Boevoi Karandash

(The Militant Pencil), a group of Leningrad artists who issue lithographic political posters and collections of satirical drawings of the same name.

The first posters by Boevoi Karandash appeared in 1939–40 during the period of the Soviet-Finnish War. Boevoi Karandash played an important role in the years of the Great Patriotic War (1941–45); 103 posters were turned out with a circulation of about 15,000 each. Executed in the tradition of the cheap, popular print; politically incisive, lively, and easily understandable; and with texts in verse, the posters of Boevoi Karandash mobilized the working people of Leningrad and the soldiers of the Soviet Army to accomplish great deeds at the front and in the rear areas under the severe conditions of the blockade. The following have taken part in the work of Boevoi Karandash: the artists I. S. Astapov, G. S. Vereiskii, V. I. Kurdov, G. N. Petrov, V. A. Serov, and N. A. Tyrsa, and the poets V. M. Saianov and N. S. Tikhonov. The activity of Boevoi Karandash—issuing satirical posters and drawings on international topics and themes of daily life—was revived in 1956.