The word “satire” is familiar to every educated person. But what satire is is not always easy to fully understand. After all, satire is a term not only from the field of art and literature, but even philosophy, politics and sociology.

So what is satire in literature and art? Let's try to figure it out.

Definition

Satire is, rather, moral category, as it serves to expose (ridicule) social and human vices through words, music and visual means. To prevent satire from looking like a sermon, it is diluted with humor and irony. Among the artistic means in satirical works of art and literature, hyperbole, sarcasm, allegory, parody, and grotesque are also used. They are means of artistic comparison, exaggeration and ridicule.

Application examples

A striking example of satire in literature are the works of J. Swift, M. Twain, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, M. Zoshchenko and A. Averchenko. Satire on the stage (in show business) is parodists and performers of satirical couplets. A textbook example of satire in the press is the Soviet satirical magazine “Crocodile” and such a genre of journalism as the feuilleton. Charlie Chaplin and Stanley Kubrick can be called representatives of the satirical movement in cinema. Modern punk rock bands, such as the Sex Pistols, also use satire in their work.

So what is satire? The definition of this term can be formulated as follows: it is a sharp and vivid exposure of various phenomena using comic (artistic) means.

Fonvizin's hand is scary!
A. S. Pushkin
D.I. Fonvizin worked on his comedy for about three years and did more than was expected of him. He tore off “the masks from the young people who were stunned by idleness, from the education system, social and family relations.” Completed in 1781, the famous comedy “The Minor” expressed the writer’s oppositional sentiments.
The royal court greeted the play with hostility. Only a year later it was put on stage.
Fonvizin believed that he owed the success of the comedy to the image of Starodum, played by the largest Russian actor Dmitrievsky. As the newspapers of those days wrote, at the end of the performance, one of the spectators threw the actor a wallet filled with gold and silver.
According to the writer, education itself does not turn a child into a human being.
“Minor” is dedicated to the struggle for man. The comedy reveals the conditions of upbringing that disfigure and kill the soul from childhood.
Let us remember the scene when Mitrofanushka, who had eaten too much in the evening, “been pining all night.” “At night I kept asking for a drink. He deigned to eat a whole jug of kvass,” Eremeevna reports sympathetically.
Mitrofan, who is nursed by his “mother” like a baby, is funny, his gluttony is funny, but he is not completely stupid. Seeing that his mother is puzzled by the characteristic (“rubbish”), he easily gets out of it, knowing on whose side the power is. Mother is happy.
The writer tried to show under what circumstances character is formed.
First we see Mitrofan running after his father, trying on his caftan. This scene introduces us to the setting of a fortress estate.
The Prostakovs’ well-being is created through their labor by both “the girl Palashka,” who, having fallen ill, provokes the anger of the lady, and Eremeevna, who in this house receives “five rubles a year, and five slaps in the face a day.”
The attitude towards serfs turns the image of the housewife from funny to scary.
The scenes of Mitrofan's training are comical. The good soldier Tsyfirkin and the half-educated seminarian Kuteikin, teachers of the ignorant, are ignorant and absurd. The former coachman Vralman teaches Mitrofan “how to sew in the world,” and even the French language.
The answers in the exam scene made the image of the noble son immortal (“Door, which door?”). By history, Mitrofan understands those stories told by the cowgirl Khavronya. Prostakova helps you figure out geography, declaring that “geography” is not a noble science, cab drivers will take you wherever you say.
Mr. Prostakov is pitiful and ridiculous, confessing to his wife: “Before your eyes, mine see nothing.”
According to the law of 1767, peasants who complained against the landowner were sentenced to hard labor. The uncontrolled power of the landowners became the main cause of public disasters. That is why Skotinin’s confession evokes an ambivalent feeling: “I don’t like to bother, and I’m afraid. No matter how much my neighbors offended me, no matter how much they caused a loss, I didn’t hit anyone with my forehead, and I’ll rip off any loss from my own peasants rather than go after it.” Uncle Mitrofanushka is cowardly and calculating. The legal proceedings are at such a level that they will rob both the right and the wrong.
The play “The Minor” is structured in such a way that it becomes clear: unlimited power over the peasants was the source of parasitism, an ugly upbringing that disfigures the personality.
Fonvizin does not raise the question of the abolition of serfdom, but demands human relationship to the serfs. “It is unlawful to oppress one’s own kind through slavery,” says Starodum.
At the end of the comedy, Pravdin takes custody of Prostakova’s estate. Fonvizin tells the government a way out: landowners who abuse peasants should be deprived of the right to own serfs.
According to the writer, when “money is the first deity,” landowners turn into slaves of money and become sovereign masters over the peasants. Let us remember how Prostakova fawns over Starodum after learning about his ten thousand. She proudly remembers her father, who made his fortune through bribes.
In the play “The Minor,” Fonvizin reproduced the type of Russian landowner, and then made it clear that the family relations of the masters were determined precisely by social tension.
Fonvizin was not afraid of disgrace. He pronounced a harsh sentence on Catherine's Russia. Revolutionary writer A. M. Radishchev in “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” showed that the kindness of individual landowners does not make the fate of the peasants easier.
At the end of the 80s, D.I. Fonvizin prepared the magazine “Friend of Honest People, or Starodum” for publication. However, it was banned. The writer was made to understand that he had no place in literature. In 1792, Fonvizin, broken by this blow, died.

