Kukryniksy artists biography briefly. Kukryniksy cartoonists. WWII posters in the work of the Kukryniksy

Letter Y

These outstanding artists were born at the beginning of the 20th century - Porfiry Nikitich Krylov in 1902, and Mikhail Vasilyevich Kupriyanov and Nikolai Alexandrovich Sokolov in 1903.

In 1921, young people met in Vkhutemas - Higher art and technical workshops. It was a unique, just created educational institution, in which such legendary personalities as Rodchenko, Tatlin, Favorsky taught ..

It was in Vkhutemas that the avant-garde Soviet art was born, and all young artists constantly experimented, looking for new pictorial forms that left their mark on world culture.

Sokolov, Kupriyanov and Krylov also tried to work in different manners, illustrated works of art. But then they increasingly acted as cartoonists, and later decided to create together - after the three of them drew a student wall newspaper. A common pseudonym was invented - Kukryniksy, which was deciphered as follows: Ku - Kupriyanov, Kry - Krylov, NikS - Nikolai Sokolov. And the letter Y indicated that this is still not one artist, but several.

The first caricature of the Kukryniksy was published in 1926 in the Komsomol magazine. Each of them continued to create their own works of art, but still everyone remembered their joint work. The artists themselves said: “Our collective, in truth, consists of four artists: Kupriyanov, Krylov, Sokolov and Kukryniksy. All three of us treat the latter with great care and concern ... And what is created by the team, could not be mastered by any of us individually. "

Gad bureaucrat

If at first the Kukryniksy drew harmless cartoons of writers, poets, artists and literary heroes, then gradually their work became more acute and topical.

At that time, the topic of political satire was very relevant, and it was in it that the Kukryniksy became unsurpassed masters. Now they drew not friendly cartoons of writers, but rather caustic cartoons ridiculing the former idols of tsarist Russia - Kolchak, Denikin, and notable figures of the "bourgeois".

Soon the Kukryniksy became the most famous and demanded cartoonists in the USSR - their work was published in the most "major" Soviet newspapers, even in Pravda. Their work fully met the spirit of the times and the spite of the day. The Kukryniksy traveled around the country, actively collecting material for their cartoons and were not only artists, but also mouthpieces of all the ideas of the party and government. Here are some of the titles of the works of the Kukryniksy, made in the 30s: "Harvesting - a formidable blow to the enemy", "We will destroy the kulak as a class." The so-called ulcers of the Soviet society were not forgotten either. The titles of these works speak for themselves: "The bastard bureaucrat littered the Soviet apparatus, drive him out, the workers' detachment!"

Some of the drawings were combined into a series, for example, "Transport" - all cartoons in it highlighted "certain shortcomings" in the railway industry and had such scourging names as "Doublet in the corner, or the exchange of trains at the stations of the Sverdlovsk junction", "Catastrophic machinist".

Events of foreign policy also necessarily fell on the tips of the artists' pen: “We moved to Lake Khasan to crawl across the Soviet border”, “All Europe - Hitler and Ribbentrop”.

Laugh at the enemy

Meanwhile, the international situation was heating up, and the Kukryniksy more and more drew cartoons denouncing fascism. And by the evening of June 22, 1941, they drew a sketch of the poster "We will mercilessly crush and destroy the enemy!", Which the next day appealed to the feeling of patriotism of the Soviet people.

The Kukryniksy spent the entire war, one might say, on the front line - they often visited the front, came into close contact with the terrible reality ... And their contribution to the victory over the enemy was enormous - the cartoonists killed him with their weapons - laughter and satire, which raised the morale of the soldiers ...

On the initiative of the Kukryniksy, "Windows TASS" were created - posters with poems and texts. All the famous artists and cartoonists in "Windows" have joined all their efforts to act as a united front against fascism. And these posters really affected the audience - it is no coincidence that they are still popular ...

In 1942, the Kukryniksy received the Stalin Prize, the highest award one could have at that time. The authorities loved them because they faithfully served its ideals, but the common Soviet people were also looking forward to the next caricature of the Kukryniksy - laughter gave people strength for further struggle.

The Kukryniksy drew not only satirical cartoons. After the death of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, they painted the painting "Tanya", which caused tears in the audience ... Then the painting "The Flight of the Fascists from Novgorod" appeared - in 1944 the Kukryniksy arrived in the newly liberated Novgorod, barbarously destroyed by the Nazi army - the monument "Millennium of Russia" , dilapidated St. Sophia Cathedral. The Kukryniksy conveyed their experiences in the picture ...

