Older than a century. Boris Efimov passed away

One of the last people to see Old Russia. A young man from an intelligent family, even before Great War- a student of the Bialystok real school, in 1917 - a student of the Kyiv Institute of National Economy.

In 1919 in Kyiv - sketches of belligerents of all stripes:

1918

2opena wrote very well.
Written literally on the eve of death, but everything is true (the title of this post is his):

Boris Efimov. One hundred and eight years without remorse.

“While we are here with you spiritually growing and intellectually improving, the cartoonist of all times and peoples Boris Yefimov celebrated his 108th birthday. But we didn’t notice (that is, we noticed, but a few days later). But the president noticed in time and said:

"You not only reflected, but also shaped the history of the 20th century. You always honestly and faithfully defended the interests of our country and its citizens. And millions of people answer you with sincere gratitude for the joy of meeting with your wonderful work."

As a woman I know very well, whose opinion I respect, once said to me: “Maybe God gives talented but unscrupulous people a chance to repent while they are alive – and that is why they live so long?”

( bumble beat remarks:

"These people knew how to survive. Molotov died at the age of 97, Kaganovich at the 98th, Malenkov at the 87th, Voroshilov at the 89th, Budyony at the 91st, ..."

Only in all these cases - including Efimov - one has to talk about talent in a very specific sense - in the sense of talent to do great meanness - approx. )

No answer. Talented, but unscrupulous, are in no hurry to shackle themselves in chains. They prefer to rewrite the words of the national anthems (to which one does not stand up, but wants to lie down with shame) and portray as enemies those whom the powers that be point out to him.

Boris Fridlyand, almost a young artist, draws dashing anti-anarchist pictures. But, as soon as the wind of change corrects the direction of its blow, Judas Trotsky appears in the pictures (who, by the way, before turning into a Judas, wrote the preface to Efimov's first book of cartoons):

(But recently he was not only the patron of Bor. Efimov, but also an icon and a good chemist - ed. tapirr)

The fight against enemies continues - you just need to equip yourself with hedgehogs:

Does the government not like capitalists? Get it, fascist nannies:

Has a second front opened? Yes, please - we will immediately cry the apotheosis of friendship of peoples of different systems:

Leader rules? Let's draw:

How was life? Right, better, right, more fun:

You can even very, very carefully draw something like ... no, not a cartoon, but such a pleasant portrait:

And when everything is completely permitted, so as not to lag behind the times, we will add crushed tender beauty under the boot of the executioner and tyrant:

Are the capitalists gone? It's OK! The oligarchs are left! So now the clawed paws will belong to them:

And we will project cute, kind humor on all the rulers at once:

Well, why not “honest and devoted protection of interests”? Depending on the line and directive. Whatever you say, I will defend. Whomever you order, I will slander.
It seems to be vile to attack a hundred-plus-year-old old man - well, we won’t. written, let me remind you, 1 day before death - approx.. ) If an old man for a hundred and eight years has not understood what conscience is, he will not understand. But the state that rewards low sycophancy... uh... let's not talk about the state..."

What is humor? Who is pictured? (Probably had another signature)

stanis_sadal

"He managed to live 95 days in the 19th century, live the entire 20th century and catch the 21st...

He saw Nicholas II, Lenin, drew Trotsky, Bukharin, with whom he was familiar. He was present at the cremation of Mayakovsky, with whom he was friends. I saw how his hair flared up in the oven ... He said about himself: “I am a citizen of three centuries. Fate was kind to me, shook hands with Mussolini, dined with Tito, saw Trotsky into exile, talked to Stalin on the phone and saw off Lunacharsky.

Famous artist Mikhail Zlatkovsky decided to change the rule - about the dead, either good or nothing. Not the case, he says.

“Yefimov actively participated in all the provocative campaigns of the Soviet regime - his pen nailed right and left during all the trials of the 30s over Bukharin-Zinoviev-Pyatakov, he mocked Trotsky (once his patron) especially subtly.

