Old New Year

About exhibition

More than 200 unique exhibits from the private collection of Olga Ryabtseva — a member of the Union of Private Museums and Collectors — will transport visitors into the atmosphere of the New Year celebration and tell the story of the country from the 1930s to the 1980s. The exhibition presents the evolution of New Year traditions in the USSR through cotton-wool, glass and cardboard ornaments, electric garlands (string lights), figurines of Ded Moroz (Father Frost) and Snegurochka (the Snow Maiden), postcards and porcelain figurines. Each exhibit is not only a symbol of the holiday but also a reflection of the era: from the crimson five-pointed star of the revolution to the first conquerors of space. Special attention at the exhibition is paid to Ded Moroz and Snegurochka — their figures first appeared on the Kremlin New Year tree in 1937. The exhibition will feature these indispensable symbols of the New Year, made of cotton wool, papier-mâché, composite materials, polyethylene (PE), foam plastic and rubber from the 1950s to the 1980s.