“Aliens” and “enemies” in Lev Samoilov’s works of the Estonian period (1945–1952)

Abstract

The article, written as a part of a comprehensive study on the topic “Estonia between the East and the West: The paradigm of ‘friendly’, ‘different’, ‘alien’, ‘enemy’ in Estonian cultures of the 19th–21st centuries”, presents the results of studying foreign policy caricatures published in Tallinn “Soviet Estonia” in 1945–1952. The analysis is carried out on the basis of graphic works by the satirical artist Lev Samoilov (pseudonym of Lev Samoilovich Babin, 1918–1988). Samoilov’s period of activity in “Soviet Estonia” coincides almost entirely with the beginning of the Cold War, when state-sanctioned laughter, the primary variation of which is a foreign policy caricature, was subjected to especially tight control by the authorities. However, even in such conditions Samoilov managed to realize both creative talent and aesthetic potential hidden in the genre of political caricature. The following characteristic features of the genre poetics are distinguished in the article: an abundance of details and numerous signatures of various levels — an epigraph (often in the form of a quote) that defines a specific reason for the appearance of the caricature, its name, signature under the picture (most often in the form of direct speech of characters), explanatory inscriptions on certain elements of the picture. As the analysis carried out in the article shows, Samoilov reflected and began to use actively the potential of the caricature’s verbal component in its interaction with the graphic plan, which ensured a high level of his satirical graphics and became its hallmark.

Keywords

• foreign policy caricature
• “soviet estonia”
• lev samoilov
• graphic arts
• satire