Product Description
President Yeltsin Mini Matryoshka. The new Russian president entered history as a reformer, so he is shown here with a white, blue and red (tri-color) Russian flag embedded in the word "Россия" (Russia), and a painting of the Russian White House (officially the House of the Government of the Russian Federation). During the failed August 1991 coup attempt, the building became a center of resistance. In 1993's constitutional crisis, it was badly damaged, but was subsequently repaired. Overall the set of leaders are treated respectfully, and the faces are of above average quality. Mikhail Gorbachev, now a civilian, is in a bright red suit with a hammer and sickle on his left lapel. Leonid Brezhnev, Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin all follow suit. Fully hand painted in the early 1990s. 3¾" down to 1". Near fine. 1 only.
Most of the the early "Gorby" (a mildly affectionate/pejorative name for "Gorbachev") dolls were made by talented amateurs in the Soviet Union. Mikhail Gorbachev transformed the USSR by unleashing a pair of political, and cultural, shock waves. The first was "Гласность" (Glasnost, i.e., openness) and the second was "Перестройка" (Perestroika, i.e., reform). These shock waves, while heavily criticized, did lead to an unrestrained freedom of expression for a generation of Russians. When Yeltsin dolls arrived on the scene he took the head doll position, as subsequent pieces made room for him by usually leaving Khrushchev out. Mini sets were fairly uncommon.
