Everyone who remembers the Soviet magazines “Murzilka”, “Veselye Kartinki”, “Rabotnitsa” and “Krokodil” must have seen in them the wonderful illustrations and cartoons by German Ogorodnikov. They are not only satirical, but also very funny, and laughs Ogorodnikov easily and casually, with a brilliant way of finding humorous elements in the most ordinary and topical situations. He has managed to form his own easily recognizable style, and once you see his artwork, it is hard to confuse it with any others.
Cover of Krokodil magazine for june 1990. (“Crooks” should be more! - says Roland Bykov)
Herman Ogorodnikov came from a small village in the Mari El Republic. From childhood he showed an aptitude for drawing, so he entered the Kazan art school, and when he graduated he settled in Tatarstan, where he cooperated with local publications, in particular, with the satirical magazine “Chayan”. Back in 1961, Ogorodnikov drew a series of cartoons for the magazine, where he stigmatized moonshining, but he did it in an imaginative and funny way, even though the subject matter, in general, lay on the surface.
Fighting moonshine (- Go to the neighborhood, see if they're cracking down on moonshine. - No, they don't.)
But Ogorodnikov's imagination and ability to find unexpected moves were also in order, which was convincingly demonstrated by the drawing dedicated to the group flight of two of our spacecraft - Vostok 3 and Vostok 4.
Mr., take me for a ride
And soon Ogorodnikov was invited to the famous magazine “Krokodil” - the dream of any young artist-caricaturist. Ogorodnikov cooperated with this publication for more than 30 years - first as a freelance correspondent traveling around the cities and towns of our country, then in the staff, and finally - the editor-in-chief. During these years, he drew many witty cartoons mocking the negative aspects of Soviet reality, which could still be joked about.
A prospective physicist (A promising physicist, the apple's gonna fall on him.)
For example, scientists-physicists who were engaged in some absolutely incomprehensible to the common man and far from practical application researches. Such a “promising” young man studies, studies, and then gets a job in some research institute, gets a good salary and doesn't give a damn. However, it is unlikely that he will make any brilliant discoveries, but he feels good about himself.
Undercooked chicken (- I told you the chicken was undercooked, he ate all the garnish!)
Ogorodnikov also laughed at the poor service in our cafes and restaurants, where they cooked according to the principle of “whatever it takes. Although if you look at the prices in such establishments today, it is better to have Soviet service and not always perfectly cooked food, but for relatively reasonable money. And a Soviet chicken, even if not fried, would be a hundred points ahead of today's broilers.
Bachelor
In Soviet times, “Krokodil” was willingly subscribed to - the circulation was over 6.5 million copies. So it is not surprising that many people knew Ogorodnikov's name and sincerely admired his artwork. Moreover, the artist himself did not like black humor and hard satire, he teased, but did not stigmatize, did not burn napalm, gave his characters a chance to correct. But he could laugh at anyone, even at gold-digging generals.
General Plan (-what if the store is already closed?)
Many of his cartoons are still relevant today, albeit drawn for censorship reasons, “about the old days”. But has anything fundamentally changed now?
With the people in mind (- and the reason the people don't have food is because they're working too hard.)
With the beginning of perestroika, Ogorodnikov's cartoons became even sharper, such as this one on the cover of the 1989 Crocodile. And if there were already the first such figures then, what became of them a few years later? And the police no longer pursued the new “masters of life,” but accompanied them as guards.
Cover of Krokodil magazine in october 1989. (A story about being friends with Brezhnev and Sakharov.)
Ogorodnikov depicted all these negative phenomena in his cartoons, but without excessive blackness, although anything could be drawn, as there was virtually no censorship.
The sex bomb (I called you. Can you defuse a sex bomb?)
Ogorodnikov also had his favorite animals - ordinary cows. He painted them often, especially during the perestroika period, illustrating the dead end of agriculture.
Towards the south (- there's a rumor going around that the fodder supply in the south is fine.)
In the noughties “Krokodil” closed, humor and cartoons went online, but among the ocean of often quite mediocre drawings stand out the artworks of a true master, such as German Ovchinnikov, who despite his 85 years, still draws new witty cartoons. I wish he would continue to delight us with them.
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