there is one favorite that I am ready to re-read endlessly. This is the novel "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas.
RG:Which of today's characters in world politics is the most imaginative?
Efimov: There are no such people now bright characters, what were the same Hitler, Mussolini, Tito, who could be ridiculed by noticing one or more details of their behavior and appearance.
RG:Do you follow the current situation with the cartoon genre in the country? Do you have any followers today?
Efimov: Of course there are good cartoonists. These are, for example, Vladimir Mochalov, Igor Smirnov.
But it should be noted that political caricature as a genre ceased to exist. What we see now are “handwritings”.
Enraged Stalin
RG:Did you look for characters for the cartoons yourself, because you were in the context of what was happening, or was there an order from the authorities every time?
Efimov: I searched for it myself. I read newspapers, listened to the radio, watched newsreels, and then television appeared. I chose the topics myself. But of course there were orders, including, for example, personally from Stalin. But we can say that I chose 90 percent of the stories myself.
RG:Did the authorities interfere in creative process, did they point out some detail that needs to be emphasized?
Efimov: Yes, this happened. For example, you can remember this case. I drew a caricature of Japanese militarists. To highlight their political expansionist ambitions, I gave them long teeth. Then Stalin called Pravda editor-in-chief Lev Mehlis and was indignant. They say this insults the national dignity of the Japanese people.
Another example comes from more recent times. In 1979, Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister of Great Britain. I drew a cartoon of her. This drawing was hung in propaganda windows throughout Moscow and other cities. This caused indignation among those in power, as it did not look entirely diplomatic.
RG:Is it hard for you to realize that your peers are leaving one by one?
Efimov: Certainly. This is a great tragedy, it is very difficult to see that you are left alone.
On October 1, 2008, the famous Soviet cartoonist Boris Efimov died in Moscow at the age of 109.
Boris Efimov ( real name- Fridlyand) - 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, eventful historical events life, he said: “Fate was favorable to me, I 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 going on, 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 Russian Academy 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 different years- from mid-60s to 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.” Theme of funds mass 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 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 last years In his life, the artist was a guest on 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 painting, 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 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 Petliura. These were these hats with long tails. They were called shlyki. Red, green... It was picturesque.
Efimov Boris Efimovich
Born on September 28, 1900 in Kiev. Father - Fridlyand Efim Moiseevich (born 1860). Mother - Rakhil Savelyevna (born 1880). The first wife is Rosalia Borisovna Koretskaya (born in 1900). The second wife is Fradkina Raisa Efimovna (born 1901). Son - Efimov Mikhail Borisovich (born 1929).
Boris Efimov never thought that he would become an artist, although he loved to draw since childhood. His ability to draw was discovered early, from the age of 5-6. On paper he preferred not to depict surrounding nature- houses, trees, cats or horses, but figures and characters born of one’s own imagination, stories from an older brother and the contents of books read. Very soon this childish hobby gave way to a conscious desire to put on paper the funny things in people’s habits and characters.
After his parents moved to Bialystok, Boris was assigned to a real school, where his older brother also studied. There they published a handwritten school magazine together. Brother Mikhail (future publicist and feuilletonist Mikhail Koltsov) edited it, and Boris illustrated it.
Efimov’s first cartoon was published in 1916 in the illustrated magazine “Sun of Russia”, popular in those years. Later he recalled this event like this: “As a fifth-grade student, using photographs, I made a cartoon of the Chairman of the State Duma Rodzianko and sent it to Petrograd. When I saw the drawing printed, I was shocked...”
Soon the family moved to Kharkov. My parents stayed behind, but my brother went to Petrograd. Boris returned to Kyiv, completed his studies at a real school and in 1917 entered the Kiev Institute of National Economy. However, after studying there for a year, he moved to the Faculty of Law of Kyiv University.
In 1918, cartoons of Blok, then famous actress Yurenev, director Kugel, and poet Voznesensky, appeared in the Kiev magazine "Spectator". The series of color drawings “Conquerors” also dates back to the same time - a kind of satirical chronicle of the changing authorities in Kyiv, first German, then White Guard and Petliura.