And completely different feelings arose from the solemn picture of the Kukryniksy "Signing of the act of unconditional surrender of Germany", written in 1946, and the canvas "The End. The Last Hours at Hitler's Headquarters ", reproducing Hitler's bomb shelter in Berlin and the Fuehrer's horror before the Soviet troops ... The war ended, and part of the victory in it belonged to the Kukryniks ...

Crocodile vs. USA

After the war, artists continued to draw cartoons, responsive to all events within the country and to the international situation. Now they are denouncing the imperialists, the colonial policy of the United States, the Vietnam war, and so on. Not a single issue of the popular Krokodil magazine was complete without another sharp caricature of the Kukryniksy, which was then discussed for a long time at work or at home.

But the Kukryniksy not only laughed. They were engaged in serious work of illustrating books. For example, their illustrations for Chekhov's "The Lady with the Dog" are still considered unsurpassed. They so authentically conveyed all the shades of the characters' feelings that the readers thought they were watching a full-length feature film. The same applies to the illustrations for The Golden Calf by Ilf and Petrov - the book seemed twice as funny, supplied with pictures from the Kukryniksy.

In addition, they illustrated "Foma Gordeev" and "Mother" by Gorky, "Portrait" by Gogol, "Don Quixote" by Cervantes, "Walking Through the Torments" by Tolstoy, works by Saltykov-Shchedrin.

The Kukryniksy received all imaginable and inconceivable prizes, were treated kindly by all the authorities. But the inexorable death carried away first Porfiry Nikitich Krylov - in 1990, and a year later Mikhail Vasilyevich Kupriyanov. Nikolai Aleksandrovich Sokolov survived his comrades - he died in 2000.

However, their names have not been forgotten to this day. Exhibitions of Kukryniksy and artists Kupriyanov, Krylov and Sokolov are being arranged - after all, they painted pictures separately. And the work of each of them is so different from the work of his fellows - it's amazing how the participants of this successful triumvirate managed to preserve such a bright individuality after so many years of joint work ...

The creative team of Soviet graphic artists and painters, which included full members of the Academy of Arts of the USSR, People's Artists of the USSR (1958), Heroes of Socialist Labor Mikhail Kupriyanov (1903-1991), Porfiry Krylov (1902-1990) and Nikolai Sokolov (1903-2000) ...

The pseudonym "Kukryniksy" is composed of the first syllables of the surnames of Kupriyanov and Krylov, as well as the first three letters of the name and the first letter of the surname of Nikolai Sokolov. Artists have always worked together, this was the phenomenon of their collective creativity. The most famous "Kukryniks" brought numerous skillfully executed cartoons, cartoons, posters and book illustrations, created in a characteristic satirical style.

The joint work of the Kukryniksy began as a student in the Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops. Artists came to the Moscow VKHUTEMAS from different parts of the USSR. Kupriyanov from Kazan, Krylov from Tula, Sokolov from Rybinsk. In 1922, Kupriyanov and Krylov met and began to work together in the VKHUTEMAS wall newspaper as Kukry and Krykup. At this time, Sokolov, while still living in Rybinsk, put the signature of Nyx on his drawings. In 1924 he joined Kupriyanov and Krylov, and since then the three of them have worked as Kukryniksy.

At the beginning of the creative path, the group searched for a new unified style using the skill of each of the authors. The first to fall under the pen of cartoonists were the heroes of literary works. Later, when the Kukryniksy became permanent employees of the Pravda newspaper and the Krokodil magazine, they were mainly engaged in political caricature.

An important role in the patriotic education of Soviet people was played by cartoons, posters and "Windows TASS" created by the Kukryniksy during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, combining evil satire and heroism in symbolically generalized images ("We will mercilessly crush and destroy the enemy!", 1941) ... The post-war works of the Kukryniksy also have significant political power, exposing the warmongers, imperialists, enemies of peace and socialism. For political cartoons and posters, Kukryniksy was awarded the USSR State Prize (1942) and the Lenin Prize (1965).

The works of the Kukryniksy are in almost all major museum collections in Russia; State Tretyakov Gallery, Russian State Library, Rybinsk and Yaroslavl State Historical and Architectural Art Museum-Reserves, Tula Museum of Fine Arts, private collections in Russia and abroad.

