Olympic bear

In 1977, the organizing committee of the Olympics announced a competition for the best image of a bear. The sketch was won by Victor Chizhikov , a 42-year-old artist famous for his illustrations to children's books.

Later Chizhikov recalled that he and his friends got together in the workshop and made about a hundred pencil sketches of a bear there. Among the 60 sketches, previously selected by the organizing committee, was one of Victor's sketches; he was asked to complete the image in color. By April 1, a color image of a smiling teddy bear was submitted to the committee, but the most important detail was missing - Olympic symbols. Only in August, the artist saw in a dream a decision: to surround the teddy bear with blue-black-yellow-green-red (the colors of the Olympic rings ) with a belt with a buckle in the form of these rings of golden color; then he made changes to the figure ^[2] .

At an exhibition of Olympic mascot projects held a little later, the president of the International Olympic Committee, Lord Killanin, spoke in favor of the Chizhikov project. And at the end of September, they called Chizhikov and said: “Viktor Alexandrovich! Congratulations - your bear passed the Party Central Committee! ”(Meaning the approval of the project in the Central Committee of the CPSU ) ^[2] .

Finally, on December 19, 1977, the Bear was approved as the official mascot of the XXII Olympiad ^[1] .

The image of the mascot of the XXII Olympiad was widely used during the preparation and conduct of the Olympic Games. He appeared on pennants and posters, postage stamps, envelopes and postcards, badges and souvenirs, as well as on the pages of printed publications ^[3] .

Lines about the “affectionate Misha” were also included in the text of the song “Goodbye, Moscow” - the farewell song of the Moscow Olympics, which was ordered by the composer A. N. Pakhmutova and poet N. N. Dobronravov, the chief director of the opening and closing ceremonies of the XXII Olympic Games I. M Tumanov and the chief conductor of these ceremonies O. A. Dimitriadi ^[4] .

On August 3, 1980, during the closing ceremony of the XXII Olympiad Games, which was held at the V.I. Lenin Central Stadium , an artistic background screen was placed on the East stand of the stadium (the screen was created by 4.5 thousand soldiers holding color shields and on command replaced them, creating more and more colorful mosaic paintings ^[5] ). After the Olympic flame went out, the image of the Olympic Bear appeared on the screen; the inscription “Bon voyage!” appeared, and a tear rolled from the bear’s eye ^[6] .

For the Olympic Games, an 8-meter rubber mascot doll, the Olympic Bear balloon, was created. Initially, the doll was planned to be made in Moscow, at the Research Institute of the Rubber Industry , but because of its large size, work on it was transferred to the Zagorsk branch of the institute located in Zagorsk (now Sergiev Posad). The work was led by G. Zakharyev and Navrotsky D.B. ^{[7] The} balloon was made of special rubberized fabric and filled with helium ; inflatable paws of a bear were attached to the body with the help of hinges . With the aerodynamics of the mascot doll, at first there were big problems: it had to take off vertically, but the bear flew either on its side or on its back, and sometimes even turned over in the air. The desired result was obtained after weighed down our legs and tied a string of balloons to our paws ^[8] .

During the closing ceremony of the Olympics-80, a rubber mascot doll for the song “Goodbye Moscow” performed by Lev Leshchenko and Tatyana Antsiferova rose above the stadium in 24 colorful balloons and, waving the audience goodbye with their paws, slowly sailed away into the night Moscow sky. The sight was so touching that both the audience and the participants in the Olympics could not help crying. A few hours later, a mascot doll was found on the Sparrow Hills and taken to a warehouse ^{[1] [8]} .

Already in the fall of 1980, a West German company turned to the Soviet government with a proposal to buy a rubber Misha for 100 thousand German marks. The company was denied. For some time, Mishka was exhibited in the pavilion “Young Technician” of VDNH , and then was kept in the basement of the Olympic Committee, where he was soon eaten by rats. ^[9] .

In order to popularize the Olympics with Soviet animators, in addition to films on Olympic themes (see the article about it ), films with the participation or mention of Mishka, such as “ Big Relay ”, “ Where is the teddy bear? "," Who will receive the prize "," Salute, the Olympics! "(All 1979)," First Autograph "(1980), 3 series" Baba Yaga Against! "Studio" Soyuzmultfilm "," Olympic Character "(1979)," Metamorphosis "and" Knockout "(1980) TO" Screen ". He can be found in “Troy iz Prostokvashino” (1978), where Uncle Fedor reads the Murzilka magazine with the image of Mishka on the cover. In the 13th issue of “ Well, wait a minute! "(1980) Olympic Bear presents a prize to a wolf and a hare - a cake decorated with a chocolate wolf and a hare ^[3] .

In addition, in 1979-1980, Nippon Animation shot 26 episodes of the anime “ Koguma no Misha ”.

• 1980 Summer Olympics
• Vigri
• Russian bear
• Olympic symbols
• Olympic Bears Catalog

• "Olympics-80" - the author’s project of Alexei Charykov
• 5 thousand exhibits - collection of Olympic Misha
• On the trail of the Olympic Bear - television projects of Channel One
• Goodbye, Moscow! Closing Olympics 80 on YouTube