Gennady Mikhailovich Dobrov (1937-2011) was a Russian artist who became famous for his powerful paintings of the victims of the Second World War, which always evoke a deep reaction in the soul of any normal person who sees them. They are hard to look at, but this is the truth that cannot be hidden, no matter how hard and unpleasant it may be. In this article we will talk about the life of the artist and his hard, but few people remain indifferent works.
I don't want a new war! - Aleksandr Podosenov volunteered for the front at the age of 17. He became an officer. In Karelia he was shot through the head. On the island of Valaam, on Lake Ladoga, he lived all the post-war years, paralyzed, sitting motionless on pillows
Gennady was born into a creative family. His father, Fyodor Gladunov, was an artist, taught his son the basics of painting and gave him an assignment: to draw one work from memory, one from life and one watercolor every day. And Gennady did draw, although not everything he saw in his childhood was cloudless: legless and armless war invalids often gathered at the local market to beg for alms. Many of them abused alcohol and generally felt like lost people.
An old warrior - Mikhail Kazankov is 90 years old. In three wars he was able to participate in: the Russian-Japanese (1904-1905), the First World War (1914-1918), the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945). And always he fought bravely: in World War I he was awarded two George Crosses, for the fight against German fascism he received the Order of the Red Star and several medals.
“Wounded in the defense of the USSR” - Alexander Podosenov at the age of 17 volunteered to go to the front. Became an officer. In Karelia he was wounded by a bullet in the head. On Valaam Island, on Lake Ladoga, he lived all the post-war years, paralyzed, sitting motionless on cushions.
The country needed to rebuild its economy after the devastation, but no one cared about some invalids, and they were left to their own devices, receiving a beggarly pension at best.
In addition, Gennady often had to walk past the women's psychiatric hospital, since there was a water pump next to it. His mother was there, too, because every such trip for water was a moral test.
Portrait of a woman with a burnt face - she fainted near the stove when she heard that the war had begun, her husband had been sent to the Brest fortress the day before. In 2007 the series of drawings "Autographs of the War" was acquired by the Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War on Poklonnaya Hill.
He showed extraordinary artistic abilities from childhood, so at the age of 12 he moved to Moscow and studied at an art school for gifted children, and then entered the Surikov Moscow State Art School. There he took lessons from Matvey Alekseevich Dobrov, an excellent etcher and a man of deep moral values. Later, in memory of his teacher, who had such a strong influence on him, Gennady even took his last name.
“Memory” - The picture shows Georgy Zotov, a disabled war veteran from the village of Fenino near Moscow. The veteran mentally revisits the past as he leafs through the newspapers of the war years.
“Went from the Caucasus to Budapest” - Hero sailor Alexei Chkheidze the artist met in the village of Danki near Moscow. He miraculously survived several surgeries, had his hands amputated, was blinded, almost completely lost his hearing, and now finds the strength to joke: he ironically calls himself a “prosthetic man”.
But Gennady did not manage to graduate from art school. His best friend was sent to a psychiatric hospital for "wrong views," and Dobrov began to suspect that not only the mentally ill were there. He expressed his opinion, which the school administration did not like, so to be on the safe side, Dobrov was given a certificate and sent home. In order to get a residence permit in Moscow, Dobrov started working for the police. After the required 3.5 years to get a residence permit and an apartment, he quit and got a job at the Sklifosovsky Institute. He also had a chance to work as an orderly, helping to transport people to psychiatric hospitals in an ambulance. It is believed that only complete cynics or people who really sympathize with the sick, who see their work as a duty to society, can work there. And there is every reason to believe that Dobrov was no cynic.
"A Story about Medals" - Fingers move gropingly along the surface of the medals on Ivan Zabara's chest. Here they feel the medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad" "It was hell there, but we held out," the soldier said.
“Veteran” - Muscovite Mikhail Koketkin was an airborne paratrooper at the front. As a result of a severe wound, he lost both legs. But he did not resign himself to disability, graduated from the institute and worked for many years in the Central Statistical Office of the RSFSR.
