Cartoon forward: Izvestia returns the cartoon to its pages

The exhibition "Cartoons. Comics. The Humor of Hitler's Personal Enemy", created by Izvestia in collaboration with the Russian Academy of Arts, was watched by more than 5,000 viewers in a month. Now the materials from it can be viewed online: selected drawings, videos and audio comments are already available as part of a special project on the website. IZ.ru . However, Izvestia strives not only to preserve the legacy of the genre, but also to revive it at a new stage in history: cartoons are returning to the newspaper from the final issue of this year. The details are in our material.

The exhibition is online

Izvestia celebrated the 80th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials and the 125th anniversary of the outstanding cartoonist Boris Yefimov with a high-profile project: from November 18 to December 14, the exhibition "Cartoons. Comics. The humor of Hitler's personal enemy." During the work of the project, the museum was visited by over 5,000 spectators, the Russian Academy of Arts noted. The exhibition caused a wide response not only in Russia, but also abroad: the Chinese news agency Xinhua, the Lebanese TV channel Al-Mayadeen and other influential international media reported about it.

The exhibition featured about 100 exhibits, including Boris Yefimov's original drawings from the Izvestia archive and the artist's family collection, a hologram of a sculpture by Zurab Tsereteli depicting Yefimov, and an extensive selection of multimedia materials. The best of them are now presented online. On the website karikatura.iz.ru you can watch "animated" cartoons animated with the help of artificial intelligence, documentaries telling about Efimov's biography and showing him at work, and finally, the master's works themselves, supplemented with detailed explanations.

On the way of Chagall: the exhibition at the State Museum of Fine Arts focuses on the artist's early work

The long-awaited retrospective brought together masterpieces from the main museums

The Return of Caricature

However, by popularizing Boris Yefimov's creative legacy, Izvestia seeks not only to preserve the genre's samples, but also to present a new perspective on it by returning the caricature to the pages of the publication. During the exhibition, we invited everyone to send their drawings on socio-political topics to the editorial office, and today we are pleased to introduce the authors, with whom we will begin cooperation very soon — with the final issue of this year.

Vitaly Shcherbak is an artist, cartoonist, and comic book maker. He has been cooperating with various patriotic publications for more than 20 years.

— Such a form as a cartoon (as well as a political comic) is a powerful weapon against the attacks of the West, which is trying to denigrate our glorious history, cultural and traditional values. It's great that you took the initiative to revive caricature, which has a great legacy in our country. We forget Denis, "Kukryniksov", Efimov, whose sharp caricatures "beat" the enemy stronger than they became! — Vitaly Shcherbak told Izvestia.

His work "Invisible Weapon" refers to Donald Trump's statement at a White House briefing: "The United States has the most advanced weapons that people don't even know exist."

Stanislav Petrov is an artist, designer, illustrator, caricaturist, and tattoo artist.

— I've been drawing since early childhood, mostly people, friends and relatives, live and from photographs. Both in caricature form and in traditional portraiture. Later, I was lucky enough to graduate from the Kama Institute of Art and Design, where I decided on a profession: an illustrator. I consider cooperation with Izvestia to be a good opportunity to contribute to the support of my country in our difficult times," Stanislav Petrov shared.

The drawing "River Styx" is ironic over the statements of Western politicians about the inevitable fall of the ruble and inflation abroad.

And the last author is Nikolai Krutikov: member of the International Association of Artists, three—time winner of the All-Union Cartoon Contest, winner of a number of foreign cartooning contests.

— I started drawing when I was a child. At Murzilka, he participated in a children's drawing contest and received a diploma. Then, at school, he constantly drew in the wall newspaper "Thorn". When he worked at the factory, he drew caricatures of truants, drunkards, etc. for the shop newspaper. He joined the army, and there he painted for the "Combat Leaflet"... After that he collaborated with many publications. In addition to caricatures, he began illustrating books with jokes, humorous stories, made children's publications, and made ironic calendars.… Cooperation with Izvestia is another step forward for me. He is very honorable and at the same time responsible, — this is how Nikolai talks about his work.

His work "Don't go to a fortune teller" is a reaction to media reports that Vladimir Zelensky's office is trying to attract fortune tellers to improve the reputation of the head of state.

Especially for Izvestia, Vitaly Shcherbak, Stanislav Petrov and Nikolai Krutikov ironically illustrated the most striking events of 2025. You can see these drawings in the final issue, which will be released on December 30. And starting in January, their works will appear on the pages of the newspaper and the Izvestia website.