Lev Samoilov-Babin was a Soviet painter, poster artist, cartoonist, and illustrator known for genre paintings on Soviet life and revolutionary history, as well as political satire and posters.

Born in 1918 in Poltava, his family moved to Kharkov during the Russian Civil War. He studied at the Kharkov Art School, where his teachers included Kobrin and Porai-Koshits, before continuing his education at the Ilya Repin Leningrad Institute of Art. His studies were interrupted by the Second World War, during which he served in the Baltic Fleet and developed his skills as an illustrator. His wartime cartoons were regularly published in Soviet newspapers. He was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd Class, the Order of the Red Star, and medals including “For Military Merit” and “For the Defence of Leningrad.”

After the war, Samoilov-Babin worked in political satire for a range of Moscow publications. He contributed to Crocodile, where he worked for around 30 years, as well as Ogonyok, Smena, and Nedelya, and collaborated with the newspapers Pravda and Izvestia. His work included political posters, caricatures, illustrations, and paintings. He was repeatedly awarded diplomas by the Ministry of Culture of the USSR.

Samoilov-Babin became a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR in 1948 and participated in Republican, All-Union, and international exhibitions. Solo exhibitions were held in Kronstadt in 1939, Leningrad in 1942 and 1971, Moscow in 1972 and 1981, and Ivanovo in 1985.

Samoilov-Babin died in Moscow in 1988. His paintings and graphic works are held in museums across the former USSR and in private collections in Russia, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Portugal.

Lev Samoilovich Samoilov-Babin