Panel "Volk Plays Guitar", Facility OSH 25/3

## Description

The decorative wall panel is made on a rectangular wooden board 33 by 23 centimeters in the classical technique of monochrome wood carving, where the surface of the board is initially painted black, and then the cut pattern exposes the light wood structure, forming a contrasting black and white image.

The panel depicts Volk playing an unusually shaped guitar resembling an electric guitar. It could be assumed that the idea was inspired by the image of Volk playing the electric guitar in episode 9 "In the TV Studio", but this theory is most likely incorrect because the panel according to the label was made in April 1976, and the premiere of this episode took place a little later, in September of the same year, so the unusual guitar is most likely a personal fantasy of the author himself, inspired simply by the image of Volk playing an ordinary acoustic guitar from earlier episodes.

According to the preserved label, this panel was made on some "Facility OSH 25/3" (Учреждение ОШ 25/3) in Medvedevo village, MASSR. Usually in USSR, the word "Facility" or "Enterprise" with no type of activity specified denoted labor correctional colonies engaged in the production of certain consumer goods, code names with letters and numbers, as a rule, are also common for such places. Facility OSH 25/3 can be searched on the Internet and provides information about the prison, which is listed as still functioning at the time of writing this article (2023) and its main activity is "Manufacture of wooden building structures and joinery, production of sawn timber, except for profiled , with a thickness of more than 6 mm; production of untreated railway and tram sleepers from wood, production of sawn timber, profiled by edge or by layer; production of wire products; production of wood wool, wood flour; production of technological chips or shavings ", also "colony has two workshops: for woodworking and metalworking. The work is carried out mainly in cooperation with private customers. The main nomenclature is fences, panel doors, products for door and window blocks, reusable packaging. Some types of country furniture are also produced. Output of products using the method of powder metallurgy." So the fact that the enterprise, which was mainly engaged in woodworking, also produced such consumer goods as wooden panels is quite expected.

Label translation:

Facility OSH 25/3

Medvedevo settlement MASSR

"Nu, Pogodi!"

Articul (Vendor Code) S-ISH-194

Grade 1

TU (Technical Specifications) ON-01-74

Price 4 rub. 70 kop.

Manufacturing date IV 1975 (rewritten in pen 1976)

OTK (Technical Control Department or QC, Quality Control)

The stamp is illegible, presumably "Accepted by OTK 23"

Below the label there is a dedicatory signature "The end of the 1st course at the institute July 1976". According to the seller of this panel, it was presented to his father-in-law in his student years during a period of strong passion to "Nu, Pogodi!" cartoon along with two other panels, "Volk Climbs the Rope" and "Volk and Zayac Drinking", produced by the collective farm "Ukraine".

## Trivia

* This panel belongs to the category of prison art
* It is also the only currently known "Nu, Pogodi!" product produced in the Republic of Mari El

## Sources

1. ↑ Information about organization on Checko
2. ↑ Article about Facility OSH 25/3 on Wikimapia