An essay on literature on the topic: A satirical denunciation of the negative aspects of the life of serf Russia in the comedy “The Minor” by D. I. Fonvizin

Other writings:

1. A talented writer, a widely educated person, a prominent political figure, Fonvizin in his works not only acted as an exponent of the advanced ideas of the socio-political life of Russia at that time, but also made an invaluable contribution to the treasury of Russian literature. Fonvizin was the first of the Russian writers and playwrights Read More ......
2. A well-educated writer, a widely educated person, a prominent political figure, Fonvizin in his works not only acted as an exponent of the advanced ideas of the socio-political life of Russia at that time, but also made an invaluable contribution to the treasury of Russian literature. Fonvizin was the first of the Russian writers and playwrights Read More ......
3. I read Fonvizin’s comedy “The Minor” and I want to express my impressions about the negative characters. Prostakova is presented as a domineering, uneducated Russian woman. She is very greedy and in order to grab more of someone else’s things, she often flatters and “puts on” a mask of nobility, but from under the mask it Read More ......
4. The comedy “Minor” is rightfully considered the pinnacle of Fonvizin’s creativity. Minor - teenager, minor. The work was written in 1781, and in 1782 it was first staged on the big stage. Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin began working on a comedy upon his arrival in Russia from France. In the image of Read More......
5. The dictionary gives two definitions for the word “Undergrowth”. The first is “this is a young nobleman who has not reached the age of majority and has not entered the public service" The second is “a stupid young man - a dropout.” I think that the second meaning of this word appeared thanks to the image of the undergrowth - Mitrofanushki, Read More ......
6. The comedy “The Minor” was written by Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin in 1781. One of the central problems was education. At that time in Russia there was the idea of ​​a sacred monarchy. The second problem is the cruel treatment of serfs. Serfdom was sharply condemned. In Read More......
7. Fonvizin's literary activity began in his student years. Already in his first works a penchant for political satire was evident. Widely known The author brought the comedy “The Minor” (1782), in which he ridiculed the backwardness and lack of culture of the local nobles. The word “Minor” is derived from the word Read More......
8. The comedy by D. I. Fonvizin “The Minor” is a work of the 18th century. In it, the heroes are clearly divided into two groups: positive and negative. Here the funny and the sad, the comic and the tragic are combined and mixed. In negative characters, those traits that the author condemns are striking: ignorance, Read More......

Satirical pathos is the most powerful and sharp indignant and mocking denial of certain guardians of public life. The word “satire” (lat. satura mixture) was used by some Roman poets to describe collections of poems with a mocking and instructive orientation - fables, anecdotes, everyday scenes. Subsequently, this name was transferred to the content of works in which human characters and relationships become the subject of mocking interpretation and corresponding depiction. It is in this meaning that the word “satire” became established in world literature, and then in literary criticism.

A satirical assessment of social characters is convincing and historically truthful only when these characters are worthy of such an attitude, when they have properties that evoke a negative, mocking attitude from writers. Only

in this case, the ridicule expressed in the artistic images of the works will evoke understanding and sympathy among readers, listeners, and spectators. Such an objective property of human life, which evokes a mocking attitude towards it, is its comedy. A convincing definition of comedy was given by Chernyshevsky: comedy is “the inner emptiness and insignificance (of human life. - E. R.), hiding behind an appearance that has a claim to content and real meaning” (99, 31).