And then the “Weisman-Morganists”, “fly-lovers and murderers”, the independent policy of Yugoslavia with the “executioner of the communists” Joseph Tito, “murderers in white coats” were “printed” and printed in the central press.

He wrote denunciations against young Soviet caricature and poster artists to the KGB, the VAAP, and wherever possible. Such violent activity is easily explained - Efimov painted very mediocre.

Graphic artist, illustrator, poster artist, one of the most famous and prolific Soviet cartoonists. Member of the Union of Artists of the USSR. Three times Laureate of the State Prize of the USSR (1950, 1951, 1972). Academician of the Academy of Arts of the USSR, then - of the Russian Academy of Arts.

Boris Efimovich Fridlyand was born on September 15, 1900 in Kyiv. I started drawing at the age of five. After his parents moved to Bialystok, he entered a real school, where his older brother Mikhail also studied. There they published a handwritten school magazine together. Brother (the future publicist and feuilletonist Mikhail Koltsov) edited the publication, and Boris illustrated it.

In 1918, the first cartoons by Boris Efimov on A. A. Blok, Vera Yureneva, Alexander Kugel appeared in the Kiev magazine Spectator. In 1919, Efimov became one of the secretaries of the editorial and publishing department of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs. Soviet Ukraine.

Since 1920, Boris Yefimov has been working as a cartoonist in the newspapers Bolshevik, Vesti, and Kommunar as the head of the visual propaganda department of YugROSTA in Odessa. Here he made his first poster on a plywood sheet, on which he depicted Denikin beaten by the Red Army. Later, the artist Efimov was the head of the art section of the propaganda department of the Southwestern Front in Kharkov. Upon his return to Kyiv, he was appointed head of the art and poster department Kyiv - UkrROSTA. In parallel, he collaborated with the newspapers "Kiev Proletarian" and "Proletarskaya Pravda".

In 1922, the artist moved to Moscow, where he collaborated with central newspapers Izvestia and Pravda, with the satirical magazine Krokodil, and since 1929 with the magazine Chudak. His drawings began to be regularly published on the pages of the Rabochaya Gazeta, the Ogonyok and Searchlight magazines, and were published in separate collections and albums. During these years, political caricature became his main specialization. The "heroes" of his cartoons were: in the 1920s, many Western politicians - Daladier, Chamberlain; in the 30s - 40s - Hitler, Mussolini, Goebbels and Goering; in subsequent years - Truman, Churchill and others.

In the 1930s, albums of cartoons by Boris Yefimov were published: “The Face of the Enemy”, “Caricature in the Defense Service of the USSR”, “Political Cartoons” (all -1931), “A Way Out Will Be Found” (1932), “Political Cartoons” (1935) , "Fascism is the enemy of the peoples" (1937), "Fascist interventionists in Spain", "Warmongers" (both -1938).

After the arrest of M. Koltsov at the end of 1938, the artist was fired from the Izvestia newspaper and was forced to switch to work in book illustration (works by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin). In 1940, under the pseudonym V. Borisov, he returned to political caricature (Trud newspaper) and, after the direct instructions of Vyacheslav Molotov, was again included in the cage of masters of Soviet political caricature, with the resumption of publications in Pravda, Krokodil, Agitplakat and other

During the war, Boris Yefimov, along with others famous painters and graphics actively involved in the work on anti-fascist posters. Many of which are outstanding examples of propaganda art. Some of them he performed together with the artist Nikolai Dolgorukov (“The instigators of a new war should remember the shameful end of their predecessors” 1947, “The forces of the world are invincible!” 1949, “ Old song on new way!" 1949, People's Court. Law” of 1951, “Where the court is sold to the capitalists, the rights of the people are violated!” 1957), their collaboration continued into the post-war period. Together with V. N. Denis, D. S. Moor, L. G. Brodaty, Kukryniksy, he created a unique phenomenon in world culture - “positive satire”.

