On December 6th, Alexander Oleshko came to GUM to personally present his new exhibition. A bright and a little bit nostalgic set-out of New Year toys, postcards, children's photographs, souvenirs and carnival masks "The New Year's collection of Honored Artist Alexander Oleshko" tells about the New Year celebrations in the USSR.
Oleshko told about his hobby, and also sang several New Year's songs for the visitors of GUM together with the young soloists of the Children's Music Theater "Domisolka" in the center of GUM - not at the fountain, but at a huge Christmas tree, of course!
Then, the artist together with assistants from the boarding school arranged a tour around the display, telling about the most valuable exhibits. For example, about the cotton Father Frost of 1952, who is of the same age with Oleshko’s mother. "Whisper your desire to his ear and he will surely make it come true! The toys of those years are very special - each one was created with a soul and painted by hand." – Oleshko says.
You can easily study the Soviet history by looking at Christmas-tree toys on the display. So, front-line Christmas trees were decorated with do-it-yourself toys made of epaulettes, bandages, socks, cones and so on.
In the post-war period, the image of the main characters of the New Year, Father Frost and Snow Maiden was finally formed. Those who could not buy the ones, made them of flour. A series of toys like bears, clowns, acrobats and jugglers dedicated to the popular movie "Circus" was launched after its release. By the way, they were sold at GUM sections and were incredibly popular with the customers.
In the 1960s, the toys in the form of corn cobs, rockets and satellites were produced. It goes without saying that a special series of toys with sports symbols appeared in honor of the Olympics-80.
We look forward to seeing you at "New Year's collection of Honored Artist Alexander Oleshko" at the 3rd line of GUM until January 20th!