This substrate is one of my favorites: a Soviet military artifact in the form of a preprinted 1980s wall-newspaper “Combat Sheet” used aboard Soviet Navy ships, produced by Voenizdat, the Soviet Armed Forces' own publishing house. It explicitly states in Cyrillic, “DO NOT TAKE OUT OF THE MILITARY UNIT.” These sheets, filled out by hand at the unit level, were the shipboard equivalent of a bulletin board - part morale-booster, part public callout for slacking or bad behavior among the crew. They typically featured brief reports on military exercises, political education notes, commendations for standout soldiers, critiques of lax discipline, and satirical cartoons or caricatures (known as satirical combat sheets) targeting common faults like sloppiness or laziness.
This one was unused, so I filled in the blanks myself: a date, an issue number, a painted black-headed gull, and a signature. In my other black-headed gull paintings, the gulls are actively shooting lasers or flying. In this piece, the gull is loafing.
The issue number and date I chose relate to Mathias Rust’s infamous, unauthorized flight from Helsinki to Moscow. This West German teenager coincidentally chose Border Guards Day (May 28th) for his escapade, which added to the overall confusion. Air defence units tracked his plane for some of the time, but failed to obtain permission to shoot at him. He successfully landed on Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge adjacent to Red Square, and was arrested two hours later.
Rust's flight severely damaged the Soviet military's reputation. The incident inspired dark humor among Muscovites who nicknamed Red Square "Sheremetyevo-3" (Terminal 3, joining the international airport’s Terminals 1 & 2). Rust's Cessna is now preserved on display at the German Museum of Technology in Berlin, and a monument stands at Saka Manor Park in Estonia. (Source: Wikipedia.)
This is Loafing, acrylic and ink on Soviet combat sheet from the 1980s, 17.5x11.2”, 2026.
Shelby Prindaville's painting of a loafing gull on a Soviet combat sheet from the 1980s.