In 1966-1990, Efimov was the editor-in-chief of the creative and production association Agitplakat. He is the author of politically topical cartoon posters on international topics: “The duty of mankind and every people: nowhere and never give it a go!” (1977), “Druzhkov from Tel Aviv and Cairo were suddenly crowned with peace prizes” (1978), “Rapid Response Corps” (1979), “Soviet Threat. Red Danger "(1979)," There, as the story goes, the vile invader was finished off!

Actively participated in all the political campaigns of the Soviet government: the fight against the "social fascists" - the social democratic parties of the West, the fight against the Bukharinites, Trotskyists, cosmopolitans, geneticists - "Weisman-Morganists, murderers-fly-lovers", with the Vatican, "doctors -killers", with "enemy voices" - radio stations "Freedom" and "Voice of America". Known for his anti-religious posters and cartoons ("The Pope on Guard" 1932).

Boris Efimov is an unusually prolific author, in just a few years creative activity created tens of thousands of political cartoons, campaign posters, illustrations, satirical drawings, cartoons, as well as easel series. He participated in many group and all-Union art exhibitions. Dozens of satirical albums, books, stories, essays, studies on the history and theory of the art of caricature have been published.

Boris Efimov - Hero of Socialist Labor. He was awarded many awards: three Orders of Lenin, the Order October revolution, three orders of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of the Badge of Honor, the Bulgarian Order of Cyril and Methodius, I degree, and many other domestic and foreign awards.

In August 2002, he headed the Department of Caricature Art of the Russian Academy of Arts. On September 28, 2007, on his 107th birthday, he was appointed chief artist of the Izvestia newspaper. And at the age of 107, Boris Efimov continued to work. He mainly wrote memoirs and drew friendly caricatures, took an active part in public life, speaking at all kinds of commemorative and anniversary meetings, parties, events.

The original satirical graphics and circulation posters of B. E. Efimov are stored in the State Tretyakov Gallery(TG), National historical museum Russia (GIM), Russian state library(RGB), Memorial Museum German anti-fascists (MMNA) in Krasnogorsk, National Library Belarus, in private collections in Russia, Germany, Portugal, USA.

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01:52 — REGNUM

Boris Efimov for his long life managed to visit the pre-revolutionary, Soviet and Russian cartoonist. He saw Nicholas II, Hitler, Stalin, dined with Utyosov, drank vodka with Voroshilov, witnessed two world wars and three revolutions. WITH speaking surname Friedland and his repressed brother Boris Efimov managed to live up to the honorary 108 years. Nikolai Bukharin, at whose trial he was present, said that "this great artist is at the same time a very intelligent and observant politician." Perhaps this is what helped Boris Efimov survive and sketch the entire history of the country in the twentieth century.

Misha and Borya

The future cartoonist was born in Kyiv in the family of shoemaker Efim Moiseevich Fridlyand on September 28, 1900, after four months of the 19th century. Later, when it became unsafe to be Friedland in the Soviet Union, Boris would take on a pseudonym in honor of his father. His older brother would also change his last name, becoming the famous publicist and journalist Mikhail Koltsov, who was falsely accused of espionage and shot in the 1940s. Perhaps few people influenced Boris as much as his brother.

But at the dawn of his life, little Boris still does not expect anything like this and only takes offense at Misha, when in 1902, during a photo shoot, the elder was allowed to hold a gun, and the younger got only a net with a ball.

“Such was the first, but by no means the last, grief in my long life,” he writes.

Efimov claimed that he remembered himself from that very age: from the age of two. It is difficult to rely on a narrator who, after so much time, rethinks the events of his life, his own thoughts and feelings, but, on the other hand, there are not many reasons not to trust Efimov either. Yes, and it is known that he had an amazing memory, and even having exceeded a hundred, the artist could still read Tvardovsky's ballad by heart.