With establishment in Kyiv Soviet power Boris Efimov works as secretary of the Editorial and Publishing Department at the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs. In June of the same year, his first propaganda drawings were published in the military newspaper "Red Army", equipped with the autograph "Bor. Efimov", which later became world famous.
Since 1920, Boris Efimov has worked as a cartoonist in the newspapers "Kommunar", "Bolshevik", "Visti", as the head of the visual propaganda department of YugROSTA in Odessa. Here he made his first poster on a plywood sheet, on which he depicted Denikin beaten by the Red Army. Later, B. Efimov was the head of the Isolation Section of the propaganda posts of the South-Western Front in Kharkov. Upon returning to Kyiv, he became the head of the art and poster department of Kyiv - UkrROSTA. At the same time, he collaborated with the newspapers “Kyiv Proletary” and “Proletarskaya Pravda”.
In 1922, Boris Efimov moved to Moscow. Since then, his works began to be published on the pages of Rabochaya Gazeta, Krokodil, Pravda, Izvestia, Ogonyok, Prozhektor and many other publications, published in separate collections and albums. During these years his main specialization became political satire. The “heroes” of his cartoons were: in the 20s, many Western politicians- Hughes, Daladier, Chamberlain; in the 30s and 40s - Hitler, Mussolini, Goering and Goebbels, whom he invariably portrayed as a lame monkey; in subsequent years - Churchill, Truman and others. Some cartoons provoked such a violent reaction from the characters depicted in them that it came to the point of diplomatic protests.
In the 1930s, albums of cartoons “The Face of the Enemy” (1931), “Cartoon in the Service of the Defense of the USSR” (1931), “Political Caricatures” (1931), “A Way Out Will Be Found” (1932), “Political Caricatures” were published. (1935), “Fascism is the enemy of peoples” (1937), “Warmongers” (1938), “Fascist interventionists in Spain” (1938).
Fully " destructive force"Efimov's cartoons appeared during the war years. His works were published in those years on the pages of "Red Star", "Front Illustration", as well as in front-line, army, division newspapers and even on leaflets that were scattered behind the front line and called on enemy soldiers to surrender In search of subjects for his works, Boris Efimov repeatedly traveled to the active army.
During the war years, he actively worked in the field of posters. Boris Efimov was among those Soviet writers and artists (Moor, Denis, Kukryniksy and others), who already on the sixth day of Germany’s attack on the USSR created the TASS Windows workshop. As during the Civil War, posters made immediately upon receipt of reports from the front or the latest international reports were hung on the streets of Moscow, instilling in people even in the most difficult days faith in Victory. Then "Windows" was replicated and released in the rear - Pyatigorsk, Tbilisi, Tyumen.
The artist’s archive contains numerous reviews from the most demanding critics - fighters from the front lines. 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 hot hatred, contempt for the enemy and force you to fight even harder and destroy the damned Nazis. Ilya Dukelsky. Field mail 68242."
"Your weapon, weapon Soviet artist, great strength in the fight against Nazi invaders. If you only knew how impatiently we, the army men, await latest number"Red Star" newspaper... P/n 24595. V. Ya. Kornienko."
“Happy New Year, dear Comrade Efimov! A group of front-line soldiers from the N-unit sends greetings to you and congratulates you on the 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 Leontyev, 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.
The merits of Boris Efimov during the Great Patriotic War were awarded the medals “For the Defense of Moscow” and “For the Victory over Germany.”
In the post-war period, Boris Efimov continues to work actively in the most different genres. In 1948, a collection of his cartoons “Mr. Dollar” was published, and in 1950 an album of drawings “For lasting peace, against warmongers."
In 1954 he was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Arts, in 1957 - a member of the board of the Union of Artists of the USSR, in 1958 he was awarded the title " People's Artist RSFSR", and in 1967 - "People's Artist of the USSR". Since 1932, he has been a member of the Union of Artists. He was repeatedly elected as a member of the board and secretary of the Union of Artists of the USSR.