Consequently, when a person in his essence, in the general structure of his interests, thoughts, feelings, aspirations, is empty and insignificant, but claims the significance of his personality, without being aware of this inconsistency in himself, then he is comical; people recognize the comedy of his behavior and laugh at him.

The tendency of many writers to notice the comic in life and creatively reproduce it in their works is determined not only by the properties of their innate talent, but also by the fact that, due to the peculiarities of their worldview, they pay primary attention to the discrepancy between pretensions and real opportunities in people of a certain social environment.

Thus, Gogol hoped for the moral correction of the Russian nobility and bureaucrats as the leading strata of society of his time. But comprehending their life in the light of his high civic ideals, the writer discovered that behind the external class conceit, self-satisfaction, and arrogance lies limited and base interests, a penchant for empty entertainment, for career and profit. And the higher in position these or those nobles and officials stood at that time, the more strongly their comic essence manifested itself in their actions and speech, the more sharply Gogol ridiculed them in his stories and plays.

Here is an image of the bureaucratic-noble “society” on the main street of St. Petersburg: “Little by little, everyone joins their society, having completed quite important homework, such as: talking with their doctor about the weather and about a small pimple that has popped up on the nose, learning about health horses and their children... Everything you meet on Nevsky Prospekt is all full of decency... Here you will see the only sideburns, worn with extraordinary and amazing art under a tie... Here you will see a wonderful mustache, no feather, no indescribable with a brush; mustache to which I dedicated

The best half of life is the subject of long vigils during the day and night... Here you will meet such waists as you have never even dreamed of: thin, narrow waists, no thicker than the neck of a bottle..." etc. ( "Nevsky Avenue").

The feignedly laudatory tone of Gogol’s image expresses his mocking, ironic attitude (gr. eironeia - pretense) towards the capital’s secular society. In the mockery one can hear the writer’s hidden ill will and hostility towards these high-ranking people who attach great importance to all sorts of trifles. Gogol's irony sometimes becomes even sharper and turns into sarcasm (gr. sarkasmos - torment) - indignant and accusatory ridicule. Then his image is imbued with satirical pathos (for example, in the lyrical ending of Nevsky Prospekt).

Satirical pathos is generated by the objective comic properties of life, and in it ironic mockery of the comedy of life is combined with sharp denunciation and indignation. Satire does not depend, therefore, on the arbitrariness of the writer, on his personal desire to ridicule something. It requires a corresponding subject - the comicality of the ridiculed life itself. Satirical laughter is a very deep and serious laughter. Gogol wrote about the distinctive features of such laughter: “Laughter is more significant and deeper than people think. Not the kind of laughter that is generated by temporary irritability, a bilious, painful disposition of character; not that light laughter that serves for idle entertainment and amusement of people, but that laughter that... deepens the subject, makes brightly appear what would have slipped through, without the penetrating power of which the triviality and emptiness of life would not frighten a person.” (45, 169).

It is “penetrating” laughter that deepens the subject that constitutes an integral property of satire. It differs from simple playfulness or mockery in its cognitive content. And if such laughter, according to Belinsky, “destroys a thing,” then because it “characterizes it too correctly, expresses its ugliness too correctly.” It comes “from the ability to see things in their present form, to grasp their characteristic features, to express funny sides” (24, 244). And such laughter does not relate to an individual person or event, but to those general, characteristic features of social life that find their manifestation in them. This is why satire helps to realize

to reveal some important aspects of human relationships, gives a kind of orientation in life,

All this determines the place of the satirical image

life in the literature of different peoples. Satire arose

historically later than heroism, tragedy, drama.

It developed most intensively when life

ruling strata and their government began to lose their former progressive significance and increasingly reveal their conservatism, their inconsistency with the interests of the entire society.

In ancient Greek literature, a satirical denunciation of the life of the ruling classes was already given in the fables of Archilochus (the son of a slave leading a wandering lifestyle). Satirical pathos is expressed with particular force in many of Aristophanes' comedies. For example, in the comedy “Horsemen,” written during the crisis of the slave-owning Athenian democracy, the struggle of the Tanner (Paphlagonian) and the Sausage Maker (Poracritus) for power in the house of the old De-

mos, personifying the Athenian people. The Sausage Man wins, who, appeasing Demos, treats him to a hare stolen from the Paphlagonian. The whole comedy is directed against the military policy of the radical party in power, its leader Cleon (whom the audience easily guessed in the person of the Paphlagonian).