The Friedlands very quickly moved from the handsome city of Kyiv to the city of Bialystok, which did not inspire the kids much, and Efimov never found out why this happened. It was there that they found the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. alien sounding words"Port Arthur", "Mukden", "Hunghuzi", "Shimose", "Tsushima" frightened the child, soldiers in huge Manchurian hats, the names of the tsarist generals Kuropatkin, Grippenberg and Rennenkampf, the names of the Japanese marshals Oyama, Togo, Nogi , the death of the battleship "Petropavlovsk" with the artist Vereshchagin on board.

“The conversations of adults about these terrible events excited the children's imagination. However, ahead were events no less terrible, but closer - the revolution of 1905. Of course, I, a five-year-old boy, could not comprehend the essence of the events that shook the country, which broke into our lives in days of riots, street shooting, pogroms and robberies, ”writes Yefimov.

One day, my father, trying to understand what was happening on the street, stood at the window with him in his arms and managed to duck down when a revolver bullet pierced the glass exactly in the place where Boris's head had been a second before.

Porridge from Richelieu

Just when Tsar Nicholas granted the country a constitution, and the first State Duma was convened, it was time for Boris and Mikhail to go to school. The guys entered the Bialystok real school - secondary educational institution, where, unlike the gymnasium, they did not teach Latin and Greek. It was assumed that builders, engineers or technologists would come out of them, but both boys found their calling in print.

Efimov says that he began to draw almost at the age of five. He was not interested in doing it from nature, he did not like to depict houses, trees, cats and horses - something that children usually reach for. From the pen of Boris came figures and characters created by his own imagination, "feeding on snippets of adult conversations, the stories of an older brother and, most of all, the content of history books read". He even got himself a special thick notebook for such drawings, in which, in his own words, “wild porridge” was created from Richelieu, Garibaldi, Dmitry Donskoy, Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln and even God for some reason in the form of a bearded man in a kamilavka.

Drawing, by the way, was the only subject that Efimov almost failed - he barely pulled out a three, which upset everyone at home. But already at school, his brother Mikhail noticed the talent of the youngest, and together they began to publish a handwritten school magazine. Misha edited it, and Boris painted it. As it turned out, this paid off.

Blood and Nicholas

Boris Yefimov once saw Nicholas II. It was in Kyiv in 1911, when Boris accompanied his father on a trip to small homeland. The boy admired the city, which he left at 4 months old. And it so happened that at the same time the sovereign also visited there - to open a monument to his grandfather, Alexander II. I really wanted to see the Tsar, even though the eleven-year-old guy did not have sympathy for him - the conversations of adults about Khodynka, “Bloody Sunday” and the fact that Nikolai allegedly went to the French embassy to the ball immediately after this tragedy were too fresh in his memory to dance with the ambassador’s wife .

Boris and his father made their way into the front row of the crowded crowd, and the boy perfectly made out the emperor, who was traveling with his august family in a large open carriage.

“To my naive surprise, he was not in a golden crown and ermine mantle, but in a modest military tunic. Taking off his cap, he bowed to both sides, Efimov recalled.

Kyiv was in a festive, high spirits. But three days later, the city was shocked by the murder of Stolypin - he was shot from a Browning gun in Gorodskoye opera house in the presence of the emperor during the play "The Tale of Tsar Saltan". The death of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers was shrouded in many mysteries. It was said that the tsar did not like him - it was too painful for Stolypin to be an intelligent, strong-willed, strong politician. Stolypin allegedly understood everything and last days his life was oppressed and gloomy. This is far from the last event of not just state, but, perhaps, world significance, which Efimov will testify and about which he will have to draw his own conclusions.

The family miraculously did not end up in Germany in 1914. As a rule, they went there for the summer, and the guys were already looking forward to the next trip, but a relative died, and they remained in the country. Boris Efimov read newspapers “as always”, from where he learned that in the distant Serbian city of Sarajevo, a high school student with the curious surname Princip was shot on the street of the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary Franz Ferdinand and his wife. The First World War.

