Soviet Art

Chronicle of life of people in the USSR through Soviet Union journal covers. July 1953

Soviet Union journal covers
Sovetsky Soyuz, or “The Soviet Union” was a monthly illustrated journal, published in Moscow in 1930-1991. The magazine published articles on the events of the internal life of the USSR and its foreign policy, showing, among other things, the advantages of living in the USSR. Available in Russian, English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Arabic, Serbo-Croatian, Urdu, Hindi, Finnish, Romanian, Hungarian, Mongolian, Bengali, Vietnamese, and Italian languages. Of course, distributed in the USSR and abroad. The magazine had a supplement “Sport in the USSR”. Founded by Maxim Gorky, until 1950 the magazine had another title – “USSR under Construction”. Unfortunately, along with the collapse of the Soviet Union, many newspapers and magazines have ceased to exist, including The Soviet Union.
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Group portrait of artists. 1978. Soviet artist Irina Vorobyova (7 September 1932 – 2 February 1993)

Soviet artist Irina Vorobyova (7.09.1932-2.02.1993) – member of the Union of Artists of the USSR (1958) and Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1979). She graduated from Moscow Art School (1943-50); Moscow Art Institute of Surikov, studio of easel graphics of People’s Artist of the USSR, academician EA Kibrik. Her teachers were M.V.Matorin, M.A.Dobrov, P.I.Suvorov, BA Dehterev, and MM Cheremnykh (1951-57). Vorobyova illustrated books in publishing houses “Children’s Literature”, “Young Guard”, “Soviet Russia”, “The Kid”. In 1986 – awarded the medal “For Labor”. She developed multi-layer printing system with one board in the technique of colored engraving on cardboard, which is unique.
Participant of All-Union, republican, international, regional exhibitions. Besides, her solo exhibitions took place in 1963, 1972, 1978, 1983, 1984, and 1992 in Moscow. In addition, in 1979 in Vladimir, in 1983 – in Izhevsk, and in 1984 – Michurinsk. Her works are in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Pushkin Museum, 90 museums and galleries in the former Soviet Union and abroad (Bulgaria, Germany, Egypt, Italy, Finland, and France).
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In Blue Vastness. Soviet artist Arkady Rylov (17 January 1870 – June 22, 1939, Leningrad, the USSR)

One of the first landscape paintings of great ideological content is a picture of a prominent Soviet artist Arkady Rylov “In Blue vastness”, created in 1918. This picture is part of a number of those works, from which starts the history of Soviet art. And this is absolutely correct, because “In Blue Vastness” – one of the first significant ideologically and artistically works created in the first years of Soviet power, though those that have retained not only its historical value, but also today give us a living aesthetic pleasure. The painting was as if the result of many searches and achievements of the artist for all his previous artistic life … Arkady Rylov – wonderful landscape painter, the successor of the great traditions of the Russian school of painting, who created one of the first impressive images of Lenin (“Lenin in Razliv”) – leader, fighter, builder of the new life, which entered the treasury of Soviet art.
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USSR Automotive Industry. March 16, 1936 – in the USSR at the Gorky Automobile Plant was produced the first Soviet passenger car M-1

The Soviet Union journal sometimes published articles about the different types of cars and trucks, produced in the USSR. Articles were accompanied by photographs showing the production of cars at the Soviet factories. The USSR Automotive Industry can be rightfully called a child of the Soviet power. In tsarist Russia there was no automobile, except for attempts to organize the production of passenger cars in the Russian-Baltic Shipyard – attempts that ended in failure: over 6 years this company produced 450 cars …. Thus, the Soviet Union has created a new industry, that already in 1937 produced more than 200 000 vehicles, ahead of the production of trucks in England, France, Germany.
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October in Smolny. Oil on canvas. The State Tretyakov gallery. Soviet artist Nikolai Osenev (1909-1983)

October in Smolny. Soviet artist Nikolai Osenev has reproduced the scene of meeting Lenin with the soldiers of the revolution – the workers, soldiers, sailors in Petrograd, at the entrance to the Smolny, which in 1917 became the headquarters of the Great October Socialist Revolution. Soviet artist Nikolai Osenev (1909-1983) – Honored Artist of the RSFSR, Honored Worker of Culture of the Polish People’s Republic, landscape, genre painter, an author of works on historical and revolutionary themes. Nikolai Nikolaevich Osenev was born in 1909 in Moscow. He studied at the Moscow State Art Institute of Surikov (from 1938, with interruptions). His teachers were S. Gerasimov, Igor Grabar, AA Deineka. Nikolai Osenev – participant of art exhibitions since 1949. Since the beginning of the 1950s was active in the open air. By the mid-1950s he became known master of composite landscape. In 1960s he traveled abroad (England, Italy, France, Sweden, Iraq and others) and created a series of works, mainly architectural motifs. His works are in the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; Penza art gallery and other museums and private collections.
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Soviet artist Vasily Pogorelov (1895 – 1980). Industry. Toned Plaster 1935

In the days of October, in the turbulent revolutionary period, he was little more than twenty years old. By today’s standards it’s still young age. And then behind the young man was already serious enough life experience, difficult biography, closely intertwined desire to become an artist, and the need to earn for a living. Soviet artist Vasily Pogorelov (1895 – 1980) was born in a large family. Early lost his father. The mother could not feed her five children, and Vasily had to work. A twelve year old teenager, he already worked 16 hours a day at the tobacco factory – as an adult. From the strong exhaustion and malnutrition he became seriously ill. And, of course, recovered, stronger, found the strength to live and to dream.
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Soviet Russian actress Marianna Vertinskaya

There is some kind of magic and mysterious charm in the past 1960s of the USSR, its cinema and art. Call it what you like, but it’s true. There are actors (they are quite a bit), who themselves are regarded as a work of art. Look at Soviet Russian actress Marianna Vertinskaya – beautiful woman, the daughter of a famous father. Congenital artistry, incomparable elegance on stage and in life. And yet – sparking excitement and wonder of live blue eyes. Most famous men of the time knelt down confessing their love for her – Andrey Tarkovsky, Andrey Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky, artist Lev Zbarsky, operators Georgy Rerberg and Alexander Knyazhinsky, architect Ilya Bylinkin, actor Boris Khmelnitsky, and more. Icon of style of the 1960s, Marianna Vertinskaya was born into a family of a famous chanson singer Alexander Vertinsky and Lidiya Vertinskaya – film and theater actress. The name Marianna was given to her by her mother after she had watched a Hollywood movie of Robin Hood, where Robin Hood’s beloved was called Marianna. Coincidentally, later one of the Marianna’s husbands – Boris Khmelnitsky played the role of Robin Hood in the Soviet film.
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