Soviet Art

In service of mankind – Chemistry inspired USSR matchbox labels

Chemistry in service of mankind – Chemistry inspired USSR matchbox labels

In the USSR, Chemical industry has been widely developed, particularly in Russia and Ukraine. Produced: mineral fertilizers, crop protection chemicals (164 thousand tons in 1970), Sulfuric acid (12.1 million tonnes), soda (3.67 million tonnes) and caustic (1.94 million tons), soda, synthetic resin and plastics, chemical fibers and threads, tires (34.6 million units), and others. It is natural that with such development of the industry, it has received attention from the state – a professional holiday was established. An outstanding scientist, the founder of the periodic table of chemical elements Dmitri Mendeleev was the personification of the profession. Issued stamps dedicated to the scientist, published a series of matchbox labels, popularizing science and the chemical industry. The chemist Day – a professional holiday of the chemical and petrochemical industry workers, which dates back to Soviet times. Day of the chemist was established by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from October 1, 1980 “On holidays and memorial days” and is celebrated annually on the last Sunday of May.
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Soviet artist Lidiya Brodskaya (1910, St. Petersburg – 1991 Leningrad). April. 1971. Oil

Soviet artist Lidiya Brodskaya (1910 -1991) is the author of paintings, lyrical landscapes, devoted to the nature of the Soviet Union – Urals, Siberia, Far East, Ukraine. Brodskaya – People’s Artist of the USSR (1980), Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1970), the winner of the RSFSR State Prize of IE Repin. In 1981 she was awarded the silver medal of the USSR Academy of Arts. In 1935-1939 studied in her father’s workshop in Leningrad Academy of Arts. Since 1939, studied in Moscow. She began participating in art exhibitions since 1944. Works of Brodskaya were exhibited in France (1948), Finland (1950), Poland (1951), India (1951), China (1954), Syria (1955). Solo exhibitions were held in Moscow in 1948, 1949, 1955. Her works are in the State Tretyakov Gallery, in the museums of Kiev, Lvov, Chelyabinsk, Astrakhan and other cities of the former USSR.
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Soviet actress Lyubov Virolainen

Soviet actress Lyubov Virolainen (nee Urozhenko) was born January 14, 1941 in Borisov, Minsk region, the USSR. Her childhood was tragic. Her father died in the Great Patriotic War at the front. Mother, with the children went to the partisan detachment. Little Lyuba, together with the three-year-old sister and six-year old brother lived in a dugout. Then, the mother with the children got into a concentration camp, which was established by the Germans in the forests of Belarus. Later, she somehow managed to find families to adopt her children.
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Letter. 1971. Oil. Soviet artist Arkady Plastov (1893—1972)

Soviet artist Arkady Plastov (1893 – 1972) – Academician of the USSR Academy of Arts (1947), People’s Artist of the USSR (1962), winner of the Lenin Prize (1966) and the Stalin Prize of the first degree (1946). The main themes of his creativity – rural landscapes, portraits of contemporaries, scenes of peasant life. He has also worked in the field of illustration and easel drawing. During his lifetime, Arkady Plastov was recognized as a classic of Soviet art. His works were published even in school textbooks. Although he painted traditional Soviet pictures depicting Lenin, collective farm holidays, the best of his paintings became classics of Russian art of XX century. He exhibited his works at the exhibitions of the Union of Artists. His works are kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, in Ulyanovsk Regional Art Museum, Samara Regional Art Museum and other major museums of the former USSR. Solo exhibitions of AA Plastov were held in Moscow in 1976, 1983, 1993, 2003 and in Sofia in 1964.
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Moscow schoolboys, 1963. Soviet photographer Mikhail Ozersky

Soviet photographer Mikhail Ozersky (1898 – 1968) – member of the USSR Union of Journalists (1959), photojournalist of the magazine “Ogonyok” (1929), later – Photochronicles TASS. He worked in the newspaper “Pravda”, during the World War II was a photographer for the same newspaper. Since the 1950s – the photographer of RIA-Novosti. He created a series of reportage portraits of scientists, writers, and artists: Vladimir Mayakovsky, Alexei Tolstoy, Tsiolkovsky, Paul Bazhov, Nikolay Okhlopkov, Dmitry Shostakovitch, Maya Plisetskaya, Marina Semenova and others. The world-famous became his picture “Maxim Gorky seeing off Romain Rolland”.
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Autumn. Semaphores, 1932. Painting by Soviet artist Georgy Nissky (January 8, 1903 – June 18, 1987)

Soviet artist Georgy Nissky (January 8, 1903 – June 18, 1987) is considered the founder of the so-called severe style, the master of the industrial landscape. People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1965), winner of the Stalin Prize of the third degree (1951), Member of the USSR Academy of Arts. His works are in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, and in most of the major museums of the former USSR.
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People’s Artist of the USSR Boris Livanov. Painting by Soviet artist Nikolai Zhukov

Soviet artist Nikolai Zhukov (1908-1973) – People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1955), People’s Artist of the USSR (1963), winner of two Stalin Prize of the second degree (1943, 1951), member of the CPSU (b) since 1945, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1949). A large part of the artist’s work is devoted to the life and work of Lenin, Stalin, the Great Patriotic War. He painted beautiful watercolors, children’s portraits. Author of dozens of posters, many of which are marked with the “Grand Prix” at the All-Union and international exhibitions of poster. After the war, the newspaper “Pravda” sent their correspondent Zhukov to The Nuremberg trials, where the International Military Tribunal tried the Nazi war criminals (11/20/45 – 10/01/46). There he made more than 400 drawings.
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