# Leningrad Avant-Garde Picture Book

> Thin, large picture books made in Petrograd/Leningrad from 1922 to the mid-1930s for Raduga and the Gosizdat children's department led by Samuil Marshak, with Vladimir Lebedev as art editor. People, animals and machines are cut into flat, mostly unoutlined planes of a few bright lithographic inks and float on bare paper. Hand-drawn grotesque capitals frame the picture, and 'production books' show how things are made. Pravda's 1936 attack on 'artist-daubers' (khudozhniki-pachkuny) forced it towards naturalism, and in 1937 the Leningrad children's publishing house was broken up with arrests.

- Period: 1922–1936
- Where: Eastern Europe
- Origin: Petrograd/Leningrad: the private publisher Raduga (founded 1922 by Lev Kliachko, closed 1930) and, from 1924, the children's department of the State Publishing House (Gosizdat, later Detgiz) in Leningrad, with Samuil Marshak as literary editor and Vladimir Lebedev heading its art editorial office (1924–1933), where artists such as Vera Ermolaeva, Evgenia Evenbakh and Mikhail Tsekhanovsky worked; writers such as Boris Zhitkov, Daniil Kharms and Alexander Vvedensky wrote for these picture books
- Branch: Avant-garde
- Also known as: Soviet avant-garde picture book, Raduga books, Lebedev–Marshak books, Leningrad school of children's book illustration, Soviet production book (proizvodstvennaia kniga)
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/soviet-picture-book/

## Use it with care

These books' makers were later persecuted: Vera Ermolaeva was arrested in 1934 and shot in a Karaganda camp in 1937, the Leningrad editorial office of the children's publishing house was broken up in 1937 with arrests, the poet Nikolai Oleinikov was shot that year, and Daniil Kharms died in a prison psychiatric ward in besieged Leningrad in 1942. Do not treat the idiom as cheerful Soviet nostalgia or propaganda pastiche. Its schematic types include racialised figures, such as Tsirk's Black violinist drawn as a solid black silhouette: simplify every figure with the same economy, and never use skin colour, hair or dress as an ethnic marker or joke. Lebedev (d. 1967) and Marshak (d. 1964) are still in copyright in Russia and the EU (life plus 70 years): draw your own figures and verses instead of reproducing their pages.

## How it works

- Isolate each figure or object on the bare paper, with no horizon, room or landscape behind it, and let the empty page do the staging.
- Build forms from flat, cut-paper-like planes in a few bright inks, mostly without outlines; where a body must round or an old thing look worn, model it with lithographic crayon stipple, spatter or wood grain, never with smooth shading.
- Reduce people, animals and machines to geometric volumes and schematic figures, simplifying everyone with the same economy, but keep a joke or a surprise on every page.
- Compose each page or spread as one whole: frame the picture with the verse above and below, in large drawn or set capitals.
- In a production book, show how a thing is made or works step by step, setting tools, machines and workers out in sequence or in friezes beside the text.
- Keep the book thin, large and cheap, with each artist transferring his or her own drawing to the lithographic stone rather than leaving it to the printer, so the pictures carry the story and the reader turns from one complete composition to the next.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Isolated object](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/isolated-object/) (defining)
- [Dynamic asymmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dynamic-asymmetry/) (characteristic)
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (occasional)
- [Diagonal axis](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/diagonal-axis/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Generous white space](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/generous-white-space/) (defining)
- [Sequential narrative](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/sequential-narrative/) (characteristic)
- [Single focal point](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/single-focal-point/) (characteristic)
- [Extreme scale contrast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/extreme-scale-contrast/) (occasional)
- [Repetition & rhythm](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/) (occasional)
- [Flat hierarchy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-hierarchy/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (characteristic)
- [Grotesque & neo-grotesque](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/grotesque-and-neo-grotesque/) (characteristic)
- [All caps](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-caps/) (characteristic)
- [Stencil](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stencil/) (occasional)
- [Rotated & vertical setting](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rotated-and-vertical-setting/) (occasional)
- [Type as image](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/type-as-image/) (occasional)
- [Condensed display](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/condensed-display/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (defining)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (defining)
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (characteristic)
- [Primary triad](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/primary-triad/) (occasional)
- [Full polychrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-polychrome/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (defining)
- [Geometric primitives](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-primitives/) (characteristic)
- [Rectilinear](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rectilinear/) (occasional)
- [Pictogram](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pictogram/) (occasional)
- [Distortion & exaggeration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/distortion-and-exaggeration/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Grain & noise](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/grain-and-noise/) (characteristic)
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Ornament-free](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornament-free/) (characteristic)
- [Rules & bars](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rules-and-bars/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [Flat vector illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-vector-illustration/) (characteristic)
- [Painterly illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-illustration/) (occasional)
- [Diagram & data](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/diagram-and-data/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Lithography](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/lithography/) (defining)

