August 5: On the Road to Moscow

On 5 August 1921, the New York World published Rollin Kirby’s (1875-1952) “On the Road to Moscow.” This was the first editorial cartoon to win a Pulitzer Prize. It was one of three Pulitzer Prize’s Kirby would win.

After having established himself as a political cartoonist during World War I, Kirby used his pen to advocate for women’s suffrage, against political cronyism, against the Klu Klux Klan, and support for the New Deal and civil liberties. Some of these cartoons are in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum.

After 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, the United States was hostile to Russian. Kirby’s editorial cartoon showing the Russian people being led to death typified America’s attitude.

The same day the Kirby’s cartoon a page three article in the New York Times, “In Starving Russian Miners Fleeing in Masses From Coal Region to Escape Disease and Famine,” reported that “The Moscow authorities have officially admitted 47,779 cases of cholera throughout Russia and have tacitly admitted that the number is on the increase.” In a front page editorial ironically titled “Socialism’s ‘Triumph,’” the Wall Street Journal editorialized against Russia.

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In 1924, “Little Orphan Annie” made its first appearance in the New York Daily News. In 1974, Tank McNamara debuted in 75 newspapers.

–Steven L. Berg, PhD

Please click on the image to see a larger version of Kirby’s editorial cartoon.

 

2 Responses

  1. wilker32 says:

    World War 1 was the start of The Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. 11 million Russian peasants were sent to fight in World War 1 by Czar Nicholas. The Russian people started to get discouraged by all of the deaths and injures. Before the war was even close to being over the country Russia was already in ruins and people were starting to get sick and tired of how they were getting used in war with nothing in return.
    Russian’s dethroned Czar Nicholas and then the Provisional Government was created to replace Czar Nicholas. The Russian’s thought that now that Czar was gone that things would start to get better. They were wrong. The provisional government promised that Russian’s would no longer be sent to war, but because the provisional government was made up of bankers, capitalists, lawyers and industrialists, it was very weak and needed people that were stronger. The provisional government kept the Russian’s in the war and things continued to get worse and worse for the Russian. Enough was enough! The peasants and workers of Russia were done throwing themselves into the war and for what nothing! The Soviets, councils of workers, the soldiers and peasants asked for land and to make their own decisions, but they were denied.
    It was time for Russia to take things into their own hands. That is when V. I. Lenin came into the picture. He became the leader of the Bolshevik Party and their goal was to overthrow the provisional government and set up a government of the proletariat. The Russian soldiers gave the provisional government one more chance to give them land, but still the provisional government refused to give into their demands. All of the works, soldiers and peasants fought the provisional government, but sadly were defeated and many were put into jail and Lenin went into hiding.
    It seemed like the Bolsheviks had no choice to give up, but then two amazing things happened.First, the Provisional Government ordered a war that completely back fired and a lot of people died and the ones that did not die left the provisional government and joined with the workers. Then, in September a military threatened the city by the Bolsheviks and the Provisional Government. They both united to fight against this military and won.
    In October the Bolshevik parties leader, Lenin, formed an army against the Provisional Government. They moved at night on Nov. 6-7. No longer than once the first gun shot was fired they had beaten the provisional government and declared that they were now in charge by saying: “All power to the soviets!”

    http://www.thenagain.info/webchron/easteurope/octrev.html

    -Shari Wilke

  2. Charles Hill says:

    Tank McNamara is a daily comic strip written by Jeff Millar and illistrated by Bill Hinds. The comic debuted in 75 newspapers in 1974 but is no longer around today. The main character “Tank” is a local sports television reporter who use to be a defensive lineman who played in the NFL, where he was given his nickname. The comic strip focused on current American athletics which also involved gambling addictions, steroids, arrests of professional athletes, and athlete salaries, but it was also easy to comment on other topics such as politics or others. The reasons behind why the comic does not exist anymore is unknown since the Jeff Millar passed away of bile duct cancer at the end of November.

    – Charles Hill

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