Princeton University Library has digitized its collection of 931 pieces of original artwork for Cold War-era Soviet visual satire publications, including designs for posters as well as cartoons and other illustrations for publication in periodicals such as the illustrated satirical magazine Krokodil, and the newspapers Pravda, Izvestiia, Gudok, and Krasnaia zvezda.

The pieces—893 of which were acquired from American collector Alexander Lurye and 38 of which were acquired from Lithuanian illustrator, cartoonist, and collector Rytis Daukantas—were produced in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. Their weaponized visual humor is deployed against the Soviet Union’s adversaries, and first and foremost against the United States. The collection includes works by the collectives Boevoi karandash (“Warrior Pencil”) and the Kukryniksy. Among the individual graphic artists represented are Alexander Zhitomirskii, Lev Samoilov, Mikhail Kuznetsov, Igor Smirnov, Yuri Fedorov, Boris Efimov, Nikolai Dolgorukov, Vasilii Volkov, Vasilii Fomichev, Konstantin Eliseev, Boris Starichkov, Yuli Ganf, Dzhagngir Agaev, Josef Efimovskii, Fedor Aborian, Sergei Naberezhnykh, and Alexander Umiarov.