Soviet Russian

Vintage Russian Cotton Ornaments And Their Unique History

The history of Russian cotton ornaments began in the 1900s, when some small private shops started manufacturing this sort of decoration. The idea was adopted from the earliest German Xmas decorations that were imported into Russia in the beginning of the 20th century. In Russia the most famous company (which was selling different Christmas ornaments) was “Tikhomirov & Co Trading house”. In 1913, this trading house printed a booklet of all kinds of Christmas tree decorations for sale. And a large stock of cotton pieces was presented there.

These Russian cotton ornaments differed from German ones with their national peculiarity. For example, the positive heroes of the Russian old folktales and legends were very popular on Xmas trees. These are some of them: Ivan Tsarevich, Vasilisa the Beautiful, Three Bogatyrs, and Morozka. Of course, other Xmas decorations were also made,as follows too: the Christmas Stars, Angels and other Biblical characters. Cotton animals, birds, fruit and vegetables were bought by people as well.
Many Russian cotton ornaments were approximately the same as in other Western European countries. But they had their own unique style. Anyway, there was no real mass scale of production of the Xmas tree decorations in Russia. And 90% of Xmas ones were imported to Russia from Germany until the First World War.

After the October revolution of 1917 communists got all the power in Russia. And they declared war on old traditions and all church rites. And any Christmas celebrations were under a ban for many years here. The revolution and Civil war destroyed all of the ornament manufacturing in the country. And from 1929 to 1936, any Christmas celebration was considered as a political crime in the Soviet Union. Some people were arrested by Soviet law enforcement agencies for that so called “crime”.
All this shows why early Russian cotton ornaments so hard to get now.

However, in 1936, the old tradition of decorating an evergreen tree was reborn in the Soviet Union. A meaning of a Xmas tree was transformed in a New Year tree. And communists relaunched the production of glass, cardboard and cotton Christmas ornaments (New Year items) again. You could not see angels or any Biblical themed ornaments on Soviet New Year trees. New, communist ideological decorations took their place. Ornaments of red army cavalrymen “Budennovich”, Soviet airmen, pioneers, communistic symbols were manufactured at that time. And the Christmas Star was substituted for the red five-pointed star. The old pre-revolutionary technology was re-used for creating all the first Soviet decorations. The 1937-40s was the golden era of Russian cotton ornaments.

During WWII production of all kind of Soviet decorations was discontinued totally. After WWII the production was renewed. However, for Russian cotton ornaments their story stopped at the beginning of the 1950s. It just needs to be mentioned that  all these decorations are made by hand, and they were not produced in large quantities. Russian people liked to decorate their New Year trees with cotton vegetables and fruit. Very popular versions were also of cotton people, birds and animals.

About the Author

Do you want to own one or a few of the same original Russian cotton ornaments? Okay, you can find some unique pieces at http://www.randttreasures.com/

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