Ivan Semenov exhibition

Details here about an exhibition in Moscow this week of cartoons by Ivan Semenov, Krokodil stalwart.

Vitalii Goriaev exhibition

Details of the Vitalii Goriaev (sometime Krokodil artist) at the New Manege in Moscow at the moment.

Krokodil 1952: 8, p.1

Krokodil 1952: 7, p.1

Drawing the Curtain

An exhibition held in London recently, to celebrate the launch of a new book by Tim Benson, on cartoon imagery from USSR and the West during the Cold War.

Krokodil 1952: 6, p.1

Russian protest art on show

An article with some visuals on an exhibition of modern Russian protest art, which has some striking similarities to street art, Soviet poster art and Krokodil. I'm intrigued by the dissected crocodile in one of the photos.

Krokodil 1952: 5, p.1

Krokodil 1952: 4, p.1

Krokodil 1952: 3, p.1

Krokodil 1952: 2, p.1

Krokodil 1952: 1, p.1

С Новым Годом!

The annual New Year's Krokodil cover from 1951.

Krokodil 1951: 36 p.1

Guardian article

An article on The Guardian website referring to the history and growth of Russian satirical comment.

Satirical Journals of the 1905 Revolution

The University of Chicago's Library's Special Collections contains some satirical journals from 1905. How far, I have often wondered, did these journals influence Krokodil?

Krokodil Banners

Krokodil front page title banners, 1922-1991

The name 'Krokodil'

I have not been able to find out definitively why the magazine was named 'Krokodil' in the first place. The theory most commonly propounded is that it derives from the crocodile in the story by Kornei Chukovsky (1916). I have no reason to disbelieve this, but another story named after, and about, a crocodile was written by Dostoevsky in 1865. The logical place to look for an authoritative explanation would be the first issues of the magazine, but they are extremely rare and I haven't seen an original - only excerpts quoted elsewhere. In one of these quotes, in a poem by Demian Bednyi, the magazine is named as 'the red crocodile' which identifies the magazine with the animalistic logo/character, but I wonder if any of the readers of this blog can answer this question? 

Live Journal Krokodil site

Very useful user-generated site on Krokodil.

http://old-crocodile.livejournal.com/