Graphic Satire in the Soviet Union

Graphic Satire in the Soviet Union
Author: John Etty
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2018-12-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 149682055X

After the death of Joseph Stalin, Soviet-era Russia experienced a flourishing artistic movement due to relaxed censorship and new economic growth. In this new atmosphere of freedom, Russia’s satirical magazine Krokodil (The Crocodile) became rejuvenated. John Etty explores Soviet graphic satire through Krokodil and its political cartoons. He investigates the forms, production, consumption, and functions of Krokodil, focusing on the period from 1954 to 1964. Krokodil remained the longest-serving and most important satirical journal in the Soviet Union, unique in producing state-sanctioned graphic satirical comment on Soviet and international affairs for over seventy years. Etty’s analysis of Krokodil extends and enhances our understanding of Soviet graphic satire beyond state-sponsored propaganda. For most of its life, Krokodil consisted of a sixteen-page satirical magazine comprising a range of cartoons, photographs, and verbal texts. Authored by professional and nonprofessional contributors and published by Pravda in Moscow, it produced state-sanctioned satirical comment on Soviet and international affairs from 1922 onward. Soviet citizens and scholars of the USSR recognized Krokodil as the most significant, influential source of Soviet graphic satire. Indeed, the magazine enjoyed an international reputation, and many Americans and Western Europeans, regardless of political affiliation, found the images pointed and witty. Astoundingly, the magazine outlived the USSR but until now has received little scholarly attention.

Devastation and Laughter

Devastation and Laughter
Author: Annie Gérin
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2018-01-01
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1487502435

In Devastation and Laughter, Annie G?rin explores the use of satire in the visual arts, the circus, theatre, and cinema under Lenin and Stalin. G?rin traces the rise and decline of the genre and argues that the use of satire in official Soviet art and propaganda was neither marginal nor un-theorized. The author sheds light on the theoretical texts written in the 1920s and 1930s by Anatoly Lunacharsky, the Soviet Commissar of Enlightenment, and the impact his writings had on satirists. While the Avant-Garde and Socialist Realism were necessarily forward-looking and utopian, satire afforded artists the means to examine critically past and present subjects, themes, and practice. Devastation and Laughter is the first work to bring Soviet theoretical writings on the use of satire to the attention of scholars outside of Russia. By introducing important bodies of work that have largely been overlooked in the fields of art history, film and theatre history, Annie G?rin provides a nuanced and alternative reading of early Soviet art.

The Structure is Rotten, Comrade

The Structure is Rotten, Comrade
Author: Viken Berberian
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2019-05-16
Genre: Comics & Graphic Novels
ISBN: 168396215X

More in love with the alluring properties of cement than he is with his girlfriend, Frunz’s overriding ambition is to become the next legendary architect. If only life was that simple. His father, known as Mr. Cement, is a builder in bed with the autocrats who run Yerevan, the capital of post-Soviet Armenia. As father and son team up to transform the city into a post-modern mecca of Trumpian high-rises, outraged citizens rise up in Revolution against them and Yerevan’s corrupt regime. Will Frunz and his father realize their architectural dreams or come crashing down to Earth in the chaos of the Revolution? Written by Viken Berberian with his signature originality and verve and drawn with audacious compositions, delirious colors, and a kinetic expressionistic technique by the acclaimed painter and illustrator Yann Kebbi, The Structure is Rotten, Comrade is a formally innovative and politically resonant work, by turns prescient, punchy, cautionary, and fearless.

Sentimental Tales

Sentimental Tales
Author: Mikhail Zoshchenko
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2018-07-31
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0231545150

“Dralyuk’s new translation of Sentimental Tales, a collection of Zoshchenko’s stories from the 1920s, is a delight that brings the author’s wit to life.”—The Economist Mikhail Zoshchenko’s Sentimental Tales are satirical portraits of small-town characters on the fringes of Soviet society in the first decade of Bolshevik rule. The tales are narrated by one Kolenkorov, a writer not very good at his job, who takes credit for editing the tales in a series of comic prefaces. Yet beneath Kolenkorov’s intrusive narration and sublime blathering, the stories are genuinely moving. They tell tales of unrequited love and amorous misadventures among down-on-their-luck musicians, provincial damsels, aspiring poets, and liberal aristocrats hopelessly out of place in the new Russia, against a backdrop of overcrowded apartments, scheming, and daydreaming. Zoshchenko’s deadpan style and sly ventriloquy mask a biting critique of Soviet life—and perhaps life in general. An original perspective on Soviet society in the 1920s and simply uproariously funny, Sentimental Tales at last shows Anglophone readers why Zoshchenko is considered among the greatest humorists of the Soviet era. “A book that would make Gogol guffaw.”—Kirkus Reviews “If you find Chekhov a bit tame and want a more bite to your fiction, then you need a dose of Zoshchenko, the premier Russian satirist of the twentieth century . . . Snap up this thin volume and enjoy.”—Russian Life “Mikhail Zoshchenko masterfully exhibits a playful seriousness. . . . Juxtaposing joyful wit with the bleakness of Soviet Russia, Sentimental Tales is a potent antidote for Russian literature’s dour reputation.”—Foreword Reviews “Superb.”—Los Angeles Review of Books

The Death of Stalin

The Death of Stalin
Author: Fabien Nury
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018-03-06
Genre: Comics & Graphic Novels
ISBN: 1785866362

The graphic novel which inspired the hotly tipped and highly controversial new movie directed by Armando Iannucci, due in theatres in March, and starring a host of high profile actors, including Michael Palin, Steve Buscemi and Jason Isaacs. Fear, corruption and treachery abound in this political satire set in the aftermath of Stalin's death in the Soviet Union in 1953. When the leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, has a stroke - the political gears begin to turn, plunging the super-state into darkness, uncertainty and near civil war. The struggle for supreme power will determine the fate of the nation and of the world. And it all really happened.

