Misplaced Pages

Merry Pictures (Russian: Весёлые картинки, romanized: Vesyolye Kartinki) is a popular Soviet/Russian illustrated humorous magazine for young children.

History

It has been published since September 1956. Its target audience is children of ages 4–11.

It had the largest circulation among the children's publications in the Soviet Union, reaching 5.6 million copies monthly in 1971 and 9.5 million copies monthly in early 1980s.

During the Soviet era, several well-known writers (including K. I. Chukovsky, A. L. Barto, S. Ya. Marshak) and famous artists (including A. Brey, A. Kanevsky, A. P. Sazonov and Yu. N. Uzbyakov) worked for the magazine.

In publishes verses, short stories and fairy tales, as well as board games, cartoons, rebuses, puzzles, etc. The magazine had several permanent columns ("How to learn to read", "How to learn to make toys yourself", etc.). The magazine also held an annual competition for the best children's drawing.

It has a group of recurring fantasy characters, the "Merry Little Folks [ru] Club": Karandash ("Pencil", and artist), Samodelkin ("Do-It-Yourself"), Buratino, Cipollino, Neznayka, Thumbelina, Petrushka, and Gurvinek (Czhech puppet Hurvínek).

See also

• Murzilka

References

1. ^ "Тираж 9 150 000 экз. ... Ежемесячный журнал. Издаётся с сентября 1956 года"
   "Весёлые картинки", № 3 (379), март 1988. 3-я стр. обложки
2. ^ Весёлые картинки // Большая Советская Энциклопедия / под ред. А. М. Прохорова. 3-е изд. Том 4. М., «Советская энциклопедия», 1971
3. Aleksey Ivliev, Легендарные «Веселые картинки» отмечают 60-летие // НТВ от 26 сентября 2016 (Legendary Merry Pictures Celebrate their 60th Anniversary)
4. Дмитрий Данилов, Весёлое детство «Весёлых картинок», excerpt online
5. ^ Christine Gölz, Merry Pictures of the Little Folk: The Cartoon Magazine Veselye kartinki, or What’s Left of the Socialist “Children’s World”, Fioteknos, vol. 9, 2019, pp. 138-155, doi:10.23817/filotek.9-10

External links

• Magazine website
• Весёлые картинки, covers of all issues

• Magazines published in the Soviet Union
• Children's magazines published in Russia