Who drew the New Year and gave billions of smiles

“MK” tells about the fate of the artist of well-known greeting cards

Everyone knows Soviet postcards with charming squirrels, bunnies and bear cubs. In the 1960-80s, they were published in a circulation of 10-15 million copies each. And these days they have become a coveted trophy of philocartists – postcard collectors. Their author is Vladimir Zarubin, who is called “the kindest artist.” Few people know that he participated in the creation of favorite Soviet cartoons – “Mowgli”, “Well, Just Wait!”, “The Town Musicians of Bremen”, “The Secret of the Third Planet”, “Once Upon a Time There Was a Dog” and many others. Even less is known about the difficult fate of the postcards, looking at which you can’t help but smile.

“He lived a difficult life,” Alexander Zarubin wrote about his father in an article for a catalog published specifically for philocartists in 2007. Vladimir Zarubin really faced trials, but he did not become embittered at the world; on the contrary, he gave billions of smiles with his postcards. His New Year-themed bunnies and squirrels were not only sent by mail with best wishes, but also copied by hand and left as a souvenir under glass. Many people have these funny hand-drawn stories among old photographs. Each one is a good little fairy tale. Zarubin’s New Year’s cards are especially loved. They depict a simple life story about animals celebrating the New Year in a winter forest – decorating a Christmas tree, skiing, making friends. Zarubin’s forest New Year’s universe is a separate world full of kindness. Some collectors collect only the artist’s New Year’s cards, his special atmosphere of the winter holiday. And their author was the same – kind, sincere, open. Against all odds.

Vladimir Ivanovich was born in 1925 in the village of Andriyakovka, Oryol region. His father was a road engineer, so the family moved often. At the beginning of the war, the Zarubins lived in the city of Lisichansk, Lugansk region – in 1942 it was occupied by German troops. 17-year-old Zarubin, along with other teenagers, was sent to Germany to a “labor” camp in the Ruhr. “He had to experience and see a lot,” the son writes briefly, but, one must think, there really is a lot behind these words. After three years in prison, the camp was liberated by American troops. From 1945 to 1949 Zaburin served as a rifleman in the commandant’s office of the Soviet army. Even then he was drawing, and upon returning to Lisichansk he decided to take up art professionally and moved to his brother in Moscow.

At first he worked as an artist at a factory, where he met his future wife, a draftsman from a design bureau, Nadezhda Ulyankina. Then I went to evening courses for cartoonists at Soyuzmultfilm. In 1957, he began working at the studio as an animator (although this word was not in our language at that time) and worked there until 1982. During this time, he participated in the creation of such cartoons as “It Will Rain Soon” (1959), “Murzilka on the Satellite” (1960), “Fly Tsokotukha” (1960), “Wild Swans” (1962), “Mowgli” (1967 -71), “The Snow Maiden” (1969), “Well, wait a minute!”,

“The Tale Tells You” (1970), “Tom Thumb” (1977), “The Secret of the Third Planet” (1981), “Once Upon a Time There Was a Dog” (1982), “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” (1984), “Adventures” the magic globe, or the tricks of the witch” (1991) and many others.

“My father’s work at the studio was repeatedly noted. He devoted all his strength to what he loved. In 1973, he received the title of winner of the socialist competition at the studio and… his first heart attack… My father was accepted into the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR only in the late 70s, almost ten years after submitting his application. But “without any crusts” he was often called the best animator in the country,” said the artist’s son.

After his heart attack, Vladimir Zarubin worked more and more at home and concentrated on postcards. This hobby comes from his pre-war childhood: his father invited his youngest son to collect greeting cards, and he became seriously interested and collected a large collection. When Zarubin finally left Soyuzmultfilm, he devoted himself entirely to postal miniatures. After the collapse of the USSR, he collaborated with a small publishing house, which made a name for itself through the artist’s well-recognized postcards. Despite this, his salary was often delayed, and then they stopped paying him altogether, continuing to demand new postcards. In the summer of 1996, the publisher again refused to pay the artist – in an extremely harsh manner. The master’s son bitterly recalled: “A few hours later he died. At home. Suddenly. Before my eyes. This happened on June 21, 1996.”

Vladimir Zarubin was not a public person; few people knew the author of the popular New Year’s cards by sight. But an interview has survived where the artist told how he “invented” his postcard fairy tales: “It’s difficult for me to work to order. I “invent” everything myself. But I always want to draw. Even if I’m sick, I just lie down and think. I first “roll” a postcard or envelope in my head so that then everything transfers to paper very quickly. But then I sometimes redraw the plots several times: when I finish, it’s as if I’ll take a closer look – no, not quite right. I undertake to add and remove details of the drawing again. A little fairy tale in a drawing…”

Indeed, every postcard is a good little fairy tale. Over 30 years of work, more than 1.5 billion postcards and envelopes with the artist’s drawings have been produced. In some of them, cartoon characters appear, but the signature ones are the smiling squirrels, little hares, bears and gnomes, which are also very cinematic, which is why they seem so familiar and cozy.

There is even an independent direction in philocarty – collecting postcards from Vladimir Zarubin. Moreover, some collectors specialize exclusively in “birthday” cards, while others specialize only in New Year’s cards, and there are many times more of them. It turned out that Vladimir Zarubin’s childhood passion led him to art and his own creations became special – collectible. And his postcards are an integral part of Soviet life – the most fabulous part of it.