### Tone & intent
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (defining)
- [Warm & approachable](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/warm-and-approachable/) (characteristic)
- [Utopian & idealistic](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/utopian-and-idealistic/) (characteristic)
- [Technological & futurist](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/technological-and-futurist/) (occasional)
- [Rational & objective](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rational-and-objective/) (occasional)
- [Agitational & persuasive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/agitational-and-persuasive/) (occasional)

Avoids: Naturalistic depiction, Illusion of depth, Horror vacui, Photomontage, Abundant decoration, Floral & vegetal, Gradients, Ornamented display, Framed panels

Palette: #efe4c8, #1c1a18, #d23a24, #e0b23f, #8a9a68, #5b7bb5

Typefaces: Heavy drawn Cyrillic block capitals (covers and page verses of Tsirk and Vchera i segodnia), Grotesque capitals, one word diagonal (cover of Kak rubanok sdelal rubanok, 1927), Typeset grotesque or roman verse (Morozhenoe and Stol in grotesque), Stencilled capitals (cover of Khleb, 1926), Postage-stamp and postmark lettering (Tsekhanovsky’s cover for Pochta)

Known for: Vladimir Lebedev & Samuil Marshak, Tsirk (The Circus, Raduga, 1925; GIZ edition 1928): on the cover ЦИРК is cut out of a red band held up by a clown in a top hat riding a dappled toy horse, with the authors' names in red block capitals; inside, a violinist walks a wire between two red-topped stands, the verse in red capitals above and below; Lebedev & Marshak, Morozhenoe (Ice Cream, Raduga, 1925), the cover's ice-cream cart built from flat blue, red and yellow planes beside black bars; inside, a fat customer drawn in a thin contour and rounded with blue spatter; Lebedev & Marshak, Vchera i segodnia (Yesterday and Today, Raduga, 1925), old household objects floating on a flat blue ground between lines of drawn capitals; on the cover the 'yesterday' figures are modelled in black crayon stipple; Lebedev & Marshak, Bagazh (Luggage, Raduga, 1926); Lebedev & Marshak, Kak rubanok sdelal rubanok (How a Plane Made a Plane, Raduga, Leningrad, 1927), a production book in which the tools act without people; the cover sets the title in red grotesque capitals on a pale-blue block, with СДЕЛАЛ ('made') on a diagonal; Evgenia Evenbakh & Boris Zhitkov, Stol (The Table, 1926), a production book with friezes of joiners and their tools, wood-grained planks and the verse in a block of grotesque type; Boris Kreister & Armen Barutchev with Mikhail Froman, Khleb (Bread, 1926), a production book with a stencilled cover title and mill belts, rollers and workers in orange and blue spatter beside the verse; Mikhail Tsekhanovsky & Marshak, Pochta (The Mail, Raduga, 1927; the stamp cover as on the 1928 second edition), the cover drawn as a postage stamp with a postmark naming the publisher

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Grew out of: [Russian Constructivism](https://stylogeny.com/styles/constructivism.md) (1917–1934)
- Influenced by: [Suprematism](https://stylogeny.com/styles/suprematism.md) (1915–1925)
- Influenced by: [Cubist Pictorial Space](https://stylogeny.com/styles/cubism.md) (1907–1925)
- Influenced by: [Lubok Popular Print](https://stylogeny.com/styles/lubok.md) (1650–1920)
- Influenced by: [ROSTA Windows](https://stylogeny.com/styles/rosta-windows.md) (1919–1922)
- Alike in its design choices: [Plakatstil / Sachplakat](https://stylogeny.com/styles/plakatstil.md) (1905–1920), 76% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [French Post-War Visual-Gag Poster (Savignac, Villemot, Morvan)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/french-gag-poster.md) (1948–1979), 68% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [UPA & Cartoon Modern](https://stylogeny.com/styles/upa-cartoon-modern.md) (1944–1960), 62% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Zagreb School of Animated Film](https://stylogeny.com/styles/zagreb-animation.md) (1954–1980), 60% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Thaw Modernism (Soviet and Czechoslovak)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/thaw-modernism.md) (1956–1968), 57% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Atelier Populaire (May '68 Screenprint Poster)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/atelier-populaire.md) (1968), 56% alike