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 just a few years creative activity Boris Efimov created tens of thousands of political cartoons, propaganda posters, humorous drawings, illustrations, cartoons, as well as easel series of satirical drawings for regional, group and all-Union art exhibitions. Dozens of satirical albums were published, as well as a number of memoir books, stories, essays, and studies on the history and theory of the art of caricature. Among them: “40 years. Notes of a satirist artist”, “Work, memories, meetings”, “Stories about satirist artists”, “I want to tell”, “Basics of understanding caricature”, “In my opinion”, “ True stories", "For schoolchildren about caricature and caricaturists", "Stories of an old Muscovite", "The same age as the century", "My century" and others.
B. E. Efimov - Hero Socialist Labor, three times Laureate State Prize USSR (1950, 1951, 1972), academician of the USSR Academy of Arts, then of the Russian Academy of Arts. He was awarded three Orders of Lenin, the Order October revolution, three Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of the Badge of Honor, the Bulgarian Order of Cyril and Methodius, 1st degree, and many other domestic and foreign awards.
The year 2000 is the year of the 55th anniversary Great Victory- Boris Efimov met the year of his 100th birthday still in love with life, with beauty, books, theater, sports, the company of friends, good joke, good joke.
In August 2002, he headed the department of caricature art of the Russian Academy of Arts.
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 various memorable and anniversary meetings, evenings, and events.
Boris Efimov died on the night of October 1, 2008 in Moscow 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. Buried in the columbarium Novodevichy Cemetery.
Push. I don’t know how funny the fighters found Efimov’s cartoons, but, in any case and attitude towards his work, ideologically everything was correct, because The spirit of the fighters, among other things, rests not only on barley and meat; ideological nourishment was simply necessary, incl. in a similar humorous way. It would have been interesting to see caricatures and caricatures of Basayev, Raduev, Hottab and other evil spirits in newspapers during the 1st and 2nd Chechen campaigns. But of course, in the eyes of the hypocritical and two-faced world community, they are freedom fighters... It’s a pity.
Boris Efimovich Efimov
Ivan Shilov © IA REGNUM
Boris Efimov for his long life managed to be a pre-revolutionary, Soviet and Russian cartoonist. He saw Nicholas II, Hitler, Stalin, dined with Utesov, drank vodka with Voroshilov, witnessed two world wars and three revolutions. WITH a telling surname Fridland and his repressed brother Boris Efimov managed to live to an honorable 108 years. Nikolai Bukharin, at whose trial he was present, said that “this great artist is at the same time a very smart and observant politician.” Perhaps this is what helped Boris Efimov survive and sketch the entire history of the country in the twentieth century.
Boris Efimovich Efimov
Misha and Borya
The future cartoonist was born in Kyiv into the family of shoemaker Efim Moiseevich Fridland on September 28, 1900, just four months into the 19th century. Later, when it becomes unsafe to be Friedland in the Soviet Union, Boris will take a pseudonym in honor of his father. His older brother would also change his last name, becoming the famous publicist and journalist Mikhail Koltsov, falsely accused of espionage and executed in the 1940s. Perhaps few people influenced Boris as much as his brother.
But at the dawn of his life, little Boris still does not expect anything like this and only takes offense at Misha when in 1902, during a photo shoot, the eldest was given a gun to hold, and the youngest only got a net with a ball.
“This was the first, but far from the last, disappointment in my long life,” he writes.
Siblings Boris Efimov (left) and Mikhail Koltsov. 1908
Efimov claimed that he remembered himself from this very age: from two years old. It is difficult to rely on a narrator who, after so much time, rethinks the events of his life, his own thoughts and feelings, but, on the other hand, there are also not many reasons not to trust Efimov. And it is known that he had an amazing memory, and even after exceeding a hundred, the artist could still recite Tvardovsky’s ballad by heart.
The Friedlands very quickly moved from the beautiful city of Kyiv to the city of Bialystok, which inspired little children, and Efimov never found out why this happened. That's where they found Russian-Japanese war 1904-1905. Alien sounding words“Port Arthur”, “Mukden”, “hunhuzy”, “shimoza”, “Tsushima” frightened the child, the soldiers in huge Manchu hats, the names of the tsarist generals Kuropatkin, Grippenberg and Rennenkampf, the names of the Japanese marshals Oyama, Togo, Nogi were imprinted in the memory , the death of the battleship "Petropavlovsk" with the artist Vereshchagin on board.
