Leonid Vladimirsky (21 September 1920 in Moscow, Russia - 18 April 2015[1]) was a Russian illustrator who worked on fairy tales, including books by Alexander Pushkin (Ruslan and Ludmila),[2] Aleksey Tolstoy (Golden Key, 1953),[2] and Alexander Volkov,[2][3] as well as some folk tales.[4]
Vladimirsky graduated from Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography but decided to work as a book illustrator.[2] He found it easiest to create evil characters, which are easily derived from the everyday life.[4]
Books illustrated by Vladimirsky sold over 20 million copies.[3] 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.[2]