At first, everyone, including the Friedlands themselves, was seized with patriotism, people sang “God Save the Tsar” in chorus, then the “La Marseillaise” and the Belgian anthem immediately followed. But the ardor quickly evaporated along with the success of the Russian army. Already in the summer of 1915, the front was dangerously close to Bialystok, the Russian army was retreating, and German zeppelins appeared in the sky every now and then. Residents rushed out of the city. Fridland's parents returned to Kyiv, the elder Mikhail went to Petrograd, and Boris went to Kharkov to continue his studies, and at the same time draw cartoons, sending them to his brother in the capital. There Mikhail made a rapid career as a feuilletonist. Boris Fridlyand did not really count on anything, when in 1916 he suddenly stumbled upon his own caricature of the Chairman of the State Duma Rodzianko in the rather popular magazine The Sun of Russia. The cartoon was signed "Bor. Efimov.

The fact that in 1917 a revolution broke out in the capital, Boris Yefimov learned in Kyiv, in the theater, when someone from the administration went up on stage and read out the text about the abdication of the sovereign. According to Efimov, the audience greeted this with a standing ovation and the Marseillaise.

Koltsov and Efimov

After the change of power, the young artist quickly set to work for the benefit of the Soviets. He goes to work as secretary of the editorial and publishing department of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs of Soviet Ukraine, where he directs the production of newspapers, posters and leaflets. And again, his brother, journalist Mikhail Koltsov, played a role in his fate and career: he returned to Kyiv and asked the younger to figure out a caricature for his Red Army newspaper. And now the hobby turns into a sharp tool of the authorities. Since 1920, Efimov has been working as a cartoonist in the newspapers Kommunar, Bolshevik, Visti, after the expulsion of the White Poles and Petliurists from Kiev, he heads the art and poster department of the Kiev branch of UkrROSTA and directs the propaganda of the Kiev railway junction. In 1922, Boris Efimov moved to Moscow and became the youngest employee of the Izvestia newspaper, finally settling in the world of political satire.

Efimov is published in Pravda, and in 1924 the Izvestia publishing house publishes the first collection of his works, the foreword to which was sketched by the hero civil war and Central Committee member Lev Trotsky, who was fascinated by the witty art.

The mass and extremely popular magazine Ogonyok began to be published in Moscow in 1923. The initiator of the publication was Mikhail Koltsov. According to Yefimov, it was he, the younger brother, who managed to convince the authorities to leave this name - then Mordvinkin was in charge of Glavlit, with whom Yefimov worked in Kyiv. Efimov, on the instructions of his brother, rushed to Glavlit on a motorcycle specially obtained for this occasion and literally "took his permission" because he was very afraid of upsetting and disappointing his brother. Mayakovsky's poem "We Don't Believe" about Lenin's illness appeared in the first issue.

Perhaps it was luck with the release of the illustrated "Spark" that drew a line under the life of Mikhail Koltsov. Once he told his brother how he was summoned to the Central Committee by Stalin.“Under the name of Stalin, then there was no panic fear» ,Yefimov notes.

Iosif Vissarionovich noticed Koltsov in a private conversation that comrades in the Central Committee noticed in Ogonyok a certain servility towards Trotsky, as if the magazine would soon be publishing about "what closets" Lev Davydovich walks. The confrontation between the two leaders had long been known, but Koltsov was still struck by the openness with which Stalin expressed his thoughts about the current chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic. Then Mikhail Koltsov said that, in fact, he received a severe reprimand from the Secretary General.

“Alas, it was something more than a reprimand ... But it became clear many years later,” wrote his younger brother.

Mikhail Koltsov lived only 42 years, after which he was shot on false charges of espionage. In December 1938, Koltsov was arrested, recalled from Spain, where he worked for Pravda and also carried out all sorts of "unofficial" tasks for the party.

