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Destroyed Tank

Porfiry Krylov

Creation period

1945

Place of сreation

the USSR

Dimensions

23,8x31,8 cm

Technique

paper, watercolor

Collection

Tula Museum of Fine Arts

Exhibition

The Life and Art of Porfiry Krylov

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The Porfiry Krylov Museum presents the watercolor “Destroyed Tank” created by the Kukryniksy artistic group in 1945, while the Great Patriotic War was still going on. This painting defies the popular expression “when the cannons are heard, the muses are silent” just like the whole of Porfiry Krylov’s body of work. The Kukryniksy elaborate on the history of this painting in their book of memoirs “The Three of Us”:

#16

In the spring of 1942, a decree on awarding state prizes in the field of Soviet art for 1941 was published. Our group, the Kukryniksy, was awarded the first class prize for political posters and cartoons on anti-fascist themes. Teaming up with the poets Nikolai Tikhonov, Samuil Marshak, Sergey Mikhalkov and Viktor Gusev, who also received State awards, we donated money for the construction of the heavy tank ‘KV’ and called it ‘Merciless’. On its turret we made a caricature of Hitler, flying to pieces from the shot of a Soviet tank, and under the caricature the poets Marshak and Mikhalkov wrote poems:

Fire away,
Our heavy tank,
Get into the Fascists’ rear,
Hit them in the flank.
Your fearless crew,
Always ready and alert,
Carries out our Motherland’s
Order to fight!

In May 1942, our tank was handed over to the Soviet Army. Its crew fought heroically. We began correspondence with them. Pasha Khoroshilov, the commander of the ‘Merciless’ and tankman Alyosha Fateev were killed in heavy battles. They were like brothers to us. One day, after a fierce fight, the tank arrived for repairs near Moscow. Its steel armor had at least forty dents. Enemy shells were stuck in it. Together with the poets we helped with its repairs. Throughout the war, we perceived our ‘Merciless’ tank as some kind of living, very close being. This made us sympathize and care for it.

#17

In March 1943, the tank “Merciless” was hit and sent for repairs. By that time, the KV-1 had covered a distance of 700 km under enemy fire and had destroyed 27 enemy tanks, 9 mortars, 10 cannons, 17 machine guns, about 30 vehicles, 13 armored vehicles.

After it was repaired, the “Merciless” was handed over to the Guard Lieutenant Vladimir Makarov, under whose command the tank participated in offensive operations near Yelnya. This battle was the last in the legendary tank’s history and the one Krylov depicted in this painting.

#19