Money for the trip was saved only in April 1974. Dobrov arrived in Leningrad at the river terminal:
- I need a ticket to Valaam!
- Only for June.
- Why?
- There is still ice on Ladoga.
He could hardly wait for the first steamer. He did not walk the seven kilometers from the pier to the boarding school - he ran.
Director Ivan Ivanovich Korolev (he called himself "King Vallam") received the uninvited guest coldly:
- Draw invalids? Who sent you?
Dobrov handed over a letter of recommendation from the Union of Artists of Russia. Korolev softened.
- Ok, draw! But don't set foot in the Nikolsky Skete!... /from the article by Grigory Telnov, 2006/
On the island of Valaam, the most seriously disabled war veterans lived out their last days, hidden away from human eyes. According to the artist, he sincerely admired the people there: “angels, not people, everyone’s soul is wide open, no one lies, they say everything as it is. I even close the door to my inner soulful room, there’s no other way. You cry and laugh with them, and the songs they sing – I’ve never heard such songs, they can only be invented in the trenches, there’s something primordial here, the very essence of war.”
"Frontline Memories" - Muscovite Boris Mileev lost his arms in the war, but did not resign himself to the fate of an invalid. He could not sit idle, learned to type on a machine and has been working for many years, doing typewritten work
"Letter to a Friend-Fellow Soldier" - War invalids adapted to civilian life in different ways. Vladimir Eremin, who lost both arms and came from the Moscow region settlement of Kuchino, not only learned to write, but also graduated from a law school after the war. Drawing by artist Gennady Dobrov from the series of paintings "Autographs of War" in the cycle "Sheets of Sorrow"
Once, when the head of the Home for the Disabled at Valaam left for his business on the "mainland", Dobrov made his way to the Nikolsky Skete, where the "heaviest" invalids were kept. Based on what he saw there, he drew his famous series of portraits. At first, four drawings, then others were added, and their total number approached 30.
Unknown soldier
Portrait of Valentina Koval
The most poignant of Dobrov's portraits, which became the most popular, is "The Unknown Soldier". It depicts a man without arms and legs, who lost the ability to speak due to a concussion. It is believed that this is Grigory Voloshin, Hero of the USSR, who carried out an air ramming attack and was extremely seriously wounded. However, it is not a fact that this is him, there is information about Voloshin's death in early 1945. Many were frightened by the empty and meaningless, completely dead look of this man, which Dobrov managed to convey very convincingly. Cynical popular rumor began to call such invalids "Stalin's samovars", supposedly, no arms, no legs, only one tap remained.
"A Life Lived Honestly" - Mikhail Zvezdochkin. With an inguinal hernia, he volunteered for the front. He was disabled, but hid it because he could not stand aside in a difficult time for the country
"Partisan" - Muscovite Viktor Lukin first fought in a partisan detachment. After the expulsion of the fascist occupiers from the territory of the USSR, he fought with the enemies in the army. The war did not spare him, but he remains as strong in spirit as before.
"Family" - Vasily Lobachev defended Moscow and was wounded. His arms and legs were amputated due to gangrene. And he would have become completely helpless if not for his wife Lydia, who also lost both legs during the war.
Artists and art critics were delighted with Dobrov's drawings, but they were never exhibited anywhere. In the 90s, everyone learned about such drawings, but then some democrats and liberals presented them as another evidence of the crimes of Soviet power, when all the disabled were put away in special institutions, where they quietly died without embarrassing the rest of the people and without interfering with the construction of a bright communist future.
However, Dobrov also had other artwork, such as the painting “Farewell Look” about the problem of alcoholism, when even the most capable person can turn into a monster.
A Parting Glance.
Dobrov wrote it based on what happened to his sister when she married a talented composer who never managed to overcome his craving for alcohol, which had reached its extreme limits.
Almost every artwork by Dobrov is an attempt by a concerned person to draw society's attention to the problems and people it tries hard not to notice, for the sake of its own peace of mind. And I wonder if there will be a Dobrov of his own now?
Harsh satire and the ugly truth about war by German artist Otto Dix
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