The artist is Sokolov -Skal
The Youth Underground Komsomol Organization “Young Guard” operated in the Ukrainian mining town of Krasnodon occupied by the Germans from July 1942 to February 1943. The Young Guards distributed leaflets, prevented the restoration of mines, destroyed the labor exchange, saving people from theft to Germany, conducted sabotage and prepared an armed uprising.
The Young Guard was given a traitor, and most of its members were executed after torture. The main part of the Krasnodonses – partly alive, partly shot – the Germans buried in the hut of one of the mines. On September 13, 1943, five members of the organization – Ulyana Gromova, Ivan Zemnukhov, Oleg Kosheva, Sergey Tyulenin and Lyubov Shevtsova – was posthumously awarded the title of Heroes of the Soviet Union. This feat was reflected in literature (Roman A. A. Fadeeva, 1946) and cinema (film from. A. Gerasimova, 1948), as well as in the visual arts.
In the picture of Sokolov-Skal, written in the year of the release of the film with. Gerasimova, combine a genre scene and a group portrait of legendary underground. The plot basis of the canvas is an episode from the novel Fadeev, in which the Krasnodons at their secret meeting listen to the historical report of the head of the Soviet state on the radio and. IN. Stalin on the day of the XXV anniversary of the October Revolution and record it, then to spread it with the help of leaflets. The second name of the picture is “The Young Guards listen to Comrade Stalin on the radio”.
Electronic catalog “Heroes and villains of Russian history”. SPb, 2010. WITH. 463.
Sokolov-Skal recreates the heroes of his canvas on this book and guided by his own artistic intuition. In the center of the youth group, he puts the figure of the old Bolshevik Protsenko, in the foreground the walkie -talkie sits in the radio, to the right, in full height, Ivan Turkeenich is depicted in military uniform, at the table to the left, Oleg Kosheva, Ivan Zemnukhov and Sergey Tyunin, and he is behind him, and Ulyana Gromova sits to the right. The artist manages to convey the expressive psychological shades of each of his characters, but in general they are all subordinated to a single idea.
Picture „Krasnodons" called „Anthem Komsomol, Youth". She completed the cycle of paintings dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. The picture was awarded the Stalin Prize shortly after the demonstration of it at the exhibition „30 years of the Armed Forces of the USSR".