“Adults’ conversations about these terrible events excited children’s imaginations. However, ahead were events no less terrible, but closer - the revolution of 1905. Of course, I, a five-year-old boy, could not understand the essence of the events that shook the country, which burst into our lives with days of unrest, street shootings, pogroms and robberies,” writes Efimov.
Boris Efimov and Mikhail Koltsov at large military maneuvers near Kiev. 1935
One day, my father, trying to understand what was happening on the street, stood at the window with him in his arms and managed to duck when a revolver bullet pierced the glass exactly in the place where Boris’s head had been a second before.
Porridge from Richelieu
Just when Tsar Nicholas granted the country a constitution and the first State Duma was convened, it was time for Boris and Mikhail to go to school. The guys entered the Bialystok Real School - secondary educational institution, where, unlike the gymnasium, Latin and Greek were not taught. It was assumed that they would become builders, engineers or technologists, but both boys found their calling in the press.
Efimov says that he started drawing at almost five years old. He was not interested in doing this from life; he did not like to depict houses, trees, cats and horses - what children are usually drawn to. From Boris’s pen came figures and characters created by his own imagination, “fed by snatches of conversations between adults, the stories of his older brother and, most of all, the content of the historical books he read.” He even got himself a special thick notebook for such drawings, in which, in his own words, there was a “wild mess” of Richelieu, Garibaldi, Dmitry Donskoy, Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln and even God for some reason in the form of a bearded man in a kamilavka.
Drawing, by the way, was the only subject that Efimov almost failed - he barely got a C, which upset everyone at home. But already at school, his brother Mikhail noticed the younger’s talent, and together they began publishing a handwritten school magazine. Misha edited it, and Boris painted it. As it turned out, this bore fruit.
Boris Efimov. The indestructible guardian of the revolution. 1932
Blood and Nikolai
Boris Efimov once saw Nicholas II. It was in Kyiv in 1911, when Boris accompanied his father on a trip to small homeland. The boy looked at the city with admiration, which he left at 4 months. And it so happened that at the same time the sovereign also visited there to unveil a monument to his grandfather, Alexander II. I really wanted to see the Tsar, even though the eleven-year-old boy had no sympathy for him - the adults’ conversations about Khodynka, “Bloody Sunday” and the fact that Nicholas allegedly went to the French embassy for a ball immediately after this tragedy to dance with the ambassador’s wife were too fresh in his memory .
Boris and his father made their way to the front row of the crowded crowd, and the boy got a good look at the emperor riding with his august family in a large open carriage.
“To my naive surprise, he was not wearing a gold crown and ermine robe, but a modest military jacket. Taking off his cap, he bowed to both sides,” Efimov recalled.
Kyiv was in a festive, high spirits. But three days later the city was shocked by the murder of Stolypin - he was shot from a Browning in Gorodskoye opera house in the presence of the emperor during the play “The Tale of Tsar Saltan.” The death of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers was shrouded in many mysteries. They said that the tsar did not like him - Stolypin was too smart, strong-willed, and a strong politician. Stolypin supposedly understood everything and the last days of his life were depressed and gloomy. This is far from latest event not just national, but, perhaps, global significance, which Efimov will testify to and about which he will have to draw his own conclusions.
The family miraculously did not end up in Germany in 1914. As a rule, they went there for the summer, and the guys were already looking forward to the next trip, but a relative died and they remained in the country. Boris Efimov “as always” read the newspapers, from where he learned that in the distant Serbian city of Sarajevo, a high school student with the curious surname Princip was shot dead on the street of the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, Franz Ferdinand, and his wife. The first one has begun World War.
