History and culture: The exhibition of posters of the creative team “Combat Pencil” in Saint-Petersburg

The exhibition ““Combat pencil will not be blunt”…”opened in the Rumyantsev Mansion (Saint-Petersburg).

The exhibition presents 70 posters of the Leningrad creative team “Combat Pencil” dedicated to different topics ranging from foreign policy and environmental protection to simple everyday problems of Soviet citizens.

The collection of the State Museum of History of St. Petersburg has about two thousand satirical posters of the creative association of Leningrad charts and poets “Combat Pencil”. Most of them were presented to the museum edition of “Combat Pencil” by the authors of the posters and their heirs in 1950-1990s. 

Its history the “Fighting Pencil” began in December 1939 - during the Soviet-Finnish war. Leningrad artists decided to support the morale of our soldiers. The name "Pencil" appeared on a wall newspaper of the same name on the graphics section of the Union of Artists. Mayakovski wrote: “I want to bayonet equated pen”. The pencil had been added the rifle, so there logo and the name “Fighting Pencil”.

After a short pause, the artists of the "Combat Pencil” gathered again at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Throughout the siege, despite the difficult conditions, the artists did not stop fighting to produce posters that are so needed, not only the city but also in the forefront. Small in size, bright, shaped sheets calling for struggle against the enemy, branded cowards, they glorified the exploits of the heroes of the front, raised the fighting spirit.

In May 1945, a collective of artists and poets was disbanded for 11 years. It was believed that in peacetime, satire is not needed. But in 1956, it held the third, and last, the birth of "Battle of the pencil". In 1990, it closed forever.

The exhibition at the Rumyantsev Mansion will get familiar with the latest, but long and fruitful period of activities of the creative team of “Combat Pencil” - 1950s - 1970s.