COLLECTORZPEDIA: Russia 2015 Stamp IssueEUROPE Stamp Program: Toys

:: RUSSIA
:: THEME: EUROPA Stamp Program: Toys
:: NOMINAL VALUE: 23 RUB
:: ISSUE DATE: 16 January 2015
:: STAMP DESIGN: V. Beltyukov

Dymkovo toys are one of the old Russian folk art clay handicrafts. The little figures are moulded piece by piece, fastened together and then dried and tempered, whitewashed with chalk diluted in milk and painted yellow, blue, green and scarlet, which makes the toys exceptionally vivid and colourful. The motifs include young people, skomorokhs (wandering actors and minstrels), barynyas (landladies), cavaliers, nyanki (nannies with babies), vodonoski (female water carriers), sheep with golden horns, turkeys, roosters, deers.

The matryoshka doll (Матрёшка)refers to a Russian wooden toy which is a set of painted dolls of a decreasing size nested inside each other. There are usually three to twelve smaller dolls inside. They are egg-shaped with a flat base and have two halves: the top and the bottom. Traditionally the outer layer is a woman dressed in a sarafan, apron and headscarf.

Modern artists create many new styles of nesting dolls. Common themes include floral, Christmas, Easter, religious, animal collections, portraits and caricatures of famous politicians, musicians, athletes, astronauts, "robots," and popular movie stars. Matryoshka dolls that featured communist leaders of Russia became very popular among Russian people in the early 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Today, some Russian artists specialize in painting themed matryoshka dolls that feature specific categories of subjects, people or nature. Areas with notable matryoshka styles include Sergiyev Posad, Semionovo (now the town of Semyonov), Polkhovsky Maidan, and Kirov.

During Perestroika, the leaders of the Soviet Union became a common theme of matryoshkas. The largest, outside figure was that of Mikhail Gorbachev, followed by Leonid Brezhnev (Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko almost never appear due to the short length of their respective terms), Nikita Khrushchev, Joseph Stalin and finally the smallest, Vladimir Lenin.

Newer versions start with Vladimir Putin and then follow with Dmitry Medvedev, Boris Yeltsin, Mikhail Gorbachev, Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin. Some include Putin, Medvedev, Yeltsin, Gorbachev, Brezhnev, Khrushchev, Stalin, Lenin, and finally Czar Nicholas II, a total of 9 dolls.

The postage stamp depicts a Carrousel Dymkovo toy and matryoshka dolls.


ISSUE DATE:	16 January 2015
NOMINAL VALUE:	23 RUB
CIRCULATION - STAMPS:	420 000
CIRCULATION - SHEETS:	35 000
STAMP DESIGN:	V. Beltyukov
STAMP SIZE:	37 mm х 50 mm
SHEET SIZE:	168 mm × 170 mm
PERFORATIONS:	11 : 12 1/2
PRINTING PROCESS:	offset
RUSSIAN POST PRODUCT NUMBER:	1910
	COLLECTORZPEDIA.com

EUROPA Stamp Issue: Toys