Leonid Vladimirsky

Leonid Vladimirsky was a Russian illustrator who worked on fairy tales, including books by Alexander Pushkin, Aleksey Tolstoy, and Alexander Volkov, as well as some folk tales.
Vladimirsky graduated from Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography but decided to work as a book illustrator. He found it easiest to create evil characters, which are easily derived from the everyday life.
Books illustrated by Vladimirsky sold over 20 million copies. His illustrations to Tolstoy and Volkov were so popular in the Soviet Union that they were commonly reproduced on common goods including bottles of soft drinks and postcards.