Draft:Albert Mailiantz

• Comment: Vague and superficial analysis such as The article identified Mailiantz as a member of the Union of Journalists of the USSR and noted that the exhibition had been organised by the Tashkent organisation of the Union of Journalists of the USSR is characteristic of LLM usage; ideally you should remove all prose from the draft and start over from a blank slate without LLMs. Helpful Raccoon (talk) 02:52, 20 June 2026 (UTC)

• Comment: In accordance with Wikipedia's Conflict of interest guideline, I disclose that I have a conflict of interest regarding the subject of this article. VMailiantz (talk) 14:54, 28 April 2026 (UTC)

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Albert Nikolayevich Mailiantz (Russian: Альберт Николаевич Маилянц; born 1923) was a Soviet graphic artist, political caricaturist, journalist, and a veteran of World War II. As a member of the Union of Journalists of the USSR, he is primarily known for his anti-fascist political cartoons produced during the Great Patriotic War. His post-war career included work as an editorial correspondent and satirical illustrator across the Turkmen and Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republics, where his work appeared in Central Asian periodicals such as Komsomolets Uzbekistana, Leninsky Put, and the journals Sotsialistichesky Uzbekistan and Uzbekistan.

Early life and military service

Mailiantz was raised in Ashgabat in the Turkmen SSR, where he attended Ashgabat Secondary School No. 5. In 1941, while in the tenth grade, he created his first political caricature in response to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union and its propaganda.

In February 1942, prior to completing his secondary education, Mailiantz joined the Red Army as a Komsomol member. He was sent for training at the Kharkiv infantry School, which had been evacuated to Namangan in the Uzbek SSR. Following his training and unit formation in the forests near Tambov, he was deployed to the front lines as machine gunner. Holding the rank of Junior Sergeant, Mailiantz was wounded in action near Voronezh in 1942. After receiving treatment at a military hospital, he was medically discharged from active duty as a disabled war veteran and returned to Ashgabat in late 1942..

Wartime satire (1941–1945)

Following his return to Ashgabat, Mailiantz was employed as a draftsman in the Design Bureau of the Ashgabat Railway (Russian: Проектная Контора Ашхабадской железной дороги). During this period, he monitored late-night radio bulletins from Soviet Sovinformburo and produced editorial cartoons addressing the lates military developments.

His political drawings were published in the republican daily newspaper Turkmenskaya Iskra and exhibited in outdoor street showcases, including the display windows of the Ashgabat House of Political Education. In 1943, a Komsomol wall newspaper edited and illustrated by Mailiantz was awarded second place in an All-Union competition.

Beginning in October 1944, Mailiantz collaborated with teh Ashgabat poet Viktor Pavlovich Permyakov, the executive secretary of the railway newspaper Na Relsakh (На Рельсах). Permyakov composed poetic texts and satirical verses to accompany Mailiantz's cartoons. Together, they created thematic sycles such as Almost After Krylov (Почти по Крылову), which adopted fables of Ivan Krylov into satires targeting Nazi leadership. Mailiantz also collaborated with the poet G. Veselkov on an illustrated feature published in Turkmenskaya Iskra in 1945, titled "What 1944 Was Remembered for by Hitler & Co."

On May 5, 1945, four days before the end of the war in Europe, Mailiantz's first exhibition, With Bayonet and Drawing (Штыком и Рисунком), opened at the Ashgabat Railway Administration. It featured over twenty drawings, fable adaptations, and posters in the style of TASS Windows (Окна ТАСС).

Later career

By 1945, Mailiantz was serving on the editorial staff of Na Relsakh. He subsequently became a department head for the newspaper Komsomolets Turkmenistana (Комсомолец Туркменистана).

In the late 1940s, Mailiantz relocated to the Uzbek SSR, residing in Tashkent for approximately twenty-five years. Throughout his career in Uzbekistan, he worked as a literary contributor for publications including Komsomolets Uzbekistana, the journal Uzbekistan, and the Samarkand regional newspaper Leinskiy Put (Ленинский Путь). As a traveling correspondent, he toured construction and agricultural sites across the republic, documenting the work of construction crews in the Karshi Steppe and sketching in the foothills of Samarkand. In addition to his regional reportage, he produced political caricatures on international affairs, as well as domestic satires targeting bureaucrats, idlers, and bribery.

Public outreach and exhibitions

As a member of the Union of Journalists of the Soviet Union, Mailiantz engaged in public education and outreach. Acting as a lectured for the All-Union Znanie (Knowledge) Society, he delivered public presentations on the art of Soviet caricature to cotton-growers in Fergana and Namangan, as well as to workers and students in Samarkand. He also organize mobile exhibitions of his wartime graphic works, which toured educational institutions, factories, and collective farms.

In May 1975, to mark the 30th anniversary of Victory Day, the Tashkent branch of the Union of Journalists mounted an exhibition of his work at the Tashkent District Officer's House (Окружной Дом Офицеров). Titled Political Caricature of the War Years, the exhibition comprised more than fifty wartime drawings organized into three thematic sections:

• With Bayonet and Drawing (Штыком и Рисунком)
• Illustrated Quotations (Иллюстрированные цитаты)
• Amost After Krylov (Почти по Крылову)

Mailiantz presented exhibition as a gift to the personnel of the Red Banner Turkestan Military District.

Notable works and series

• Russian Blizzard (Русская метелица): Depicting Hitler fleeing in the retreat from Moscow.
• Aunt Franco's Cabin (Хижина тети Франко): Satirizing Spanish neutrality and Nazi fugitives.
• At a Dead End (В туПИКОВОм положении): Showing Nazi leadership on a train car rolling toward an abyss.
• Almost After Krylov (Почти по Крылову): A multi-part series of fable-inspired caricatures with poetry.
• What 1944 Was Remembered for by Hitler & Co, (Чем был памятен 1944 год для Гитлера и компании): A chronological series illustrated for Turkmenskaya Iskra.