The story of the 44 great painters and 4 great sculptors behind the October Revolution

Hello everyone, I am Gen Yuexuan, and I have loved collecting since I was a child.

In 1957, China's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications issued a set of Ji 44 "The 40th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution" commemorative stamps, a full set of 5.

But later, after passing the study, I was still sloppy and underestimated this set of stamps. Although there are only 5 stamps, they were jointly designed by four famous painters, and the engraving of the stamps was also engraved by four famous master carvers. So who are the masters involved in the design of this set of stamps? Today, Gen Yuexuan will take you to understand the story behind this set of tickets.

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On November 7, 1957, in order to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the October Socialist Revolution, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of the People's Republic of China issued a set of commemorative stamps entitled "The 40th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution (hereinafter referred to as the "October 44th Revolution").

The first stamps depict the Tiananmen Tower and Huabiao, the Kremlin's Ivan Bell Tower, the second depicts the emblem of the earth and the Communist Party, the third depicts the dove of peace and olive leaves, the fourth depicts a book with portraits of Marx and Lenin on the cover, and the fifth depicts the tower of a high-voltage power line.

Ki 44 October Revolution (5-1) "Celebration of the Great Festival" (155).

The stamps are painted in bright red, and the pattern is an oval arch characteristic of Chinese national architecture, depicting the majestic Tiananmen Tower and Huabiao, the majestic Ivan Bell Tower of the Kremlin and the radiant five-pointed red star.

On the picture, these two great buildings that mark China and the Soviet Union shoot dazzling pillars of light, piercing through the night sky and intertwining; In the ** of Tiananmen Square and the Kremlin, at the intersection of the searchlight columns, colorful festive flowers like thousands of flowers were raised, and the night was completely driven away! Although no figures appear on this picture, it is not difficult to imagine the enthusiastic scene of jubilant singing and dancing of the Chinese and Soviet people and the working people of the whole world during the festival celebrating the 40 th anniversary of the great October Socialist Revolution.

Ki 44 October Revolution (5-2) "The World Significance of the October Revolution" (156).

The stamp, painted in brown color, depicts a moving globe in an oval arch characteristic of Chinese national architecture, above which hangs the emblem of the Communist Party, a crossed hammer and sickle, and in front of the globe are iron chains that are breaking one by one.

On the picture, in the vast universe, the emblem of the Communist Party radiates ten thousand golden rays of light, shining on the whole earth, and the iron chains on the slaves have been broken, symbolizing the blazing light of the October Socialist Revolution, guiding the proletariat all over the world to fight for its own liberation, and eventually to socialism and communism.

Ki 44 October Revolution (5-3) "In Defense of World Peace" (157).

The stamp is painted in emerald green and depicts a dove of peace soaring with its wings and a thriving olive leaf in an oval arch characteristic of Chinese national architecture.

On the picture, the dove of peace and the olive leaf symbolize the powerful power of the socialist camp and will vigorously safeguard the cause of peace for mankind. The picture is serene and tranquil, the tone of the brush is vigorous and upright, especially the skillful use of continuous and soft curves, and the strong feeling of force contains the good wishes and firm confidence of human beings for a peaceful and happy life.

Ji 44 (5-4), "In Defense of Marxism-Leninism" (158).

The stamp is painted reddish-brown and depicts three yellow, black and white arms of different skin tones in an oval arch characteristic of Chinese national architecture, holding a thick book with portraits of Marx and Lenin on the cover.

The picture uses symbolic techniques to imply that Marxism-Leninism has been widely spread throughout the world with the sound of the October Socialist Revolution, and that the working people and oppressed nations of all countries in the world have fought against all kinds of opportunism in order to fight for true liberation, and have bravely and firmly defended this universal truth that can be applied everywhere.

Ki 44, October Revolution (5-5), "The Vision of Communism" (159).

The stamp, painted in blue, features a radiant five-pointed red star and a towering tower of a high-voltage power line in a background of mechanically cultivated fields, power stations, and steel mills in an elliptical arch characteristic of Chinese national architecture.