The arrest of Koltsov was a sensational event. Konstantin Simonov called it the most dramatic, unexpected and “we don’t climb into any gates” episode. Then they got used to it. Efimov remained at large, but hurriedly crossed to the other side of the street, barely seeing his acquaintances - so as not to put people in an awkward position by the need to greet the brother of the “enemy of the people”.

Koltsov was charged with the most standard charges for the Great Terror. He was kept in Moscow. One day, a bell rang in Yefimov's apartment. At the other end of the wire they tried "Say hello from MEK". "Did you understand? asked an unfamiliar voice. “I don’t understand,” I replied. - Not understood? Well then, all the best…”. Efimov put down the receiver and shrugged his shoulders. And only half an hour later it dawned on him: MEK is Mikhail Efimovich Koltsov. Why did this idiot caller go too far with the conspiracy? Efimov rushed about the apartment, hoping that the phone would ring again. But he was silent. Apparently, the caller thought that the artist understood him perfectly, but was afraid to continue the conversation. So he missed the opportunity to learn anything about his brother.

On February 2, 1940, Mikhail Koltsov was shot. Efimov recalls that during his lifetime, despite his sharp mind and tongue, his brother even admired Stalin in some way. At least, he absolutely sincerely paid tribute to the imperious, impressive personality of the "Master", as he was called. And he did it not out of fear or servility.

“More than once, with genuine pleasure, bordering on admiration, my brother recounted to me individual remarks, remarks and jokes that he had heard from him. Stalin liked him. And at the same time, Mikhail, due to his “risky” nature, continued to dangerously test his patience. And further - more. Koltsov wrote feuilletons, in comparison with which "The Riddle-Stalin" was an innocent, timid joke. Yefimov said.

In 1939 the Second World War began. Against the backdrop of such cataclysms, sorrows and misfortunes "individual people" meant little, says Yefimov.

"But for 'individuals' like me, that didn't make it any easier," he says.

Perhaps the cartoonist learned from his brother's experience how not to behave. He himself, as a relative of the "enemy of the people", was waiting for arrest. Nerves gave out, so in the first days of 1939 he went to the editor-in-chief of Izvestia, Yakov Selikh, and directly asked if he should write a statement on his own. They didn't let him go. “We don’t know anything bad about you, except good”. In addition, outside a narrow circle in Moscow, almost no one is aware that the publicist Koltsov and the cartoonist Yefimov are brothers. So the public won't notice. But Izvestia also refused to print Efimov. So he nevertheless quit and began to illustrate the works of Saltykov-Shchedrin. To return to the profession, he needed Molotov's personal protectorate.

Lover and Owner

Efimov's personal tragedy was embedded in the political processes of the late 1930s. Key figure in "The case of the murder of Gorky" and the subsequent massacre of the old Leninist guard at that moment was Nikolai Bukharin. Efimov, of course, knew him personally and considered him a man of great erudition and brilliant oratorical talent. Such "Party Favorite" under Stalin would not have lived long. And the point, of course, was not that the first called on the people to enrich themselves in good moment, and the second advocated general collectivization and, in fact, the impoverishment of the peasants.

Efimov first met Bukharin back in 1922, when he was the editor of Pravda. Efimov, by sheer chance, personally gave him his caricature, which he tried to publish there. Bukharin appreciated. Some time later, when Yefimov published another collection, one of the still leaders even wrote a laudatory review, where he called him a brilliant master of political caricature.

"He has one remarkable property, which, unfortunately, is not often found: this great artist is at the same time a very intelligent and observant politician."

As for his prospects, Bukharin did not flatter himself, Efimov believes. On December 2, 1934, Efimov and other employees of Izvestia were sitting in the editor's office. The telephone on Bukharin's desk rang. After listening to the message and hanging up, Nikolai Bukharin was silent for a while, passed his hand over his forehead and said:

Kirov was killed in Leningrad. “Then he looked at us with unseeing eyes and added in some strange indifferent tone: “Now Koba will shoot us all,” Efimov writes. He called the trial of Bukharin historical in its cynicism.

