Caricaturist, aviator (1895-1941). Sergejs Civinskis was born on June 22, 1895 in Dvinsk (Daugavpils) in the Polish origin family of an army officer. He got a respectable military education after the completion of the Pskov Cadet Corps, Alexander Military Law Academy (1914), Gatchinsky Aviation School (1916) and Odessa Aerobatic School (1917). He made many fighting flights and, as it is known, escaped from the Soviet Russia with an airplane. He did actively sports, was a wrestler, motorist.
S. Civinskis was a self-taught artist. His first caricatures he began to publish in press in Moscow already in 1915. After return to Latvia he lived in Riga and cooperated with both Latvian and Russian press publications. His attention was paid to a political stage, current international and local events, political personalities. The longest time in Latvia (1929-1934) S. Civinskis worked in the newspaper “Today” (“Сегодня”) and “The Latvian Protect” (“Latvijas Sargā”), “The Last Moment” (“Pēdējā Brīdī”) and countless humorously satirical publications – “Bitter Drapes” (“Rūgtās Drapes”), “The owl’s mirror” (“Pūcesspieģelis”), “The Bat” (“Sikspārnis”), “The Scales” (“Svari”) etc. Having published more than 7500 caricatures, he used the pseudonyms: Aviator, Zero, Civis.
In 1923 in Riga his first exhibition was organized, in 1927 – another one, in 1931 – next one. “But drawing of politicians’ faces and their figures for Civis it is more favourite sport than flying and racing, to which he was passionate about,” says the preface to the album “The High hundred” (“Augstais simts”) (1929), in which the artist’s view critically evaluated each of one hundred deputies of the Saeima of Latvian. In 1931 the caricature book about the Soviet Union was published, in 1933 the edition “The Heroes of Our Time” (“Mūslaiku varoņi”) has come out, where the peak of satire was directed against the USSR and German “friendly” relations.
After May 15, 1934 a political caricature in press was sharply limited. Searching for a job Sergejs Civinskis went to America, where he tried to use his talent in the field of commercial, getting also some more serious offers. He tries his hand at a number of publications, gets acquainted with the creation of animated films, decorates restaurant rooms, creates the decorations for the ballet troupe’s grand open-air performances of Mikhail Fokine after drafts of Leons Baksts. In August 1935 – after more than ten months’ absence – Civis returns to Latvia and at the end of the 30s works in the magazine “For You” (“Для Вас”) – he draws caricatures and writes sport reports.
As a former officer of the Imperial army in October 1940, Sergejs Civinskis was arrested, he was accused of espionage and on July 30, 1941 was killed in the Lubyanka prison in Moscow.
Connection with Daugavpils:
He was born in Daugavpils.