Boris Efimov. “There is no god but God, and Chamberlain is his prophet.” 1925
At first, everyone, including the Friedlands themselves, was overwhelmed by patriotism, people sang “God Save the Tsar” in chorus, followed immediately by “La Marseillaise” and the Belgian anthem. But the ardor quickly evaporated along with the success of the Russian army. Already in the summer of 1915, the front was dangerously close to Bialystok, the Russian army was retreating, and German zeppelins appeared in the sky every now and then. Residents rushed out of the city. Fridlyanda's parents returned to Kyiv, the eldest Mikhail went to Petrograd, and Boris went to Kharkov to continue studying, and at the same time draw caricatures, sending them to his brother in the capital. There Mikhail made a rapid career as a feuilletonist. Boris Fridlyand didn’t really count on anything, when suddenly in 1916 he came across his own cartoon of State Duma Chairman Rodzianko in the fairly popular magazine “Sun of Russia”. The cartoon was signed “Bor. Efimov."
Boris Efimov learned that a revolution had come in the capital in 1917 in Kyiv, in the theater, when someone from the administration stood on stage and read out a text about the abdication of the sovereign. According to Efimov, the audience greeted this with an ovation and “La Marseillaise.”
Koltsov and Efimov
After the change of power, the young artist quickly began working for the benefit of the Soviets. He goes to work as secretary of the editorial and publishing department of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs of Soviet Ukraine, where he manages the production of newspapers, posters and leaflets. And again his brother, journalist Mikhail Koltsov, played a role in his fate and career: he returned to Kyiv and asked the younger one to come up with a cartoon for his newspaper “Red Army”. And so the hobby turns into a sharp weapon of the authorities. Since 1920, Efimov has worked as a cartoonist in the newspapers Kommunar, Bolshevik, and Visti. After the expulsion of the White Poles and Petliurites from Kyiv, he headed the art and poster department of the Kyiv branch of UkrROSTA and led the campaign for the Kyiv railway junction. In 1922, Boris Efimov moved to Moscow and became the youngest employee of the Izvestia newspaper, finally settling in the world of political satire.
Boris Efimov. Poster. 1969
Efimov was published in Pravda, and in 1924 the Izvestia publishing house published the first collection of his works, the foreword to which was sketched by the hero of the Civil War and member of the Central Committee Leon Trotsky, who was delighted by the witty art.
The massive and extremely popular magazine “Ogonyok” began to be published in Moscow in 1923. The initiator of the publication was Mikhail Koltsov. According to Efimov, it was he, his younger brother, who managed to convince the authorities to leave this name - then Glavlit was headed by Mordvinkin, with whom Efimov worked in Kyiv. Efimov, on the instructions of his brother, rushed to Glavlit on a motorcycle specially obtained for this occasion and literally “snatched permission from him,” as he was very afraid of upsetting and disappointing his brother. Mayakovsky’s poem “We Don’t Believe” about Lenin’s illness appeared in the first issue.
Perhaps it was luck with the release of the illustrated “Ogonyok” that drew a line under the life of Mikhail Koltsov. One day he told his brother how Stalin had summoned him to the Central Committee. “The name of Stalin did not yet cause panic,” notes Efimov.
Joseph Vissarionovich remarked to Koltsov in a private conversation that his comrades on the Central Committee noticed in Ogonyok a certain servility towards Trotsky, as if the magazine would soon print about “which closets” Lev Davydovich goes to. The confrontation between the two leaders had long been known, but Koltsov was still struck by the openness with which Stalin expressed his thoughts about the current chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic. Then Mikhail Koltsov said that, in fact, he received a severe reprimand from the Secretary General.
“Alas, it was more than a reprimand... But this became clear many years later,” wrote his younger brother.
Mikhail Koltsov lived only 42 years, after which he was shot on false charges of espionage. In December 1938, Koltsov was arrested and recalled from Spain, where he worked for Pravda and also carried out all sorts of “unofficial” party assignments.
Boris Efimov. They attached a “handle”. 1982
Koltsov's arrest was a sensational event. Konstantin Simonov called this the most dramatic, unexpected and “out of the blue” episode. Then we got used to it. Efimov remained free, but hastily crossed to the other side of the street, as soon as he saw his acquaintances, so as not to put people in an awkward position by having to greet the brother of the “enemy of the people.”
