Leaflet newspaper dating back to the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945. Vralisher Tarabakhter. No. 225/188/ dated November 30.
In the history of literature, the years of the Great Patriotic War are justifiably called the era of opinion journalism. The literary environment of that time was strongly influenced by the humor sections of Soviet newspapers: they touched upon several jokes on current events of the time.
Censored satire of the 1920s-1930s, consisting of feuilletons and caricatures, was also associated with folklore. In such publications as KrokodIl (Crocodile), SmekhAch (Joker), and BegemOt (Hippopotamus), one can find a significant number of examples when the authors used joke plots related to the cultural context of the time.
In its turn, folklore borrowed themes from professional satirists. There are known cases of jokes that can be traced back to feuilletons by Russian Soviet writer, publicist and public figure Mikhail Koltsov and Swedish children’s writer Sven Nordqvist. Émigré publications abroad sometimes printed word for word stories from Soviet satirical publications, passing them off as Soviet jokes.
These borrowings increased greatly during the war. Many writers of memoirs noted that the front-line soldiers' need for humor was the reason for the great popularity of such a literary character as Vasily Terkin. This need led to ordinary soldiers retelling each other the gags and cartoons published in the central press and in the front-line “war leaflets”, turning them into folklore.
A clear example of a borrowed plot is the Soviet satirical leaflet VrAlisher TarabAkhter (which loosely translates as the Rambling Liar), which parodied the Nazi newspaper Völkischer Beobachter and was distributed among Soviet soldiers in December 1942.
This magazine reported the victories and “feats” of the German army with a fair amount of humor. Among the surviving examples is the slogan “Hurray! Hurray! Our troops are successfully advancing in the opposite direction!”, as well as the headlines of the articles “Night is a Dark Matter!”, “In Flourishing Poland” and “Watch out!”. The newspaper also had “advertisements”, “private advertisements”, “announcements of cultural events” and even “theater bills”.
The continued interest in what was happening at the front, the closeness of military realia to the whole population of the country enabled the widespread dissemination of anecdotes about the Germans. At the same time, this paved the way for the texts of satirists loyal to the authorities to become a part of folklore. It was during the war years that their works, for the first time in the entire existence of Soviet power, became so close to the real mood of the majority of the population.
In the history of literature, the years of the Great Patriotic War are justifiably called the era of opinion journalism. The literary environment of that time was strongly influenced by the humor sections of Soviet newspapers: they touched upon several jokes on current events of the time.
Censored satire of the 1920s-1930s, consisting of feuilletons and caricatures, was also associated with folklore. In such publications as KrokodIl (Crocodile), SmekhAch (Joker), and BegemOt (Hippopotamus), one can find a significant number of examples when the authors used joke plots related to the cultural context of the time.
In its turn, folklore borrowed themes from professional satirists. There are known cases of jokes that can be traced back to feuilletons by Russian Soviet writer, publicist and public figure Mikhail Koltsov and Swedish children’s writer Sven Nordqvist. Émigré publications abroad sometimes printed word for word stories from Soviet satirical publications, passing them off as Soviet jokes.
These borrowings increased greatly during the war. Many writers of memoirs noted that the front-line soldiers' need for humor was the reason for the great popularity of such a literary character as Vasily Terkin. This need led to ordinary soldiers retelling each other the gags and cartoons published in the central press and in the front-line “war leaflets”, turning them into folklore.
A clear example of a borrowed plot is the Soviet satirical leaflet VrAlisher TarabAkhter (which loosely translates as the Rambling Liar), which parodied the Nazi newspaper Völkischer Beobachter and was distributed among Soviet soldiers in December 1942.
This magazine reported the victories and “feats” of the German army with a fair amount of humor. Among the surviving examples is the slogan “Hurray! Hurray! Our troops are successfully advancing in the opposite direction!”, as well as the headlines of the articles “Night is a Dark Matter!”, “In Flourishing Poland” and “Watch out!”. The newspaper also had “advertisements”, “private advertisements”, “announcements of cultural events” and even “theater bills”.
The continued interest in what was happening at the front, the closeness of military realia to the whole population of the country enabled the widespread dissemination of anecdotes about the Germans. At the same time, this paved the way for the texts of satirists loyal to the authorities to become a part of folklore. It was during the war years that their works, for the first time in the entire existence of Soviet power, became so close to the real mood of the majority of the population.
