Figure 1.--The Young Pioneer in this Soviet illustration is drawn as a individual, but we see little individual personality. Rather he is clearly a member of a flag waving group. Hopefully one of our readers will transalte the book tutle page. I believe it gives the author's name, but not the illustrator's name. The writing on this book isn't Russian. The letters, although cyrillic-based, include several that are not in the Russian alphabet. I am not sure just what language it is in, perhaps one of the Central Asian languages.

We have little information on Soviet illustrators at this time. Some of the illustrations in available children's books seem rather crude. Others are highly creative. One of the most creative Soviet illistrator was Vladimir Vasil'evich Lebedev. An interesting aspect of Soviet illustrators is the absence of individual charcter studies. Most illustrations are group studies showing how children fit into the collective, be it a school class or Young Pioneer unit. The beautiful studies of undividual children and their efforts to deal with the ordinary issues of childhood are very rare in illustrations for Soviet children's books. Even when children are depicted individually by Soviet illustrators, often there is none of the personality and warm of the indivual that emerges, but only the feeling of a child as part of a collective body.

Assessment

We have little information on Soviet illustrators at this time. Some of the illustrations in available children's books seem rather crude. Others are highly creative. An interesting aspect of Soviet illustrators is the absence of individual charcter studies. Most illustrations are group studies showing how children fit into the collective, be it a school class or Young Pioneer unit. The beautiful studies of undividual children and their efforts to deal with the ordinary issues of childhood are very rare in illustrations for Soviet children's books. Even when children are depicted individually by Soviet illustrators, often there is none of the personality and warm of the indivual that emerges, but only the feeling of a child as part of a collective body.

Individuals

We are familiar with many Western illustrators. In fact we remember seeing their work as children. The work of Western illusrators is thus relatively known to most HBC readers. We know only a few individual Soviet illustrators at this time. Thankfully we also have a few Russian readers. They have provided us some information. The work of these illustrators has not been widely circulated in the West. This is one of the great benefits of the internet, the ability to share information across international borders. We have begun to compile an interesting list of ullustrators with some interesting examples of their work. We still have, however, relatively limited information about their work and background. Hopefully our readers will be able to tell us more about these illustrators.

Art and the Soviets

Russia was not at the center of thae art world before the Revolution. We do note, however, some quite respected Russian artists. We do not know of any particularly noted artists during the Soviet era. Art in Soviet Russia had to meet a political test of Socialist realism which did not engender creativity. Interestingly some of the illustrations for children's books seem quite creative, even sparkeling. We wonder if the sencors paid less attention to illustrators for children's books. We know very little about this and would be interested in any insights that readers might have.

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Created: October 4, 2002
Last updated: 7:29 PM 10/8/2005