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The Mamontov Gallery displays a unique collection of satirical works of prominent Soviet graphic artists and painters of the 20th century, masters of political satire, known under the pseudonym Kukryniksy, from the collection of the Mamontov family, one of the largest private collections of works by these artists. On display are about 100 original drawings and posters, the most striking and characteristic works of wartime artists: originals of posters "TASS Windows", cartoons, sketches, sketches made at the Nuremberg trials, pictorial sketches. Most of the items presented are not found in publications devoted to the work of the Kukryniksy, and are published only in the catalogs of the Mamontov gallery.

Gallery Mamontovs (Lavrushinsky lane, house 11, building 1.)

Gallery Mamontovs

The legendary pseudonym Kukryniksy united three artists - Mikhail Vasilyevich Kupriyanov (1903-1991), Porfiry Nikitich Krylov (1902-1990) and Nikolai Alexandrovich Sokolov (1903-2000). Their creative union was formed back in 1924 - during the years of study at VKHUTEMAS. Together they worked for over sixty years, never parting. The name of Kukryniksy has become not just a collective pseudonym, but a symbol of the genre of sharp political caricature, which brought world fame to the three artists.

Mikhail Vasilievich Kupriyanov, Porfiry Nikitich Krylov and Nikolai Alexandrovich Sokolov

Anti-fascist cartoons appeared in them back in the 1930s. But only during the war did the artists reach real creative maturity and deservedly occupy one of the central places in the art of the Great Patriotic War. Kukryniksy's cartoons and posters were sold in millions of copies. They were well known in the Soviet Union and abroad.

By the evening of June 22, 1941, the Kukryniksy created a sketch for a poster "We will mercilessly crush and destroy the enemy!", And on June 24, the poster appeared on the streets of Moscow and other cities. During the five years of the war, they worked daily. We made cartoons for the next issue of the Pravda newspaper or the Krokodil magazine, wrote leaflets for German soldiers (which served as passes for surrender), decorated packaging for food concentrates, and drew posters for TASS Windows. Every other day, these posters appeared on the streets. Filled with caustic, angry sarcasm and daring humor, through the horrors of war, they carried the confidence of victory over evil. Exhausted by pain, grief and fear, people waited for them with impatience and hope. The artists worked with amazing dedication. Of course, not all posters became masterpieces, but the phrases "did not have time" and "did not work" did not exist. There was a war ... During air raids, they put on gas masks and went down into the yard to watch, or climbed onto the roof of a house to put out "lighters". And again to work, as in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.

The famous "Windows TASS" is an exceptional phenomenon of poster and satirical art. They were created by various good artists. But the contribution of the Kukryniksy is especially significant. The originals of the “TASS Windows” screen-reproduced occupy the main place in the collection of works by the Kukryniksy of the Mamontov gallery. Huge, glued together from several dense sheets, defiantly bright and colorful, and now yellowed and dilapidated from time to time, satirical posters of the Kukryniksy for "TASS Windows" can be considered the avant-garde of Soviet art of wartime (in their youth, in the era of daring experiments, the Kukryniksy with V. Mayakovsky, V. Meyerhold, S. Eisenstein). The artists paid special attention to the decorative side of the image, trying to make it catchy and clearly distinguishable from a distance. Created in the image of "Windows of ROSTA", pasted on the streets of cities, "Windows TASS" with fierce energy fought against fascism as with madness, accusing it of inhumanity. The artists themselves considered their work to be a "confrontation". Permeated with publicistic pathos, the art of the Kukryniksy resisted the barbarism and cruelty of fascism. The famous critic Alexander Kamensky called the Kukryniksy cartoons "the art of revealing metaphor". It would seem that the ridiculous and despised enemy is no longer so terrible. But the satirical images of the enemy, created by the artists, evoked not laughter, but anger, disgust and hatred. The poster satire of the Kukryniksy is not so funny and certainly not harmless, it is rude and straightforward, evil and bilious. Her emotional characteristics are sincerity and passion. Artistic - virtuoso craftsmanship and plastic expression. Its historical significance is priceless.

