Soviet Art

The morning of our homeland. 1949. Oil Painting by Soviet socialist realism artist Fyodor Shurpin. 27 September, 1904 (Smolensk region) – 9 January, 1972 (Moscow)

According to the known legend, Stalin, at the Soviet Art exhibition called his son Vasily to this picture and said, “Do you think you’re Stalin, or you think I am Stalin?!?!” And he pointed to the canvas: “No, here is Stalin.”
“The morning of our homeland” 1949 oil painting of a little-known Soviet socialist realism artist Fyodor Shurpin (1904-1972), depicting Joseph Stalin. The work on the painting to the 70th anniversary of Stalin took place in 1946-1948. After the exposure of the personality cult of Stalin, the painting was called “The last train has left.” In the foreground – pensive Stalin in a white paramilitary jacket, without orders, with the coat on his arm. Behind the leader – stretching beyond the horizon the vast expanses of the motherland with grace collective farm fields, high-voltage transmission masts, smoking chimneys of factories in the industrial cities. And towering over the whole Soviet country the figure of Stalin – “Great Leader, wise and caring.”
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A pioneer girl decorating Soviet New Year tree. Soviet New Year greeting cards history

Soviet New Year greeting cards history

How celebrated New Year’s Day in the USSR? Well, approximately the same way as in modern Russia.
First of all, it should be noted that neither in Soviet times, nor in modern Russia the tree, the holiday, and the whole celebration can be called “Christmas”. Instead, it’s always been a New Year’s Day, New Year tree and New Year holidays. And Christmas in the USSR, as well as in modern Russia, is celebrated on January 7, very modestly, and after the grandiosely and noisy celebration of New Year’s day holidays. But in Soviet history was the period covering roughly about two decades, when the traditional New Year tree, Father Frost (Ded Moroz) and Snowmaiden (Snegurochka) weren’t encouraged, as if did not exist at all. The same goes for Christmas cards, that is, in early 1920s – 1930s they were not printed. It all started December 27, 1935 when four senior leaders headed by Stalin were traveling in a car inspecting New Year’s Moscow.
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Soviet artist Pyotr Petrovich Litvinsky (November 7, 1927 – July 8, 2009). Survived (Children of besieged Leningrad, WWII). 1961

Soviet artist Pyotr Petrovich Litvinsky (November 7, 1927 – July 8, 2009) – painter and teacher, member of the Leningrad Union of Artists of the RSFSR (1960), Honored Artist of the Russian Federation (1996). He taught painting and drawing at the Higher School of Industrial Art named after Vera Mukhina (1962-79), and at the Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute of Herzen (1979-84), a professor at the Moscow State Academic Art Institute of Surikov (1984-86) of the Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Moscow (1987, 1989 Vice-Rector). Painted battle, genre and historical compositions, landscapes, portraits, and still-lifes. Since 1952, participated in exhibitions.
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The Ulyanovs (Vladimir Lenin and Nadezhda Krupskaya). 1970. Painting by Soviet artist Viktor Nikolaevich Pegov (born November 6, 1938)

Soviet artist Viktor Nikolaevich Pegov – Member of the USSR Union of Artists (1970), Honored Worker of Culture of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1988), and Honored Worker of Culture of Russia (2011).
Victor Pegov was born in the village of Russian Yurmash, Bashkir ASSR, November 6, 1938. At the age of 15 years, Victor moved to Ufa, and entered the workshop of teacher GV Ogorodnikov at the Palace of Culture “Udarnik” of engine plant. There he learned the basics of art. Then he studied at the Kazan Art School. Since 1963 is a member of the republican, zonal, regional, national and international exhibitions of Soviet Art. Since 1964 he has taught at the Ufa school of arts. In 1980 he graduated from the art department of the Chuvash State Pedagogical Institute named after IY Yakovlev.
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Rabfak (Students workers) are going. 1928. Oil on canvas. Soviet artist Boris Ioganson 1893-1973

Prominent Soviet artist Boris Ioganson 1893-1973
In Soviet Art, pictures by Boris Vladimirovich Ioganson were considered exemplary, perfectly relevant to the principles of socialist realism. Boris Ioganson was a citizen-artist, artist-Communist, and advocate of the art of socialist realism. Hero of Socialist Labor, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, twice winner of the State Prize of the USSR, People’s Artist of the USSR, academician. In 1958-1962 he was the President of the USSR Academy of Arts, in 1965-1968 – the first secretary of the USSR Union of Artists, and in addition, he found time to raise and teach our artistic youth.
“The people – the hero and the creator of history. To show deeds of our people – the honorable duty of artists, from whom the Soviet viewer expects paintings, raising the whole people’s topics, themes of great public sound.” Boris Ioganson
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Village festival. 1950s, fragment. Soviet artist sculptor Evgeny Rastorguev (1920 – 2009)

Soviet artist sculptor Evgeny Rastorguev
An honored Artist of Russia, a member of the USSR Union of Artists (1953), Evgeny Rastorguev was born into a family of teachers in the village of Nikolo-Pogost of Nizhny Novgorod region. In 1940 he graduated from the Gorky Art School, and immediately began to participate in exhibitions of Soviet art. 1941-1945 – participant of the Great Patriotic War. In 1941, he became a military cartographer, and later worked in the front newspaper, participated in the erection of the first memorial museum of the Second World War – the architectural memorial complex “Svir victory”. After the war, in 1946, he enters the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after I.E. Repin in Leningrad, and then transferred to the Moscow State Art Institute named after VI Surikov. He studied in the workshop of SV Gerasimov. In 1953, on the recommendation of his teacher, SV Gerasimov, he was admitted to the Union of Artists. Rastorguev was a member of the famous “Group of 16”.
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Favorite flowers and expensive reward. 1989. Soviet textile artist Gleb Aleksandrovich Belyshev (June 29, 1922 – January 13, 2016)

Soviet textile artist Gleb Aleksandrovich Belyshev (June 29, 1922 – January 13, 2016) – a member of the USSR Union of Artists (1957), and Cavalier of the Order of Red Banner of Labor in 1971 for the decoration of fabrics. Belyshev – a veteran of World War II, has war medals “For Courage”, “For Victory over Germany”, the Order of “Patriotic War” II degree, and commemorative medals. Since 1962, Gleb Belyshev was the chief designer of Barnaul cotton mill and the founder of the artistic textile Altai school. During his work at the cotton mill, under the guidance of the master, were created about 2000 drawings for calico and satin, which gained recognition not only in the Soviet Union, but also at the international exhibitions in Brussels, Paris, and Leipzig.
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