«The real face of the reaction». Augusto Pinochet’s image in Crocodil magazine (1973—1990)

Abstract

The article analyzes the formation of the image of A. Pinochet on the pages of the leading satirical publication of the USSR — the Crocodil magazine. The mass nature of the materials testifies to the nature of the campaign for the purposeful formation of Pinochet's image. At the first stage (1973 – December 1974), Pinochet appears in the sources only as one of the leaders of the junta, his leadership is not emphasized in it. Only since the end of 1974 we can talk about the formation of the propaganda image of A. Pinochet as a textbook bloody dictator. His image becomes the personification of the Chilean junta. In numerous cartoons that appeared in late 1974 — mid-1985, his internal (terror against civilians, persecution of leftist forces, neoliberal economic reforms) and external (turning the country into a raw material appendage of the United States, flirting with reactionary regimes in the "third world" countries) policies are criticized. Since the mid-1980s. The number of Crocodil materials devoted to Chile is sharply reduced, mainly reprinted drawings by foreign artists, in which the assessment of his regime as dying comes to the fore. The campaign materials are evidence of the crisis of the Soviet political caricature, which led to its disappearance as an element of Russian political culture.