In 1863 a poster advertising funny Christmas postcards was printed. Those postcards were the first humorous cards, en masse they began to be published late in the XIXth century. The artists quickly appreciated the possibilities of this new kind of postal communication and very soon thousands of humorous postcards appeared. E. Sokolov and F. Blagonravov illustrated Russian folk songs; M. Tshheglov created caricatures of people; I. Kadulin, an Ukrainian artist, drew caricatures of students and political partiesТ leaders, Gulak portrayed colourful Ukrainians.

Humorous magazines printed postcards with the caricatures of people of art: A. Suvorin, V. Stasov,, M. Gorki, I. Repin,etc. A series by D. Moor was devoted to the actors in the costumes that were worn during the war of 1812. Postcards-caricatures by V. Karrik were of great success with collectors. His characters were famous people. The postcard "Our Favourites" depicted the gigantic hand of F. Shalyapin with L. Sobinov, a Lilliputian, on it. The loved characters are often laughed at. A great number of postcards with the characters of humorous magazines Ц ramblers, adulterers, athletes, mods, unsuccessful fishers and hunters Ц were published. Postcards tried to fight with social unequalness, alcoholism. In 1915 "A Drunk Series" was issued. Its characters were a drunkard looking like a spirit-lamp ("Methhylated Spirit"), fighting alcoholics ("An Astronomer and a Physicist"), a soused homeless man, and others. In 1911, Grzhebin, the owner of "Shipovnik" ("Wild Rose") publishing house, issued postcards with thew caricatures from "Simplitsissimus", but this series failed.

During stormy months of the First Russian Revolution (1905-1907) the subjects from satiric magazines "Piramida" and "World Freedom" were reproduced on the postcards. These postcards were published by the groups of revolutionaries and liberal publishers, then they distributed them either like leaflets or by post. The postcards with M. Chemodanov's drawings were popular, as well as photographs by E. Orlovski. At the beginning of the XXth century Easter postcards were loved; Easter eggs appeared like actors in humorous sketches (eggs-carriages, an egg Ц a head, etc). In 1910 an unusual postcard devoted to GalleyТs comet was published in Moscow. It was a funny parody on newspaper information about the panic in Spain, Austria, and Persia where people waited for Doomsday and sold out their belongings, drank, and confessed.

Patriotic satiric postcards were printed during the First World War. V. Mayakovski drew a lubok caricature and wrote a funny poem about brave cossacks. (1915). On the eve of 1914 a postcard with white elephants forming 1914 figures against black background was issued. Was not it sad "black humour"?

Postcards-advertisements were also popular. A. Apsit created some series of funny pictures advertising French shoe polish. In the postcard advertising Plsen beer, one could see a merry fat man on the airplane made of a beer barrel.