The work of the Kukryniksy belongs to the classical traditions of satirical graphics, based on the techniques of visual characteristics, assimilations, metaphors. Each image is "directed" as a tragicomic mise-en-scene of a cruel and bloody farce. The image of the enemy develops in connection with the change in the course of military events, but it is always cruel, ridiculous and stupid. At the beginning of the war - a fierce conqueror. With the development of hostilities, a pitiful loser. At any time of the war, the image of an enemy-puppet appears ("Gustav and the Statute", "Puppet Theater", "Circus"). Condemning and cursing fascism, the Kukryniksy are not afraid of extremes. Often, artists resort to a well-known technique - they depict the enemy in a bestial guise, thereby emphasizing the brutality of fascism ("Kill him!", "Got badly"); visualize folk sayings and catchphrases (“A good fellow among the sheep, against a good fellow - the sheep itself”); they independently invent words-images (for example, "ratsling" - a creature with the body of a rat and a human head), use the techniques of folk popular prints, combining a drawn picture with text. The language of their cartoons is precise and simple, there are not many details, but each is extremely expressive and, what is remarkable, unlike the image, the detail can be funny ("Bubbles", etc.). The wit of the Kukryniksy is inexhaustible. Fantasy and ingenuity are amazing. Their strength lies in solidarity. One person would not have mastered such creative and emotional stress.

As correspondents of the Pravda newspaper with sketchbooks and paints, albums and pencils, the Kukryniksy “reached Berlin” (on May 21, 1945, the artists were sent to Berlin to collect materials on the signing of the act of Germany's unconditional surrender), attended the Nuremberg trials. The collection of the Mamontovs' gallery contains the famous drawings made by the Kukryniksy in the courtroom, caricatures of Hess and other participants in the process, whose faces the artists managed to study from photographs and newsreels over the long years of the war. And again I had to work quickly: the drawings were immediately sent by plane to the newspaper's editorial office. The main objects of the Kukryniksy cartoons - Hitler, Goering and Goebbels - were so familiar with their work that they included the artists on the list of potential death row men who would be publicly executed when the Germans took Moscow. At the Nuremberg Trials, they had to come face to face. War of nerves ... At the sight of artists armed with binoculars and pencils, criminals hid their faces.

From a trip to Berlin, the Kukryniksy, each individually, brought many lyrical pictorial sketches - images of the city turned into ruins (N. Sokolov. "Berlin. Wilhelm's Palace", "Berlin. Monument to Wilhelm I", "Berlin. Alexander Platz") ...

In their free time in Berlin and Nuremberg, the Kukryniksy make a lot of sketches from nature: the peaceful life of the city - hurried drawings in a hurry, avidly (N. Sokolov. "On the streets of Nuremberg in December 1945", "Inhabitants of Nuremberg", "On the street Berlin "). “Mostly women, children, old people. Most of them carry bundles, suitcases, almost all have backpacks behind their backs, ... mothers with children, with things ... There are also fashionable ladies, old men in top hats hurrying to the funeral "(from the memoirs of the Kukryniksy). As always with the Kukryniksy, these drawings are distinguished by the sharpness and accuracy of psychological and plastic characteristics.

With their daily work during the war, the Kukryniksy fought against fascism. Pain and anger poured out into caustic, angry, merciless satire. Drawings made in Germany are different.

N. Sokolov Inhabitants of Nuremberg, 1945.

Not a disgusted enemy, but such different people who survived the nightmare of war, returning to a peaceful life. And these peaceful sketches, no worse than posters, testify that war is an unjustified evil that must be fought. There is no better reward and consolation than peace.

The exhibition will last to July 3 in the Mamontovs gallery
at the address: Lavrushinsky lane, house 11, building 1. Opening hours: from 12:00 — 20:00 , weekend: Sunday and Monday.

Tribune, 1941.

“Many Hitlerites, trying to avoid responsibility for their crimes, declare themselves dead, change their names and go to Spain and other“ neutral ”countries” - from the newspapers.

He is being driven in a black chariot
To the Spanish border dear to him
And he shouts: Take it easy, you fools,
Otherwise, I really will die!
S. Marshak

Photos by Tatiana Aleshina

The famous Soviet poet Alexander Zharov recalls that in 1925, when he was the editor of a youth magazine, three students-artists once came to his office and offered their services. “What can you draw?” Asked Zharov. Then the young people immediately got down to business and, in the process of handing over the drawing to one another, quickly sketched several apt cartoons on the writers who were present, which caused general admiration. Since then, sharp and expressive drawings of young authors, signed by the compound surname of Kukryniksy, began to appear regularly in the magazine.

It was at the dawn of the joint creative activity of the talented Soviet artists Mikhail Vasilyevich Kupriyanov, Porfiry Nikitich Krylov and Nikolai Alexandrovich Sokolov.

