Family of Soviet poster artists paint different Ukraines

In the eyes of a Soviet painter, Ukraine 30 years ago was embodied by a tall brown-eyed woman with a long braid holding a wheat sheaf in her hand.

With this proud image and 14 others representing the republics of the USSR, poster artist Klavdiya Kudryashova, now 83, immortalized the Communist vision of the 1980s in the series of posters that she holds as her signature work.

Born in Russia, Kudryashova spent most of her life in Ukraine. In her arsenal, there are hundreds of posters with strong patriotic messages, which this frail-looking lady put together through various climates, starting from World War II and until perestroika. During a rare exhibition in Mystets gallery this summer, Kudryashova together with her husband, also an artist, presented their art collection as a journey through the Soviet Union.

Soviet artist Klavdiya Kudryashova, 83, stands in front of her 1979 anti-war poster, for which her daugher-in-law and her grandson posed. (Alex Furman)

From an image of the Red Army soldier asking “Have you enlisted with the army?” to a middle-aged woman in a head scarf with a finger pressed against her lips warning about enemies, poster art was one of the most powerful propaganda materials during the USSR. From the October Revolution in 1917 when they first appeared as an art form, posters were designed to inspire, scare and brainwash. Some artists had to succumb to the Communist party vision to remain afloat. For Kudryashova, however, happy pioneers and international friendship felt natural.

I guess, since childhood I was proud that we live in such a big country with so many nations. I did not go deep into politics,”
Klavdiya Kudryashova said.

“I guess, since childhood I was proud that we live in such a big country with so many nations. I did not go deep into politics,” she said of her many happy and carefree images. Wearing an old-fashioned summer hat, her face covered in wrinkles, Kudryashova spoke softly and slowly. Sitting by her side, her husband Yevhen Kudryashov, 83, had a different opinion. What seemed like a big friendly state to his wife was a censorship beast to him.

In the 1950s, they both studied arts first in Lviv and then in Kyiv. At that time, the Soviet Union maintained the status as one of the world’s two superpowers through its victory in World War II, economic strength, scientific research and hegemony in Eastern Europe. In the 60’s, when they started taking first orders from the State Political Literature Publishing House, they didn’t have to glorify Joseph Stalin in their work thanks to the thaw in public and economic policies introduced by Nikita Khruschev.

But Kudryashov still had to create underground, because his art was stepping on bureaucrats’ toes.

In 1972, he drew a series of posters “Have you got the same people in your ranks?” mocking Soviet bureaucrats. One poster depicted a man with a pig face diving into a vodka bottle. Another one showed an official with a wind vane in place of his head, which turns the way that the wind of politics blows.

Kudryashov said that he managed to print the series when authorities were away on summer holidays, but when they returned “all posters had to be burned. I thought then: “What’s this? This is fascism that we have just destroyed, but it comes back again.” Unlike his wife, Kudryashov speaks his mind with an air of pride and irony.

Different attitude to political and social reality, however, didn’t seem to cause many problems within the family. They were on par when it came to bigger issues like Afghan War and Cold War.

When the first troops were sent to Afghanistan in 1979, Kudryashova was commissioned a poster. She asked her daughter-in-law to pose with her grandson for what now is a very famous work called “We raised our sons not for war.”

Grandson Anton Kudryashov, now 33, didn’t take that experience lightly. He also became a poster artist and likes to criticize Ukrainian government through his work much like his grandfather in his time. “We did not get rid of corruption and bureaucracy yet,” he said. “Perhaps we even have more of it nowadays than back then.” Instead of watercolors used by his grandparents, Kudryashov junior paints on his computer. His grey-haired grandfather often helps him to find the right metaphor to mock the current system of power.

There’s no longer a need to approve your art with different state agencies before printing it, remarked Kudryashov junior, who enjoys the freedom his grandparents never had. It came at a cost though – he’s barely paid for his sharp satirical posters. His granny, however, became incredibly wealthy thanks to her 15 Soviet ladies in national costumes and hundreds of other works.

For the USSR series, Kudryashova said she was paid 26,000 Ukrainian karbovantsiv. It was astronomical money considering that a new car cost 6,000 karbovantsiv in the 1980s. An average salary was around 220 karbovantsiv.

Yevhen Kudryashov, 83, criticizes Soviet bureaucrats through his posters. (Alex Furman)

“I used to take a small suitcase with me when I got paid,” the artist recalled shyly. “The banknotes were big, and I could not fit them into a wallet.”

The breadwinner of the family, the 83-year-old babushka refused to extrapolate on what it meant to be super rich in the Soviet Union. She only said that they built a family house near Kyiv where they live until today. Together with her husband, they drew more than 600 posters, the copies of which still can be found in some museums and even private homes around Ukraine.

Kudryashova’s posters with happy industrious people paint a rosy picture of life in the USSR that she said she genuinely believed in. Her husband’s critical work adds a tone of salt to this perception showing how artists tried to expose the seamy side of living in the USSR.

Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Faryna can be reached at [email protected]