Soviet Art

1930s. Soviet female singer Klavdiya Shulzhenko (March 24, 1906 – June 17, 1984)

Soviet female singer Klavdiya Shulzhenko (March 24, 1906 – June 17, 1984) – People’s Artist of the USSR (1971), laureate of the Order of Lenin (1976), Chevalier of the Order of the Red Star (1945), Awarded with the Medal “For the Defense of Leningrad”.
Born on March 24, 1906 in Kharkov, Shulzhenko dreamed of becoming an actress in a drama theater since childhood. This dream originated from her father, from whom she first heard Ukrainian folk songs. He was seriously interested in music: playing a wind instrument, and sometimes singing solos in concerts. His speeches, his beautiful chest baritone, led the daughter into indescribable delight …
In her youth, Klavdiya took part in amateur art activities. These performances went on the stage, made in the middle of the yard, and aroused great interest among the residents of the neighboring houses. They came to the show with their chairs, stools and benches. In each performance there were songs and dances, and Klavdiya always sang either during the play or in the concert. At that time, Shulzhenko planned to become a dramatic actress, and was not going to be a singer.
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It’s not my dog business. 1965. Soviet photographer Vladimir Bogdanov (born September 4, 1937, Leningrad, USSR)

Soviet photographer Vladimir Bogdanov
The author of this picture is one of the forefathers of the so-called street photography. He shot a simple life: in the Moscow courtyard, on the embankments of Leningrad, in the Summer Garden, in Minsk, Vologda and other places. Recognition and fame came to him with a photograph “It’s not my dog business.” At the international competition “Inter Press Photo” in 1966 he with this dog became a prize-winner of all spectator sympathies.
Born in 1937 in Leningrad, Vladimir Bogdanov didn’t plan to become a photographer. In 1955, being a student of the textile institute, he came to the photo club of the Palace of Culture of the Leningrad City Council. And ten years later he was already a professional photographer, having started working as a photographer in the youth newspaper “Smena” (1965). Then followed Leningradskaya Pravda, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Sovetskaya Rossiya, Trud and, finally, The Literary Newspaper, where he worked for 23 years.
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On guard of peace. 1975. Soviet realist painter Akhmed Kitayev 1925-1996

Soviet realist painter Akhmed Kitayev (15 February 1925 – 13 July 1996) – Member of the USSR Union of Artists.
Born in the village of Tatar Yunki, Mordovia, Akhmed Ibadullovich Kitayev grew up in the religious family (his grandfather was a mullah). When the boy was 5 years old, his family was exiled to Siberia (1930). Meanwhile, drawing accompanied the talented boy in grief and joy. Aged 10, Akhmed won the All-Union competition of young artists. And he decides on a brave act: he writes a letter to Stalin, in which he expresses a desire to learn to draw and asks him to help. A few weeks later, to the Siberian settlement where they lived, a military man appeared. He told Akhmed to get ready and put him on a train to Leningrad.
So, in the 1940-1945’s he studied at the Moscow Secondary Art School. And then, at the Moscow State Academic Art Institute of VI Surikov (1945-1950). After graduation from the institute he worked in Moscow. Starting exhibiting since 1950, he took part in All-Union art exhibitions of Soviet Art in Moscow (1950, 1955), and “Soviet Russia” (Moscow, 1960). He mostly specialized in genre paintings, and since the 1960s – in portraits. Besides, in the 1950-1952 he taught at the Moscow Secondary Art School.
Ahmed Ibadullovich died on July 13, 1996 (Moscow).
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Babusya (old lady), 1961. Soviet photographer Vladimir Rufinovich Lagranzh