The creativity of the Kukryniksy amazes with its diversity. Thoughtful artists work with inspiration and persistence on large paintings, caricatures, posters, book illustrations and even on a sculptural portrait, achieving high results in every art form. The extraordinary relevance of the topic, the ideological orientation and clarity of the content, the originality and laconicism of the artistic language - these advantages of the Kukryniksy works, clearly visible to everyone, make them understandable to the widest circle of Soviet viewers and readers.

Caricatures of artists Kukryniksy

Being gifted painters, the Kukryniksy, first and foremost, are the most prominent masters of Soviet political graphics and artistic satire. It is difficult to name even one significant event in international life, from the 30s to the present day, that would not have caused a corresponding response in their work.

At one time, the Kukryniksy cartoons mercilessly exposed the conspiracy of the imperialist powers against the republican Spain, the preparation of the Second World War ("Scheme of strict control of the Spanish borders", "Continuation of the last war" and others). In these, as in all other works, artists are the spokesmen for the views and interests of our people, who are tirelessly fighting for world peace.

Kukryniksy performs with equal success in the region household satire... Their blows are directed against everything obsolete, inert and ugly, which hinders the movement of the Soviet people towards a wonderful future. From the extensive cycle of works by the Kukryniksy on everyday topics, the series "Transport", drawings "No exit day off", "Memorandum", "Toadstools" (about young people servile to foreignism) should be distinguished.

The Kukryniksy cartoons are so unique in form that the viewer immediately recognizes their authors, without even looking at the signature. Inexhaustible in artistic invention and ingenuity, the Kukryniksy are able to recreate in front of us the appearance of this or that political degenerate (Stolypin, Kerensky, Wrangel) in several bold and precise lines, to show the typical in the images of a bureaucrat, an eyewash, a grabber. The perfection of Kukryniksov's graphics is a vivid example of the great importance of collectivity in creativity: each of the artists offers his own solution to the topic, in the process of discussion, all the best is selected from them, and then all the efforts of the team are directed to working out the final version.

WWII posters in the work of the Kukryniksy

Still fresh in our memory are numerous posters in TASS Windows, created by the Kukryniksy in the harsh years of fighting the fascist invaders: “We will mercilessly crush and destroy the enemy!” " other. Meeting the most pressing tasks of the time, extremely expressive, they were a powerful ideological weapon, giving even more strength to the Soviet soldiers at the front and the working population in the rear.

On the pages of Pravda, Krokodil and other Soviet publications, sharp caricatures of the Kukryniksy always appeared, nailing the troubadours of the Cold War and their accomplices to the pillory. In 1958-1959 the cartoons "The Berlin Question", "The Militant Parrot" and others were published. In 1960, No. 2 of "Crocodile", dedicated to the memory of A.P. Chekhov, one remembers the witty caricature "Intruder on an International Scale": the West German Chancellor Adenauer diligently unscrews the nuts from the rails, which have the sign "To Peaceful Coexistence".

Paintings of artists Kukryniksy

Veliky Novgorod in January 1944. Against the backdrop of a gloomy sky, the majestic bulk of the St. Sophia Cathedral rises. Fragments of the barbarously destroyed monument "Millennium of Russia" stick out from under the snow. Near the buildings, Hitler's warriors are scurrying about with torches. Forced shamefully to flee from the ancient city under the mighty blows of the Soviet Army, they, in impotent rage, are trying to destroy the priceless treasures of Russian culture.

This is the content of the well-known Kukryniksy paintings"Flight of the Nazis from Novgorod". Despite the dramatic tension of the moment, well conveyed by the contrasts of dark and light spots, the picture is imbued with an optimistic mood. The artists were able to show in it the utter doom of geeks who intended to enslave our socialist homeland.

Other paintings by the Kukryniksy, dedicated to the events of the Great Patriotic War - "Tanya", "Pravda", "The End" are also imbued with a patriotic feeling.

In the last picture, in the images of great artistic power, the inglorious death of Hitlerism is shown, in the defeat of which the Soviet Union played a decisive role.

Illustrating the works of Gogol, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Chekhov and Gorky, the artists strive to fully reveal to the reader the humanistic orientation of the great Russian literature. The most successful in this respect are Kukryniksy's drawings for Gogol's "Overcoat", Chekhov's stories "Tosca" and "I Want to Sleep".

