1. Before the Russian Revolution turned into the chaos of massacres and brutal civil war, it was possible to find in it positive and even funny moments.
Vladimir Taburin
2. One of the people with a humorous attitude to revolutionary events was Russian artist Vladimir Taburin.
Vladimir Taburin
3. In 1917 he issued a series of postcards called “Child politicians” that instantly went viral.
Vladimir Taburin
4. Russia’s warring political parties and groups were depicted by the artist as big-eyed innocent kids.
Vladimir Taburin
5. Some of these nice kids, however, are not so defenseless. Armed with pistols and bombs, they pose a real threat.
Vladimir Taburin
6. This is how Taburin depicted the movements of Anarchists, Socialist-Revolutionaries and Jewish socialists, known as Bundists, who had no scruples about using terror methods to achieve their goals.
Vladimir Taburin
7. The angriest kid is definitely the Bolshevik, who is staring viciously at the much smaller Menshevik boy. The Bolsheviks (“Majority-ites”) and Mensheviks (“Minority-ites”) appeared in 1903, when the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party split due to internal conflicts.
Vladimir Taburin
8. The “Child politicians” weren’t Taburin’s first experience of depicting adults as kids. During WWI he issued a series of postcards where soldiers of the belligerent nations were also shown as children.
Vladimir Taburin
9. After the Bolsheviks took power in November, the country stepped on the path of long, ruthless and painful internal conflict, where there was no more place for any fun.
Vladimir Taburin
10. In the new climate, Taburin’s funny postcards started to look like nonsense and soon faded from memory.
Vladimir Taburin
Here you can see a series of postcards depicting WWI soldiers as kids.