Soviet photographer Vladimir Rufinovich Lagranzh – a hereditary photographer, a Muscovite, and a recognized classic of Soviet and Russian photography. At the age of 20 he became a correspondent of the photo chronicles of TASS, and two years later makes such a sincere photo (Babusya, above). He is one of those photojournalists who not only did the editorial task, but tried to reflect in his works the era and the life of people in it. That is why among the photographs of Vladimir Lagranzh, in addition to unique images of politicians, artists and other famous people, there are so many everyday themes. And above all, they glorified the talented photographer. Noteworthy, the master receives recognition at his first international exhibition in Budapest and receives the Gold Medal for the photo “Little Ballerinas”.
Lagranzh is a participant of various competitions, exhibitions of Soviet photo, and a holder of professional awards, medals, prizes and diplomas. In particular, the highest award of the professional guild of photographers and the Union of Journalists “Golden Eye of Russia”. Besides, he is the author of the textbook “Pigeons over the Kremlin”.
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Crossing. 1975. Humanus series. Soviet Latvian photographer Vilgelm Mikhailovsky

Soviet Latvian photographer Vilgelm Mikhailovsky (Vilhelms Mihailovskis) was Laureate of the State Prize of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (1989). Noteworthy, he was the first of Soviet photographers received the honorary title of an outstanding artist of the International Federation of Photographic Art (Excellence FIAP, 1979). Meanwhile, he has more than a hundred different international awards. His author’s collections are in the French Museum of Photography (Musee Francais de la Photographie), the Musee de L’Elysee in Lausanne and in other European collections.
Born October 2, 1942 in the city of Konstantinovka, Donetsk region, Mikhailovsky graduated from the Konstantinovka Technical Institute (1966). Then he moved to Latvia. He started photography in 1969, and began working as a photographer in the magazine “Māksla” (1976-1996), the newspaper “Literatūra un māksla” (1980-1982), and as an art editor in the Baltic Newspaper (1991-1995).
Mikhailovsky became known for his series “Portraits” (1985), “Invitation to the Execution” (1988), and “Non-stop Photography” (1996-2003). He is the author of many photo albums, including: “Revelation” (1982), “Tribute to Riga” (1992), “The Face of the Epoch” (1998) “Flight 2000” (2000) “Centuries Look at Us” (2002).
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Smile. Artists Kaleria and Boris Kukuliev. Yuri Gagarin in Soviet Palekh lacquer miniatures

Yuri Gagarin in Soviet Palekh lacquer miniatures
The world’s first cosmonaut – the man who left the Earth’s atmosphere and ventured into outer space Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin. Не is а hero whose name has gone down in history ..
The hero’s life resembles а lens which focuses the fate of а people, а thorny way of science, the voice of poetry and strivings of the human intellect. These beautiful lacquer miniatures explain the essence of the Russian man, in particular Yuri Gagarin. His soul, woven of many threads – fairy tales of childhood, dreams, heroes and ideals. None of the miniatures has a specific name, but the plots of these miniatures clearly show the history of the Russian people, whose glorious son was Yuri Gagarin.
Gagarin’s history is inseparable from the history of the country and his great compatriots Lomonosov, Pushkin, Tsiolkovsky, and Chkalov. His fate is inseparable from the conquest of the revolution, the young Soviet country and its achievements in the fields of energy, construction, and engineering. Without the first five-year plans and hard work, there would be no success in cosmonautics.
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Lyucia, 1986. Oil on cardboard. Soviet artist Margarita Dmitrievna Ruban (May 1, 1934 – October 21, 2011)

Soviet artist Margarita Dmitrievna Ruban was a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR. Born May 1, 1934 in Yanaul, Bashkortostan, she grew up in Leningrad (since 1937). She showed her ability to draw very early. Accordingly, in 1953-1961 she studied at the Tavrichesky Art College. After graduation from the college she entered the Faculty of Painting at the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of I.E. Repin of Academy of Arts of the USSR. She studied in the workshops of prominent Soviet artists Yuri Neprintsev and A.D. Romanichev (1961-1967). The diploma painting “Attack repulsed” was dedicated to the difficult tense years of the Great Patriotic War, witnessed by Ruban herself, having experienced all the 900 days of the blockade.
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