It should be noted that each of the Kukryniksy has a bright creative personality and works a lot independently. So, M. Kupriyanov is especially fascinated by the landscapes of the Moscow region and the Volga, P. Krylov performed many portraits and perfectly conveyed the picturesque originality of Paris, Rome and Venice, and N. Sokolov lovingly depicts the life of his native Moscow and the touching beauty of Russian nature. Continuously enriching their knowledge and experience, the artists combine them in one or another general concept, persistently striving for ever greater completeness of the plot and its artistic embodiment in each new work.

How many artists are there in Kukryniksy?

What does the pseudonym "Kukryniksy" mean - decryption

* The pseudonym "Kukryniksy" is made up of the first syllables of the surnames of Kupriyanov and Krylov, as well as the first three letters of the name and the first letter of the surname of Nikolai Sokolov.

Years of life

* Mikhail Vasilievich Kupriyanov 1903-1991

Porfiry Nikitich Krylov 1902-1990

Nikolai Alexandrovich Sokolov 1903-2000 (source - Wikipedia)

Tags: biography and works of artists Kukryniksy.

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Kukryniksy is the pseudonym of the creative team of three Soviet painters and graphic artists who worked together. It is composed of the first syllables of the surnames of Kupriyanov and Krylov, as well as the first syllable of the name and the first letter of the surname of Nikolai Sokolov. Three artists worked by the method of collective creativity. At the same time, everyone worked individually - on portraits and landscapes. They are best known for their numerous cartoons, cartoons and book illustrations.

The joint work of the Kukryniksy began in his student years at the Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops. They came to Moscow from different parts of the country. Kupriyanov from Kazan, Krylov from Tula, Sokolov from Rybinsk. In 1922, Kupriyanov and Krylov met and began to work together as Kukry. Sokolov, still in Rybinsk, signed Nyx on his drawings. Since 1924, the three artists worked as Kukryniksy. “Our team, in truth, consists of four artists: Kupriyanov, Krylov, Sokolov and Kukryniksy. All three of us treat the latter with great care and concern, "write the Kukryniksy and emphasize:" What was created by the team could not be mastered by any of us individually. The painterly talent of artists developed in full force during the Great Patriotic War. The military poster "We will mercilessly crush and destroy the enemy!" Became a significant moment in his work. He was one of the first to appear on the June streets of Moscow - immediately after the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR. The Kukryniksy went through the entire war: their leaflets accompanied Soviet soldiers all the way to Berlin. They continued Mayakovsky's tradition by creating posters for the TASS Windows cycle. They became classics of Soviet political cartoons, which they understood as a weapon in the fight against the enemy. How many times Hitler in the Kukryniksy cartoons commanded skeletons and turned into a skeleton himself! How many times have Soviet cartoonists predicted the end of a bloody adventure, how many times have they celebrated the "collapse" of the Reich! Kupriyanov, Krylov, Sokolov - reflected the entire history of the Great Patriotic War, created the famous cartoons of the rulers of the Third Reich. At first, as a rule, a text appeared - something like “The bastard Hitler's all plans are thwarted. It is not he, however, who is to blame for their failure, but the red fighters are giant heroes. " On the posters, they strangled him, the reptile, pierced him with a sharp spear, and shackled him. The cartoons were another powerful weapon of ours, and they hit right on target. Napoleon was defeated, the same will happen with the arrogant Hitler!

In Moscow, rolls,

As the fire is hot.

In the nights of fascist bastards

A hail of fiery shells

Muscovites are treating!

An exhibition that has opened in Moscow is timed to coincide with Victory Day. It is called "History through the eyes of the Kukryniksy". The collective was awarded the Lenin Prize (1965), the Stalin Prize (1942, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951), The End is the pinnacle of the Kukryniksy painting. It is the fruit of fiction, and at the same time it is the truth of art, based on a deep knowledge of life. Travels of artists to Berlin played an extremely important role in the history of this painting. So they descend into the dungeon of the Reich Chancellery, walk its gloomy corridors, see with their own eyes the craters from the shells, sketch the living Nazis, reflect ... All this fed the imagination of the artists, and the thought worked in a certain direction. For a series of paintings dedicated to the events of the Great Patriotic War - "Tanya" (1942), "The End" (1948) and "The Flight of the Germans from Novgorod" (1944) - the creative team was awarded the State Prize (1975). Their art remains topical in our time. Especially when NATO is advancing east! Note that all Kukryniksy are colonels of the Soviet Army. A characteristic sign of the times. The Kukryniksy worked together until old age, striking everyone with unanimity, surprising for a group of creative people. All paintings were saved and restored. Today, the works of artists, made during the war years, are in the same hands - at a private collector.