Suvenirnye Karty Odesskie
Pack printed by “Moryak” in Odessa illustrated by artist Yu. Litvinenko.
This is a 36 card pack with the text on the box written in Russian rather than Ukrainian. The pack was printed by “Moryak” in Odessa, the author was R. Leiderman and the artist Yu. Litvinenko. Each of the court cards are named: the knaves are R. Kartsev, V. Il’chenko’ Z. Gerdt, and Ia Levinzon. The queens are: L. Dolina, G. Pol’skikh, A. Romaiskaia and L. Litovko. The kings are: S. Livshin, M. Vodianoi, S. Govorukhin, and S. Pelishenko. Unfortunately I have only been able to identify two of the above individuals: Roman Andreyevich Kartsev was a Russian entertainer of stage, theatre and cinema. He was Honoured Artist of the RSFSR, People's Artist of the Russian Federation. He was an actor in the Moscow Theater of Miniatures under the leadership of Mikhail Zhvanetsky. For several decades he performed in a duet with Viktor Ilchenko.
Victor Leonidovich Ilchenko was born in Borisoglebsk on January 2, 1937. From 1963, he worked at Arkady Raikin's Leningrad Theatre of Miniatures, where Roman Kartsev and Mikhail Zhvanetsky also worked. Within the framework of the theatre, Ilchenko and Kartsev had their own concert program. In 1969, Ilchenko and Kartsev left to create their own Odessa Theater of Miniatures, which released three programs: "How to get to Deribasovskaia", "Met and scattered" and "Sincerely yours". Viktor Ilchenko died of stomach cancer on January 21, 1992, at the age of 56 and was buried in Moscow.


Above: Pack printed by “Moryak” in Odessa illustrated by artist Yu. Litvinenko, 1992. 36 cards in box.

By Peter Burnett
Member since July 27, 2022
View ArticlesAn avid playing card collector since the early 1970s. While the bulk of my collection originates from the UK, Western Europe and the USA, I have always had a “soft spot” for Russian packs - in part because I studied Russian at both school and University in the 1960s, and also because it was in Moscow in 1968 that I stumbled upon my first 3 packs which fired my curiosity and thence my life-long interest.