The story revolves around a photo, taken by journalist Viktor Akhlomov for the ‘Izvestiya’ newspaper. In 1965, heading out on a regular assignment, Akhlomov happened to see a man pushing a stroller, holding an infant in the other hand. The photographer could hardly resist the charming scene, deciding to take the photo and go about his business.
What happened next was totally unexpected.
“When I brought the photo to the editors, everyone smiled and got busy coming up with a humorous caption,” Akhlomov remembered. The brainstorming was cut short by the humor column editor, who suggested the newspaper go the unexpected route of proposing the readers to come up with a fitting caption, instead – which would become the first time in Soviet history something like this would be attempted. And so, a new column in Soviet journalism was born: ‘Make Your Own Caption’.
The story didn’t end there, however.
The publication of the photo led to a furore. What’s more, it crossed international borders. Akhlomov’s snap ended up in the UK’s ‘The Sunday Times’, which took on the fun challenge of competing with the Russians for the funnier caption. Almost half of Europe would subsequently join in!
Akhlomov revealed how ‘Izvestiya’ began getting letters from fans the world over, along with captions for the legendary photo. A reader from the UK sent in the caption: “I bought them at the store.” Another, from Czechoslovakia, wrote: “I don’t give a damn about Malthus!” (For context, Thomas Malthus was a 19th century demographer who believed that uncontrolled population growth would lead to global famine and death of humanity. He issued calls for people to produce less children in order to prevent societal decline). It ended up being the winning caption.
Viktor Akhlamov
Ilya Pitalev/SputnikBy the way, the best caption, according to Soviet readers, was: “I’d go to the ends of the Earth with a husband like that!”
The photo’s unexpected popularity had everyone at ‘Izvestiya’ questioning the identity of the man in it. They decided it was important to find the accidental celebrity and tell him of his fame. Akhlomov believed the man was obviously a Muscovite (who else would be walking around with two children and a stroller?). However, that didn’t exactly narrow down the search: Even back then, Moscow was a huge city, with probably hundreds of thousands of fathers who had two kids. Soon, however, millions of postcards depicting the scene would be issued, containing five of the best captions – and the hero in the photo would soon be found, as well. However, Akhlomov was way off with his estimation of the man’s origin, as he turned out to be from Khabarovsk Region, which is closer to Japan than Moscow is to St. Petersburg!
The editors received a letter, clarifying that the man in the picture was one Boris Emmanuilovich Zaltsman, who was, indeed, from Moscow, but was only visiting briefly, as his actual place of residence was the aforementioned region in Russia’s Far East, where he was stationed as a geologist researcher. Viktor Akhlomov managed to capture the happy father while he was on vacation to see his parents with his wife and children.
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