Product Description
President Yeltsin 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 and a gold foil double-headed eagle, the symbol of the old Imperial aristocracy, now repurposed for the new order. Overall the caricatured set of leaders are treated respectfully. Mikhail Gorbachev, now a civilian, is in a bland dark green suit and has a red pennant on his left lapel with an orange hammer and sickle, and an over-emphasized birthmark. Leonid Brezhnev is in a drab olive suit with military medals that he awarded to himself pinned to his left breast. "Papa Joe" is in green wartime fatigues and an ever present pipe sticking from out of his mouth. The last piece is a stern Lenin in his brown suit and his ubiquitous red Communist party ribbon. Painted around 1992-94. 7" down to 2". About 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. 5 piece sets were the norm.