Lubok

Cheap and simple books, similar to chapbooks,[1] which mostly consisted of pictures, are called lubok literature (Russian: лубочная литература).

The Russian word lubok derives from lub - a special type of board (secondary phloem) on which pictures were printed.

[2] Russian lubok was primarily influenced by the "woodcuts and engravings done in Germany, Italy, and France during the early part of the 15th century".

[7] The Koren Picture-Bible (1692-1696) established the most prominent style, an "Old Russian" rendering of international iconography and subjects, most closely related to the frescos of the Upper Volga.

[10] While the prints themselves were typically very simplistic and unadorned, the final product, with the tempera paint added, was surprisingly bright with vivid colors and lines.

His system is very detailed and extensive, and his main categories are: "icons and Gospel illustrations; the virtues and evils of women; teaching, alphabets, and numbers; calendars and almanacs; light reading; novels, folktales, and hero legends; stories of the Passion of Christ, the Last Judgement, and sufferings of the martyrs; popular recreation including Maslenitsa festivities, puppet comedies, drunkenness, music, dancing, and theatricals; jokes and satires related to Ivan the Terrible and Peter I; satires adopted from foreign sources; folk prayers; and government sponsored pictorial information sheets, including proclamations and news items".

The lubok was a means of reinforcing the idea of defeating the French invaders and displaying the horrible destruction Napoleon and his army caused Russia.

At the time, "Russia was an established European power with a large industrial base and a regular army of 1.1 million soldiers.

Luboks depicting the overconfidence of the Russian army were created because censorship laws at the time did not allow satirical magazines to subsist.

The Mice Are Burying the Cat , a 1760s lubok print, has been commonly thought to be a caricature of Peter the Great 's burial, authored by his opponents. The caption above the cat reads: "The Cat of Kazan, the Mind of Astrakhan, the Wisdom of Siberia" (a parody of the title of Russian tsars ). Modern researchers have said that this is a representation of carnivalesque inversion, "turning the world upside down".
Koren Picture-Bible (1692–1696) , Creation of Adam , p. 6
The Valiant Knight Yeruslan Rescuing Princess Anastasia , an 18th-century lubok
The Battle of Kulikovo . A large-scale hand-coloured lubok by I.G. Blinov (ink, tempera, gold).
Alexander Apsit (1880-1943): Обманутым братьям (To the deceived brethren). 103 x 68 cm 1918