In Roman literature, Juvenal gained fame as the most acute satirist. For example, in the fourth satire Juvenal

" tells how a fisherman brought a huge fish as a gift to the emperor and the state council at a special meeting discussed how to cook it, what dish to serve it on so that it would be worthy of the imperial table.

The satirical interpretation and depiction of the life of the ruling strata of society received great development in Western European literature during the Renaissance. Its most significant expression was the monumental story of the French writer F. Rabelais “Gargan-tua and Pantagruel” (1533-1534). It provides criticism of the most diverse aspects of the life of medieval society. Rabelais sharply satirizes feudal wars, depicting the campaign of King Picrocholl against Father Gargantua. Taking advantage of a quarrel between shepherds and bakers over flatbread, Picrosol starts a war without agreeing to any concessions. He smugly craves world domination, is confident that all fortresses and cities will fall without any resistance, dreams of booty, and distributes them in advance.

close to his future possessions, but suffers complete defeat. He caustically ridicules Rabelais and the dominant religious ideology, the absurdities of the Holy Scriptures.

Equally outstanding in the development of world satirical literature was the story of the English writer J. Swift “Gulliver’s Travels” (1726). Summarizing his observations of the clashes of political parties in England, Swift shows the struggle for power between Tremexens and Slemexens, differing from each other only in the height of the heels on their shoes, but attaching great importance to this. But the emperor hesitates, so he has one heel higher than the other, and he has a limp. Swift also viciously ridicules the country's foreign policy. The great powers of Lilliput and Blefuscu are waging a fierce war, which arose due to the fact that in the first of them, by order of the emperor, it was prescribed to break the egg from the sharp end, and in the second, from the blunt end; and the bloody war has no end in sight.

In Russia, the development of satire was also closely connected with the historical life of society. In the 17th century satire is presented in folk art (“The Tale of Ersha Ershovich”, “Shemyakin’s Court”), in the 18th century. - in the works of Kantemir, Lomonosov, Novikov, Fonvizin, Krylov. The heyday of Russian satire falls in the 19th century. and is due to the ever-increasing anti-nationalism of the autocratic serfdom system and the growth of the liberation movement in the country. “Woe from Wit” by Griboedov, epigrams by Pushkin and Lermontov, “The History of the Village of Goryukhin” by Pushkin, and the works of Gogol are imbued with satirical pathos. Global significance has satire by Saltykov-Shchedrin, primarily his “The History of a City” (1869-1870).

Based on his revolutionary-democratic views, Saltykov-Shchedrin acutely revealed the deep socio-political contradiction of Russian social life of an entire historical era. He showed the complete degeneration of autocratic power, which is an inert, stupid and cruel force that exists only to suppress the people and has brought them to a state of “stupidity”, to the ability to either slavishly be moved by their bosses, or to rebel spontaneously and cruelly. The writer focused entirely on this negative political state of the authorities and the people, artistically embodying it in fantastic images and scenes that evoke sarcastic laughter among readers. In depicting the life of the people, his satire borders on tragedy.

In Soviet literature, which reflects the progressive development of the entire society, the satirical depiction of life, naturally, does not receive such a scope, but still has its grounds. Satire is directed primarily against the enemies of the revolution. Such are, for example, the satirical fables of Demyan Bedny or “Windows of GROWTH” by Mayakovsky. Later, satirical works appeared, exposing not only the external enemies of the Soviet country, but also the remnants of the old in the minds and behavior of people, as well as revealing contradictory phenomena in the life of the new society. Mayakovsky’s poem “The Satisfied”, which evoked a positive assessment from V.I. Lenin, ridicules the bureaucratic style of work, when people “involuntarily have to be torn” between many meetings. The same problems were developed by the poet in the comedy “Bath”: Chief Pobedonosikov, boasting of his previous services to the revolution (in which he did not participate), slows down the forward movement of the “time machine”.

Satirical works were also created by I. Ilf and E. Petrov, E. Schwartz, S. Mikhalkov, Y. Olesha, M. Bulgakov and other writers.

HUMOR

For a long time they could not distinguish a humorous attitude towards life from a satirical attitude. Only in the era of romanticism literary critics and representatives of aesthetic and philosophical thought recognized it as a special type of pathos.

