Clever Masha is a character that was invented in the 1930s by the creators of the famous magazines Chizh and Hedgehog, published under the Leningrad Detgiz. That was the era of the amazing heyday of Soviet children’s literature: the publishing house was headed by Samuil Marshak, Daniil Kharms, Nikolai Oleinikov, Evgeny Schwartz, Nikolai Zabolotsky, Mikhail Zoshchenko, Alexander Vvedensky collaborated in «Chizh» and «Hedgehog». They became the «parents» of Clever Masha, and Bronislav Malakhovskiy drew her, taking his daughter as a prototype.
Clever Masha is a character that was invented in the 1930s by the creators of the famous magazines Chizh and Hedgehog, published under the Leningrad Detgiz. That was the era of the amazing heyday of Soviet children’s literature: the publishing house was headed by Samuil Marshak, Daniil Kharms, Nikolai Oleinikov, Evgeny Schwartz, Nikolai Zabolotsky, Mikhail Zoshchenko, Alexander Vvedensky collaborated in «Chizh» and «Hedgehog». They became the «parents» of Clever Masha, and Bronislav Malakhovskiy drew her, taking his daughter as a prototype. This tireless inventor was destined to become the calling card of the Chizh magazine and the heroine of the first domestic comics. In the anniversary edition, which comes out in the year of the 75th anniversary of Detgiz, all the unique materials about Umnaya Masha are collected for the first time under one cover. Comic stories in pictures will appeal even to three-year-olds, and adults will find articles in the book about the creation of the legendary character, about the fate of Chizh and Detgiz. There are also tragic pages in this story (whether to tell children about them — each reader will decide for himself): in 1937 they stop publishing Kharms, then the editorial office of Chizh is closed. Oleinikov, Malakhovsky, Kharms, Vvedensky perish one after another. So the biography of a fictional girl with pigtails became part of the difficult history of our country. The book «Smart Masha» was conceived as an expression of gratitude of today’s employees of «Detgiz» to those who stood at its origins.
Detgiz, 88 p.