Artistic collaborators Porfirii Nikitich Krylov (1902–1990), Mikhail Vasil’evich Kupriianov (1903–1991), and Nikolai Aleksandrovich Sokolov (1903–2000)

The Kukryniksy was the name taken on by artists Porfirii Nikitich Krylov (1902–1990), Mikhail Vasil’evich Kupriianov (1903–1991), and Nikolai Aleksandrovich Sokolov (1903–2000) during their long career of collaboration. In 1922, Porfirii Krylov and Mikhail Kupriianov, fellow students in the Graphic Department of VKhUTEMAS, began to collaborate on cartoons, book illustrations, and poster designs under the names Kukry and Krykup. They were joined by Nikolai Sokolov and worked under the collective name Kukryniksy starting in 1924. The Kukryniksy published their work widely, both in newspapers (Pravda, Krasnaia zvezda, Komsomol’skaia pravda, and Literaturnaia gazeta) and in magazines (Krokodil, Prozhektor, Smekhach, and Smena). In 1929 they designed the sets for Vladimir Maiakovskii’s theatrical comedy The Bedbug. Between July 1941 and April 1945, they were among the most energetic illustrators working for the TASS studio in Moscow, designing approximately seventy-four posters. During and immediately after the war, the Kukryniksy illustrated books and collaborated on large paintings. For their collaborative work they were awarded the Stalin Prize five times (1942, 1947, 1949, 1950, and 1951), the Lenin Prize (1965), and the State Prize of the USSR (1975).

_{Kukryniksy. The Search for Human Resources in Germany, March 1944. Gift of the USSR Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries.}