The word “humor” (English, humor - moisture, liquid) first received the meaning of liquid in the human body, and then, in a figurative sense, the character of a person, then the disposition of his spirit and, finally, the spiritual inclination to joke, mockery.

Humor, like satire, arises in the process of generalizing emotional understanding of the comic internal inconsistency of human characters - the discrepancy between the real emptiness of their existence and subjective claims to significance. Like satire, humor is the mocking attitude towards such characters on the part of people who can comprehend their internal contradictions. However, the contradictions between the real emptiness of life and the claim to its significance can manifest themselves in different areas of people’s activities - not only in their civil, but also in their

private relations. Due to false social self-esteem, people in everyday life, family life They can also discover an internal contradiction between who they really are and who they want to pretend to be. Here people can also be deceived in the true meaning of their actions, experiences, aspirations, their role in society and claim significance that they actually do not have. Such an internal contradiction of their social self-awareness, their actions, and way of life is comical and evokes a mocking attitude.

But this is a different kind of laughter than in satire. Unjustified claims to significance in private rather than in civil life do not directly affect the interests of the entire society or the entire team. These claims harm not so much those around them, but the people themselves to whom they are characteristic. Therefore, such people evoke a mocking attitude towards themselves, combined not with indignation, but with pity, sadness about their self-deceptions and delusions, about the humiliation of human dignity.

Humor is laughter at relatively harmless comic contradictions, often combined with pity for people who display this comicality. It is precisely to humor that the definition of laughter, which was given by Gogol at the beginning of the VII chapter of “Dead Souls”, is very suitable, when he wrote that he “has a long destiny... to look around the whole enormous rushing life... through the laughter visible to the world and the invisible, tears unknown to him! (Otherwise: tears through laughter, but not Laughter through tears, as they often say. - E.R.)

But where do pity, sadness, and tears arise in humorous laughter? They stem from the awareness of a deep discrepancy between the comic properties of the observed characters and the high moral ideal of the humorist. Real humor always comes from a general, philosophical reflection on the shortcomings of life.

In Russian literature, the greatest humorist was Gogol, the greatest satirist was Saltykov-Shchedrin. This difference stemmed from the peculiarities of the writers’ worldview. Saltykrv-Shchedrin thought politically; he saw the way out of the social contradictions of his time in the destruction of autocratic-landlord power and the revolutionary-democratic reorganization of society.

Gogol also had civic ideals. But he believed that the life of Russian society could change for the better only when the ruling strata - the nobility and the bureaucracy - realized their responsibilities,

their duty to their homeland, will take the path of moral correction. He assessed the comic contradictions of noble and bureaucratic life from the point of view of these civil and moral ideals. Therefore, where Gogol touched upon social activities ruling noble-bureaucratic groups (provincial bureaucracy in “The Inspector General”, metropolitan “society” in “Nevsky Prospekt” and provincial bureaucracy in “ Dead souls"), his mockery became satirical. Portraying landowners and officials in their private lives, he was mainly a humorist.

Particularly characteristic in this regard is “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich” - a story about two provincial landowners leading a completely empty, worthless existence in their small estates, but imagining themselves as important and significant people. A sudden quarrel over a trifle, an insult to a friend and a twelve-year legal battle, exhausting them financially and morally, all the episodes of their quarrel (cutting down a goose barn, petitions to the court, attempts at reconciliation) fully reveal the insignificance of the moral life of the heroes and the absurdity of the importance which they attach to each of their actions. Gogol laughs cheerfully at such a life, but ends the story with a sad generalizing thought that has philosophical content: “It’s boring in this world, gentlemen!”

A striking example of a humorous work is Charles Dickens' story “The Posthumous Notes of the Pickwick Club” (1837), which depicts the comic adventures of Mr. Pickwick and his friends belonging to the bourgeois circles of London. Having innocently imagined themselves to be real scientists and good athletes, they find themselves in all sorts of absurd and funny, but in general completely harmless situations (mistaking, for example, a roadside stone for an archaeological find or a fish caught in a pond in Hyde Park for a scientific discovery). Dickens talks about their adventures in a very serious tone, which enhances the humorous impression of his story.

Humor, unlike satire, does not always express ideological condemnation of a character; sometimes it conveys the author’s sympathy for the hero, as in Gogol’s “Taras Bulba”, in “The Half-Burner” and other stories by Chekhov.