Nightmare

This was not the only high-profile trial of the century at which the artist was present, and not the only historical figures, which he managed to sketch from nature. He saw both Hitler and Mussolini, made sketches from Goering and Ribbentrop from nature during the Nuremberg Trials, where he was sent along with the Kukryniksy. Even here, Efimov believes, the imprint of the glory of Mikhail Koltsov lay on him.

The artist received international recognition. Even during the war, his cartoons about the second front were also published in British newspapers, for example, "The Sword of Damocles", which ended up in the Manchester Guardian. Moreover, the content of these cartoons was retold on the radio. The famous collection of cartoons "Hitler and his pack" also gained popularity in the Allied countries. There he portrayed the "Berlin gang": Goering, Hess, Goebbels, Himmler, Ribbentrop, Ley, Rosenberg and, of course, the Fuhrer himself. Readers were told, for example, that "the ideal Aryan should be tall, slender and blond", accompanying this with unflattering caricatures of the German leaders.

And in the spring of 1947, Stalin himself became a co-author of one of Efimov's works. Efimov was summoned to the Kremlin, where Andrei Zhdanov met him. He explained that the Boss had an idea to laugh at the desire of the United States to penetrate into the Arctic, since they allegedly threatened "Russian danger", and Comrade Stalin immediately remembered the talents of Boris Efimov, whose brother had recently been shot for treason.

“I will not hide that with the words Comrade Stalin remembered you... my heart sank. I knew too well that falling into the orbit of memories or attention of Comrade Stalin is deadly.” the artist recalls.

Stalin invented the plot of the caricature himself: a heavily armed Eisenhower is approaching the deserted Arctic, and an ordinary American asks the general why he needed such an absurdity. It had to be done immediately.

“I knew that the Master did not like it when his instructions were not followed. When he is informed that the drawing has not been received by the deadline, he will most likely instruct Comrade Beria to "sort it out." And it will take Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria no more than forty minutes to beat a confession out of me that I thwarted the task of Comrade Stalin on the instructions of American intelligence, in whose service I have been for many years, ” Yefimov says. But he did.

Stalin liked the drawing, even if he made several edits to the text. Efimov was again summoned to the Kremlin to Zhdanov. The latter said that the leader had already called and asked if Efimov had arrived, and Zhdanov lied that Efimov had been waiting in the waiting room for half an hour.

Phantasmagoria, I thought. - Nightmare. Stalin asks Zhdanov about me.

The cartoon "Eisenhower is on the defensive" was published two days later in Pravda.

And yet, despite his trepidation and even horror before the “Master”, who describes Efimov in such detail and repeatedly in his autobiographical notes, ambition spurred him to complain to Stalin personally in writing when in 1949 he was not assigned to the state award. Everything ended well for the artist, and he received the award. She was far from the last. Having survived the debunking of the cult, and the Khrushchev thaw, and the Brezhnev stagnation, and perestroika, and Yeltsin's reforms, Boris Yefimov was rewarded with this ever-changing state more than once. And although the content of Efimov's caricatures changed with each formation, his style and attention to detail remained unchanged.

When it's not funny

Boris Efimov headed the Agitplakat Creative and Production Association under the Union of Artists of the USSR for 30 years in a row. It is believed that it was he, together with Denis, Moore, Brodaty, Cheremnykh, Kukryniksy, who created such a phenomenon in world culture as "positive satire".

In August 2002, the 102-year-old artist became head of the cartoon art department. Russian Academy arts, and on his 107th birthday, in 2007, Boris Efimov was appointed chief artist of the Izvestia newspaper. Until the end of his days, he participated in public life, wrote and drew. Boris Efimov died in the capital at the age of 109. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent a telegram of condolences to his family.

"A peer of the 20th century - Boris Efimovich Efimov was rightfully considered a classic of caricature", - said in the document.