Koltsov was charged with the most standard charges for the Great Terror. He was kept in Moscow. One day a bell rang in Efimov’s apartment. At the other end of the line they tried to “send greetings from the MEK” to him. "Did you understand? - asked an unfamiliar voice. “I don’t understand,” I answered. - Not understood? Well, then all the best...” Efimov hung up and shrugged. And only half an hour later it dawned on him: MEK is Mikhail Efimovich Koltsov. Why did this idiot caller go too far with the conspiracy? Efimov rushed around the apartment, hoping that the phone would ring again. But he was silent. Apparently, the caller decided that the artist understood him perfectly, but was afraid to continue the conversation. So he missed the opportunity to find out at least something about his brother.
On February 2, 1940, Mikhail Koltsov was shot. Efimov recalls that during his life his brother, despite his sharp mind and language, even in some way admired Stalin. At least, he absolutely sincerely paid tribute to the powerful, impressive personality of the “Boss”, as he called him. Moreover, he did this not out of fear or servility.
“More than once, with genuine pleasure, bordering on admiration, my brother recounted to me individual remarks, remarks and jokes that he had heard from him. He liked Stalin. And at the same time, Mikhail continued, due to his “risky” nature, to dangerously test his patience. And then - more. Koltsov wrote feuilletons, compared to which “The Riddle-Stalin” was an innocent, timid joke,” said Efimov.
In 1939, World War II began. Against the backdrop of such cataclysms, the sorrows and misfortunes of “individual people” meant little, argues Efimov.
“But it didn’t make it any easier for ‘individuals’ like me,” he says.
Boris Efimov, Nikolai Dolgorukov. " Old song on new way!” 1949
Perhaps the cartoonist learned from his brother’s experience how not to behave. He himself, as a relative of the “enemy of the people,” was waiting for arrest. His nerves gave way, so in the first days of 1939 he went to the editor-in-chief of Izvestia, Yakov Selikh, and directly asked whether he should write a statement on his own. They didn't let him go. “We don’t know anything bad about you, except good.” In addition, outside a narrow circle in Moscow, almost no one knows that the publicist Koltsov and the cartoonist Efimov are brothers. So the public won't notice anything. But they also refused to publish Efimov in Izvestia. So he finally quit and began illustrating the works of Saltykov-Shchedrin. To return to the profession, he needed Molotov’s personal protectorate.
Pet and Master
Efimov’s personal tragedy was integrated into the political processes of the late 1930s. The key figure in the “Gorky murder case” and the subsequent reprisal against the old Leninist guard at that moment was Nikolai Bukharin. Efimov, of course, knew him personally and considered him a man of enormous erudition and brilliant oratorical talent. Such a “party favorite” would not have lived long under Stalin. And the point, of course, was not that the first called on the people to enrich themselves at a good moment, and the second advocated general collectivization and, in fact, the impoverishment of the peasants.
Efimov first met Bukharin back in 1922, when he was editor of Pravda. By pure chance, Efimov personally gave him his cartoon, which he tried to publish there. Bukharin appreciated it. Some time later, when Efimov’s next collection came out, one of the still leaders even wrote a laudatory review, calling him a brilliant master of political caricature.
“He has one remarkable quality, which, unfortunately, is not often encountered: this great artist is at the same time a very smart and observant politician.”
Caricature
Bukharin did not delude himself about his prospects, Efimov believes. On December 2, 1934, Efimov and other Izvestia employees were sitting in the editor’s office. The telephone on Bukharin's desk rang. After listening to the message and hanging up, Nikolai Bukharin paused, ran his hand over his forehead and said:
“Kirov was killed in Leningrad.” “Then he looked at us with unseeing eyes and added in a strange, indifferent tone: “Now Koba will shoot us all,” writes Efimov. He called the trial of Bukharin historical in its cynicism.
Nightmare
This was not the only high-profile trial of the century at which the artist was present, and not the only historical figures, which he managed to sketch from life. He saw both Hitler and Mussolini, and made sketches of Goering and Ribbentrop from life during Nuremberg trials, where he was sent along with the Kukryniksy. Even here, Efimov believes, the imprint of Mikhail Koltsov’s glory lay on him.