The Master and Margarita

The Master and Margarita
Author: Mikhail Bulgakov
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2016-03-18
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0802190510

Satan comes to Soviet Moscow in this critically acclaimed translation of one of the most important and best-loved modern classics in world literature. The Master and Margarita has been captivating readers around the world ever since its first publication in 1967. Written during Stalin’s time in power but suppressed in the Soviet Union for decades, Bulgakov’s masterpiece is an ironic parable on power and its corruption, on good and evil, and on human frailty and the strength of love. In The Master and Margarita, the Devil himself pays a visit to Soviet Moscow. Accompanied by a retinue that includes the fast-talking, vodka-drinking, giant tomcat Behemoth, he sets about creating a whirlwind of chaos that soon involves the beautiful Margarita and her beloved, a distraught writer known only as the Master, and even Jesus Christ and Pontius Pilate. The Master and Margarita combines fable, fantasy, political satire, and slapstick comedy to create a wildly entertaining and unforgettable tale that is commonly considered the greatest novel to come out of the Soviet Union. It appears in this edition in a translation by Mirra Ginsburg that was judged “brilliant” by Publishers Weekly. Praise for The Master and Margarita “A wild surrealistic romp. . . . Brilliantly flamboyant and outrageous.” —Joyce Carol Oates, The Detroit News “Fine, funny, imaginative. . . . The Master and Margarita stands squarely in the great Gogolesque tradition of satiric narrative.” —Saul Maloff, Newsweek “A rich, funny, moving and bitter novel. . . . Vast and boisterous entertainment.” —The New York Times “The book is by turns hilarious, mysterious, contemplative and poignant. . . . A great work.” —Chicago Tribune “Funny, devilish, brilliant satire. . . . It’s literature of the highest order and . . . it will deliver a full measure of enjoyment and enlightenment.” —Publishers Weekly

Mass Culture in Soviet Russia

Mass Culture in Soviet Russia
Author: James Von Geldern
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 548
Release: 1995-12-22
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 9780253209696

This anthology offers a rich array of documents, short fiction, poems, songs, plays, movie scripts, comic routines, and folklore to offer a close look at the mass culture that was consumed by millions in Soviet Russia between 1917 and 1953. Both state-sponsored cultural forms and the unofficial culture that flourished beneath the surface are represented. The focus is on the entertainment genres that both shaped and reflected the social, political, and personal values of the regime and the masses. The period covered encompasses the Russian Revolution and Civil War, the mixed economy and culture of the 1920s, the tightly controlled Stalinist 1930s, the looser atmosphere of the Great Patriotic War, and the postwar era ending with the death of Stalin. Much of the material appears here in English for the first time. A companion 45-minute audio tape (ISBN 0-253-32911-6) features contemporaneous performances of fifteen popular songs of the time, with such favorites as "Bublichki," "The Blue Kerchief," and "Katyusha." Russian texts of the songs are included in the book.

Soviet Union

Soviet Union
Author: Raymond E. Zickel
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1182
Release: 1991
Genre: Russia
ISBN:

Russian Revolutionary Posters

Russian Revolutionary Posters
Author: David King
Publisher: Tate
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012-09-01
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9781849760195

"Russian Revolutionary Posters tells the story of the development of the Soviet poster, from the revolutionary period through to the death of Stalin, revealing the way in which tumultuous events within the Soviet Union were matched by equally dramatic shifts in graphic art and design. Written and designed by David King, one of the world's foremost experts on Soviet art and himself an internationally acclaimed graphic designer, the publication features posters drawn from his unparalleled collection, well known to visitors to Tate Modern in London. The book is arranged chronologically. Captions accompany each poster, explaining the historical and artistic context in which it was produced. Constructivist posters, socialist advertising, film posters of the 1920s, classic photomontage, the heroic posters of the Great Patriotic War, biting political satire and the cult of personality of the Stalin years are all here. The great names of Soviet poster design, including Alexander Rodchenko, El Lissitzky, Gustav Klutsis, Dmitrii Moor, Viktor Deni and Nina Vatolina, all feature. However, some of the most arresting posters reproduced were created anonymously or by scarcely known artists whose work will be a revelation to many. King takes us behind the scenes, explaining the process involved in the commissioning of the posters and the key figures who coordinated poster campaigns, providing personal histories of the art directors and creative directors whose vision played such a vital role in Soviet poster design. With an insightful introduction and over 165 images, some of which have never been seen before, this beautifully produced book will be the definitive survey of the subject for many years to come"--Publisher description.

The Firebird and the Fox

The Firebird and the Fox
Author: Jeffrey Brooks
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2019-10-24
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1108484468

A century of Russian artistic genius, including literature, art, music and dance, within the dynamic cultural ecosystem that shaped it.