Of course, it was not Dmitry Anatolyevich who came up with the idea of ​​calling Efimov a contemporary of the twentieth century. This nickname has been passed from mouth to mouth long years.

“We often say: history repeats itself. And it really repeats itself, as I think, not only in political events on a large scale, but also in less significant things, - wrote a man who in his lifetime - or in his three centuries? I saw everything, it seems.

Boris Efimov believed that a sense of humor is a precious property of the human character. But it is a hundred times more valuable when people are not at all laughing at all.

When the famous cartoonist Boris Efimov turned only 100 years old, all the newspapers wrote about it excitedly.

He survived the revolution, the Civil and Patriotic war in a word, all eras last century. Five years later, Boris Efimovich celebrated the next anniversary. September 28, 2008 he is already 108! The correspondent of "RG" met with the long-lived artist and asked him a few questions.

I don't draw anymore

Russian newspaper:Open the secret: how did you manage to live to such a venerable age? Do you follow any special diets or practices?

Boris Efimov: No way. I like one anecdote. In the Caucasus, a centenarian is honored who talks about what he leads healthy lifestyle life, does not drink or smoke. Suddenly drunken screams are heard from the back rows. The old-timer says: "Pay no attention, it was my older brother who got drunk again."

RG:You are the same age as the century, political leaders, artists and scientists came and went before your eyes... political system, laws, rules of life, style of communication, fashion... What period of your life is the most interesting?

Efimov: The age itself was interesting. Every decade has something different. Now it is difficult to single out any one period, a decade. It is necessary to consider the era as a whole.

RG:Are you painting now?

Efimov: No. I don't draw anymore. The period of activity has ended a long time ago. But I continue to work, though in a different field. I write books because I have stories to tell. For example, the book of memoirs "About times and people", written in collaboration with Viktor Fradkin. By the way, it just can be a detailed, detailed answer to the first question. It tells about the people and the times that they filled. There are stories about politicians, and about actors, and about writers, and about my fellow artists, for example, about Kukryniksy, Ernst Neizvestny, Zurab Tsereteli.

In addition, there are other books of memoirs: "The Age of the Century", "Ten Decades" and others.

RG:What else do you do, how do you spend your time, what books do you read?

Efimov: I read different books, but there is one favorite that I am ready to re-read endlessly. This is Alexandre Dumas' novel The Count of Monte Cristo.

RG:Which of today's characters in world politics is the most imaginative?

Efimov: Now there are no such bright characters as were the same Hitler, Mussolini, Tito, who could be ridiculed by noticing one or more details of their behavior, appearance.

RG:Do you follow the current situation with the cartoon genre in the country? Do you have followers today?

Efimov: Of course, there are good cartoonists. These are, for example, Vladimir Mochalov, Igor Smirnov.

But it should be noted that the political cartoon as a genre ceased to exist. What we see now is handwriting.

Angry Stalin

RG:Did you yourself look for characters for cartoons, because you were in the context of what was happening, or was there an order from the authorities every time?

Efimov: I searched myself. I read newspapers, listened to the radio, watched newsreels, then television appeared. I chose the topics myself. But of course there were also orders, including, for example, personally from Stalin. But we can say that I chose 90 percent of the stories myself.

RG:Did the authorities intervene creative process, did they indicate any detail that needs to be emphasized?

Efimov: Yes, this has happened. For example, we can recall such a case. I drew a caricature of the Japanese militarists. To emphasize their political expansionist ambitions, I endowed them with long teeth. Then Stalin called the editor-in-chief of Pravda, Lev Mekhlis, and became indignant. Say, it offends the national dignity of the Japanese people.

Another example is from more recent times. In 1979, Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister of Great Britain. I drew a cartoon of her. This drawing was posted in agitprop windows throughout Moscow and other cities. This aroused the indignation of those in power, as it did not look very diplomatic.

RG:Is it hard for you to realize that your peers are leaving one by one?

Efimov: Certainly. This great tragedy It's very hard to see that you are alone.