On the picture, the image of the giant-like steel frame structure of the power transmission line tower fills the whole picture with a sense of strength and invincibility, praising the brilliant achievements of the construction cause since the establishment of the Soviet power, and showing a magnificent communist vision.

On November 7, 1917 (October 25 in the Russian calendar),* the masses of workers, peasants and soldiers, under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party and Lenin and Stalin, carried out the socialist revolution, overthrew Kerensky Temporary**, established Soviet power, and gave rise to the world's first socialist state. This was the Great October Revolution.

The October Revolution ushered in a new era in the history of human society in the establishment of socialism. The Soviet people, in order to commemorate the glorious day of November 7 (October 25 in the Russian calendar), designated it as the anniversary of the October Revolution. Every year on November 7, the Soviet Union holds a military parade and a mass parade on Moscow's Red Square, and the Soviet leader ascends to the rostrum on Lenin's tomb to celebrate the holiday with the masses.

Many philatelists may not know that this set of 44 October Revolution stamps is a set of 5 stamps, especially the first of which is derived from a painting and is not designed by a single painter, but by four master painters.

They are: famous painters Zhang Ding, Zhang Guangyu, Zhong Ling, Qiu Ling, engraving printing of China Modern Printing Company.

Each of the five motifs depicts a city gate hole, which means that the October Revolution is seen from a Chinese perspective. That is, it is inevitable that China will take the road of the October Revolution, but it is by no means a rigid copy, but it must integrate the theoretical principles of the October Revolution with the reality of Chinese society and blaze a trail of hope and brightness of its own.

The central picture is uniformly designed in the oval arch with the characteristics of Chinese national architecture, the inscription is unified at the bottom of the pattern, the face value is placed in the upper left corner, the ticket name is placed above the arch hole, and the words "1917" and "1957" are placed on both sides of the upper end of the arch hole respectively, which not only forms a unified beauty and symmetrical beauty, but also appears novel and unique, harmonious and natural.

At that time, in order to achieve good political results, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications decided that the Artists Association would invite artists to design the stamp designs, and the designs were also changed from the original plan to issue one design and two denominations to five designs and five denominations. The Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee approved on February 23.

In order to design this set of stamps, the Artists Association set up a design team, and invited artists Zhang Ding, Zhang Guangyu, Zhong Ling, and Qiu Ling as team members to participate in the design of this set of stamps, and Zhong Ling was the convener of the group. From the perspective of the participants, it can be said that they were all artists at that time, which shows the importance that the Artists Association attached to the issuance of this set of stamps at that time.

Zhang Ding. Zhang Guangyu.

Zhong Ling. Hilly.

Stamp designers in the design of this set of stamps, first focus on solving the problem of multi-person design, style unity, they first determined that the pattern of each stamp is placed in the unified trim, so that the not so uniform of the picture has a sense of coordination. Another question is how to use the form of Chinese characteristics to express the content of the international theme, and finally choose the dome decoration with the Chinese national form to express it, indicating that this set of stamps is "commemorating the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution from a Chinese perspective".

In addition, in addition to the designer by the master, the engravers of this set of stamps are also masters, among them (155) is Ju Wenjun, (156) (159) is Song Guangzeng, (157) (158) is Gao Zhenyu, and the border part of all stamps is by the master engraver Kong Shaohui.

Ju Wenjun. Ju Wenjun can be called a generation of carving masters. With more than 50 years of engraving career, he has created countless artistic lives on the cold steel plate, making the steel engraving art show its glory in China. The third set of his engravings of the RMB One Yuan Coupon "Grazing in the Tianshan Mountains", the Second Yuan Coupon "Oil Mine", the Wu Yuan Coupon "Open-pit Mining" and the "Tiananmen" Round Coupon are the most famous and the engraving design of the October Revolution stamp number 155 of the 44th October.

Song Guangzeng, who is also an older generation of carving artists in China, has participated in the third set of engraving designs such as the front of the RMB 5 jiao coupon and the stamps numbered by the October Revolution of the 44th October.