A certain commonality between humor and satire brings them together in terms of the principles of artistic expression. Comic character

Terov is mainly manifested in the external features and behavior of people - in their appearance, gestures, manners, actions, statements. Humorous and satirical writers usually hardly reveal the inner world of their characters (or do so to a weak extent), but highlight and enhance in their narrative the comedy of external visual details (portraits, speech characteristics of characters, plot scenes).

A complex, multifaceted genre found in many forms of art is political satire. To use it professionally means to have a broad outlook, readability, knowledge of political science, and to perceive constructive criticism, master the art of eloquence to perfection and take this genre seriously. He does not tolerate a deliberately subjective view; with its help it is easy to hurt other people’s feelings, offend, and humiliate.

Satire is a genre of literature and art that is a comic or poetic exposure of negative phenomena in life and society using irony, sarcasm, exaggeration, allegory, parody and grotesque. The essence of satire is to use artistic techniques and literary devices to achieve scathing criticism of absurdities, contradictions and vices. Satire often uses the technique of excessive exaggeration. The genre of satire is many centuries old, and in every era it has been used to highlight negative social and political events. Satire is always aimed at people and phenomena.

Satirical works can be moral, political, religious. Criticism in satire is conducted from the position of an unexpressed ideal. In ancient times, satire was a mixture of poetry and prose; later in Rome the genre gained independence. It used dances, songs, and poetry. Examples of the art of satire were created by Juvenal and Horace. With the help of the genre, the vicious phenomena of life are ridiculed. In literature there are entire works of satire, individual episodes, situations or images. You should be careful with political satire, as this genre can be limited by censorship.

Political satire

The genre of political satire has always been popular. Despite the fact that it relates to literature, satire finds expression in the executive and fine arts. Political satire exposes individual and social imperfections, extravagances, abuse of power, and negative actions of politicians using irony, burlesque and other methods. The genre of political satire is intended not only to make the audience laugh, but also to attack an objectionable phenomenon of reality. This is the main goal that is achieved through humor.

For example, sarcasm, irony, opposition help to achieve a certain result. The founders of the genre of political satire were Lucilius, Ennius, Horace, and Aristophanes. It must contain notes of gentle humor, which is intended to smooth out criticism directed at a specific address. Otherwise, satire looks like a sermon, a dry report or lecture.

The meaning of satire

Political satire originated from literature Ancient Rome. It includes poetic and lyrical works of varying volume and meaning. In them the reader finds indignant, condemning negations in varying degrees - images of specific individuals, groups, phenomena. Satire, a responsible artistic genre of free speech, must be distinguished from libel and pamphlet.

The artistic value of political satire and its significance lie in the social and moral content, lyrical uplift, and the height of the ideal of the satirist. The lyrical subjective coloring of a satirical work deprives the artistic genre of objectivity, therefore political satire has the character of fleetingness.

Famous satirists

Political satire appears in all types of art - this is its main difference from a purely literary genre. It is found in theatre, literature, films, and journalism. Previously, satire flourished in Greece, Arab countries, Persia, medieval Europe, America, and Victorian England. It was widely used as a method of denunciation in the twentieth century, during the existence of the USSR and, of course, in modern times.

The famous I. Ilf and E. Petrov wrote the novel “12 Chairs,” which, with the help of humor and literary techniques, ridicules the newly formed Soviet society. Political satire was carried out by: V. Mayakovsky, Y. Olesha, D. Kharms, M. Bulgakov, S. Marshak. Many Soviet satirists were subjected to repression and censorship for using this genre.

During the “thaw” period, satirical films and television programs appeared that openly and humorously denounced the authorities. Modern satirists are A. Raikin, G. Khazanov, S. Altov, A. Arkanov, L. Izmailov, M. Zadornov. Today, the genre of political satire in Russia does not reach the popular, large-scale level that it had in the Soviet years.

Popular quotes and aphorisms

The most interesting and memorable was the political satire during the USSR. It is from there that amazing comedy films, poems, prose come from, exposing the unwanted phenomena of the time. Over the years there have been many anecdotes about him and his policies. Everyone knows that Leonid Ilyich loved medals and orders, which he awarded himself, sometimes undeservedly. That is why the following joke appeared: “An earthquake occurred in Moscow. This happened because Brezhnev’s jacket with medals fell from a chair.”

In the 21st century, political satire has moved from the realm of literature to art. Today, cartoons can often be found in socio-political newspapers, major Russian and foreign publications.