## Sources

- University of Washington Libraries, exhibit 'Fairytales and the Five-Year Plan: Russian Children's Literature' (https://content.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/russian-childrens-lit/): Lebedev and Marshak at Raduga and Gosizdat, with Lebedev requiring artists to transfer their own drawings to the lithographic stone (https://content.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/russian-childrens-lit/8-lebedev-background.html); Marshak & Lebedev, The Avant-Garde Picture Book (https://content.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/russian-childrens-lit/9-lebedev-picture.html); The Soviet Production Book, including Stol, Khleb, Kak rubanok, Pochta and Vvedensky and Evenbakh's Na reke (https://content.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/russian-childrens-lit/10-production.html); The Five-Year Plan & the End of the Avant-Garde Picture Book, including the imprisonment and deaths of Ermolaeva, Vvedensky and Oleinikov (https://content.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/russian-childrens-lit/11-fiveyear.html)
- University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Soviet Children's Picturebooks (notable collection), on Vera Ermolaeva as 'one of the earliest Soviet innovators in children's book design', arrested in 1934 and dead in a Gulag camp in 1937: https://www.library.upenn.edu/collections/notable/soviet-childrens-picturebooks
- Van Abbemuseum, Vera Ermolaeva, Krylov, Lzhets (Leningrad, Gosizdat, 1930; 178 × 126 mm, 8 pages, edition 100,000), with page images: https://ls.vanabbemuseum.nl/E/ermolaeva/pages/lzhets%201.htm
- Victoria and Albert Museum, National Art Library, Marshak & Lebedev, O glupom myshonke (Detgiz, Leningrad, 1935): https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1418842/
- Princeton University, Cotsen Collection, 'Soviet Era Books for Children and Youth (1918–1938)': https://pedagogyofimages.princeton.edu/2015/04/05/soviet-era-books-for-children-and-youth-1918-1938/
- Wikipedia: 'Vladimir Lebedev (artist)' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lebedev_(artist)), for his dates (1891–1967), and 'Лебедев, Владимир Васильевич' (https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Лебедев,_Владимир_Васильевич), for Gosizdat Leningrad 1924–1933, the Raduga bibliography and Pravda's 'O khudozhnikakh-pachkunakh' of 1 March 1936
- Wikipedia: 'Samuil Marshak' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuil_Marshak), d. 4 July 1964
- Wikipedia: 'Vera Ermolaeva' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Ermolaeva) and 'Ермолаева, Вера Михайловна' (https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ермолаева,_Вера_Михайловна), for UNOVIS (1920–1922), her Gosizdat books and her execution near Karaganda on 26 September 1937
- Wikipedia: 'Daniil Kharms' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniil_Kharms) and 'Хармс, Даниил Иванович' (https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Хармс,_Даниил_Иванович), for his work under Marshak and his death in the psychiatric ward of the Kresty prison hospital on 2 February 1942
- Wikipedia: 'Nikolay Oleynikov' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolay_Oleynikov), shot on 24 November 1937, and 'Detgiz' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detgiz), on its destruction in 1937 with arrests and executions; Mel, on Tamara Gabbe and the 1937 purge of Detgiz's Leningrad editorial office (https://mel.fm/zhizn/istorii/169423-neudobno-chtoby-na-russkoy-skazke-stoyala-familiya-nerusskaya-kak-tsenzura-lomala-zhizn-tamary-gabbe)
- Wikipedia: 'Copyright law of Russia' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_Russia), for the term of life plus 70 years

---

From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Leningrad Avant-Garde Picture Book”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/soviet-picture-book/