Gao Zhenyu, China's master of hand-intaglio engraving, the first generation of intaglio engravers in New China, Mr. Gao Zhenyu has been engaged in Chinese intaglio engraving all his life, in his nearly 60 years of creative time, carved a large number of works for Chinese banknotes and stamps, many of which are insurmountable peak works, Ji 44 October Revolution stamps numbered stamps in the engraving part of the stamps from Gao Zhenyu's hand.

Judging from the preserved stamp archives, the third picture is the one that has been discussed and modified more among the five designs. In the description of the design of the saved stamps, the design intent of the design is expressed as follows:

The meaning of the design is that the socialist camp is a powerful guarantee for world peace, the unity of the socialist camp centered on the Soviet Union is increasingly consolidated, the olive branch symbolizes peace, the twelve socialist countries are born on one root, and the dove of peace is spreading its wings and flying.

Namely: the Soviet first.

1. China second, and other countries in order of Russian alphabet: Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Vietnam, German Democratic Republic, North Korea, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, and Czechoslovakia.

Although Yugoslavia was also a socialist country at that time, due to the differences between Yugoslavia and the former Soviet Union in many aspects and the delicate relationship between them, it was difficult for the designer to grasp whether Yugoslavia should be included in the socialist camp, and therefore it was impossible to confirm whether the olive branch was 12 or 13 leaves, which is why in the lower right corner of the original stamp, there is a piece of olive leaf drawn in pencil.

……Because this problem has gone beyond the scope of stamp art, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications on June 4 will be this set of stamps all submitted to the ** Propaganda Department for approval. On June 21, the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee replied to the letter, clearly approving the ...... of the revision of the third map

……As for the third picture, it is enough to show that socialism symbolizes peace, and that the socialist countries (represented by olive leaves) are a powerful guarantee of the forces of world peace, and it was decided to remove the national flag pattern of olive leaves led by the Soviet Union, and olive leaves can be painted in 13 ......

Although the third picture of the official issue of the Ji 44 stamp design, the third picture is only an olive branch with 13 leaves, but through the introduction of the design artwork modification process in this article, readers can understand that the story that occurred in the process of the birth of stamps reflects the founding of the People's Republic of China, how the predecessors who participated in the stamp issuance work closely followed the pulse of the times, conscientiously fulfilled their responsibilities, and strived to use a small stamp to show the image of New China, convey and publicize the country's policies and guidelines; You can also feel how much the stamps carried a historical responsibility at that time. Stamps are indeed both the calling card of the country and the true record of the course of history.

It is unbelievable that this set of stamps issued in 1957 Ji 44 October Revolution was circulated in the market for nearly 21 years on October 6, 1978, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of the People's Republic of China relied on a paper document - "Notice on the issue of stamps issued since the founding of the People's Republic of China", and the stamps that were suspended and stopped to be used were re-examined.

Among them, stamps such as the October Revolution of the 44th were suspended**, and were counted by the provincial, municipal, and autonomous region bureaus, and then sealed in a centralized manner. As for the specific reason for the discontinuation of the sale, Gen Yuexuan is still not clear, if you have friends who understand the specific reasons in this regard, please leave a message in the comment area, Gen Yuexuan thank you in advance.

This set of Ji 44 October Revolution, jointly designed by the famous painter Zhang Ding, Zhang Guangyu, Zhong Ling, Qiu Ling, and the famous sculptor Ju Wenjun, Song Guangzeng, and Gao Zhenyu jointly carved the Ji 44 October Revolution stamps, which should be a set of stamps that Gen Yuexuan has found so far to participate in the design and creation of the most artists, and the painters and sculptors add up to a total of 7.

Moreover, the creation process of the third stamp in this set has also gone through several twists and turns, and there are many episodes. Twenty-one years after the stamps were issued, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications inexplicably sealed a piece of paper and stopped selling them. Therefore, this set of 44 October Revolution is a set of stamps shrouded in a layer of mystery all over the body, and at the same time, it has also achieved a classic work of a generation of masters, and it has been passed down as a good story.

All right! Today, "Gen Yue Xuan" will share it with you here, thank you very much for your patience to read this article.

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