Mikhail Efimovich Kol’tsov
Edit Profile
correspondent
editor
founder
journalist
reporter
state official
writer
Mikhail Kol’tsov, USSR Journalist, party and state official. The best known and most influential Soviet journalist and editor of the 1930s. Brother of the Stalinist press caricaturist, Boris Efimov. Born in Kiev, the son of a Jewish artisan. First publications in 1916. Member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1918. Active participant in both the February and October Revolutions. Joined Pravda as a reporter. Became a satirical writer, but soon realised the danger of this profession in Stalin’s Soviet Union. Sent as /Yaw/я correspondent to the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1937, but had in fact more important functions, including direct connections with the security services. Founder and one of the most powerful editors of the mass illustrated weekly Ogonek, the satirical magazine Krokodil, Chudak and a chain of other minor publications. Had close links with the fearful security chiefs, Genrikh Iagoda and Nikolai Ezhov. Took part in GPU/ NKVD provocations. For some time a favourite of Stalin himself, but later recalled from Spain and sent to the Gulag. Exact circumstances of his death are still unknown.
Background
Kol’tsov, Mikhail was born on June 13, 1898 in Kiev, the son of a Jewish artisan. Brother of the Stalinist press caricaturist, Boris Efimov.
Education
Graduated from the Stroganov Art School.
Career
Komar, V italii Anatol'evich
1943-. Artist.
. Became active in unofficial art circles. Left the USSR in 1977 for Israel.
Later settled in the USA. Has worked with Aleksandr Melamid in the field of political collage, and has staged a number of exhibitions which have attracted a lot of attention from the Western press. Lives in New York.