Stalin’s Favourite Cartoonist ‘Boris Efimov’

Boris Efimov is probably the most famous Soviet cartoonist in Russian history and his work was so admired by Joseph Stalin that he managed to survive the latter’s purges, although Stalin did have his brother shot.

Efimov’s work, which regularly appeared in Pravda, was similar in style to David Low, but was obviously politically completely in tune with what Stalin required from his favourite cartoonist. In fact, Stalin was known to even alter Efimov’s captions if he didn’t agree with them; such was the Russian leader’s fascination with his cartoons.

The Exhibition consists of 50 original cartoons from the early 1930s, through the Second World War to the 1950s and the Cold War between the two superpowers.