The artist received international recognition. Even during the war, his cartoons about the second front were also published in British newspapers, for example, “The Sword of Damocles,” which ended up in the Manchester Guardian. Moreover, the content of these cartoons was retold on the radio. The famous collection of cartoons “Hitler and His Pack” also gained popularity in the Allied countries. There he portrayed the “Berlin gang”: Goering, Hess, Goebbels, Himmler, Ribbentrop, Ley, Rosenberg and, of course, the Fuhrer himself. Readers were explained, for example, that “the ideal Aryan should be tall, slender and blond,” accompanied by unflattering caricatures of German leaders.
And in the spring of 1947, Stalin himself became a co-author of one of Efimov’s works. Efimov was summoned to the Kremlin, where Andrei Zhdanov met him. He explained that the Boss had the idea to laugh at the United States’ desire to penetrate into the Arctic, since there was supposedly a “Russian danger” from there, and Comrade Stalin immediately remembered the talents of Boris Efimov, whose brother was recently shot for treason.
“I will not hide that at the words “Comrade Stalin remembered you...” my heart sank. I knew too well that falling into the orbit of the memories or attention of Comrade Stalin is mortally dangerous,” the artist recalls.
Boris Efimov, Nikolai Dolgorukov. “The instigators of a new war should remember the shameful end of their predecessors!” N. Bulganin. 1947
Stalin came up with the plot of the cartoon himself: a heavily armed Eisenhower is approaching the deserted Arctic, and an ordinary American asks the general why he needed such absurdity. It had to be done immediately.
“I knew that the Master doesn’t like it when his instructions are 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,” says Efimov. But he made it.
Stalin liked the drawing, even if he made a few changes to the text. Efimov was again summoned to the Kremlin to see Zhdanov. The latter reported that the leader had already called and asked if Efimov had arrived, and Zhdanov lied, as if Efimov had been waiting at the reception for half an hour.
“Phantasmagoria,” I thought. - Nightmare. Stalin asks Zhdanov about me.”
The cartoon “Eisenhower Defends” was published two days later in Pravda.
And yet, despite his awe and even horror of the “Master”, which Efimov describes in such detail and repeatedly in autobiographical notes, ambition spurred him to complain to Stalin personally in writing when in 1949 he was not nominated for a state award. Everything ended well for the artist, and he received the award. She was far from the last. Having survived the debunking of the cult, and the Khrushchev thaw, and the Brezhnev stagnation, and perestroika, and the Yeltsin reforms, Boris Efimov was awarded this ever-changing state more than once. And although the content of Efimov’s cartoons changed with each system, his style and attention to detail remained unchanged.
Boris Efimov. NATO. 1969
When there's no time to laugh
Boris Efimov headed the Creative and Production Association “Agitplakat” under the Union of Artists of the USSR for 30 years in a row. It is believed that it was he, together with Denis, Moore, Brodaty, Cheremnykh, and Kukryniksy, who created such a phenomenon in world culture as “positive satire.”
In August 2002, the 102-year-old artist headed the caricature art department of the Russian Academy of Arts, and on his 107th birthday, in 2007, Boris Efimov was appointed to the position of chief artist of the Izvestia newspaper. Until the end of his days he participated in public life, wrote and painted. Boris Efimov died in the capital at the age of 109. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent a telegram of condolences to his family.
“Boris Efimovich Efimov, a contemporary of the 20th century, was rightfully considered a classic of caricature,” the document said.
Of course, it was not Dmitry Anatolyevich who came up with the idea of calling Efimov a contemporary of the twentieth century. This nickname has been passed down from mouth to mouth for many years.
“We often say: history repeats itself. And it, indeed, is repeated, as I think, not only in large-scale political events, but also in less significant things,” wrote a man who, in his lifetime - or in his three centuries? - I saw, it seems, everything.
Boris Efimov believed that a sense of humor is a precious property of human character. But it is a hundred times more valuable when people have absolutely no time to laugh.
Boris Efimovich Efimov
