Our Notes & References

Chinese comic artists in a Soviet children’s magazine – a year before souring relations.

This issue of Veselye Kartinki (1956–present), one of the most beloved Soviet children’s magazines, features several comic stories by Chinese authors. It opens with an announcement introducing Xiao Peng You, the popular protagonist from China’s renowned eponymous children’s magazine (translates as Little Friends, published since 1922), who now appears in the pages of Veselye Kartinki. The collaboration presents a series of engaging comic-style stories, adapted from the original Chinese editions in an authorised translation by Ia. Akim.

One of the comic stories was created by Zhang Leping (1910–92), a leading Chinese artist instrumental in shaping modern manhua (Chinese-language comics).

The issue also includes works by prominent Soviet illustrators such as Iurii Uzbiakov, Vladimir Suteev, Ivan Semenov, and Iurii Vasnetsov. The cover, designed in a Chinese painting style by Boris Efimov (1900–2008)—best known for his political caricatures—bears a red seal with Efimov’s name in Chinese.

This 10th issue reflects the spirit of Sino-Soviet friendship that soon waned. By the late 1950s, relations between Mao Zedong and Nikita Khrushchev had soured due to Khrushchev’s de-Stalinisation policies and closer Soviet–U.S. cooperation. On 16 July 1960, the USSR recalled all its specialists from China, marking a sharp decline in bilateral ties.