History and culture: Soviet postcards of 1950-60s with illustrations to popular fairy tales are presented at the exhibition in Kolomenskoye

January 2, 2015 in the Museum-Reserve "Kolomenskoye Estate" (Moscow), in the Palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the visitors are presented an exhibition "Journey to the New Year fairy tale" - a remarkable collection of Soviet postcards of 1950-60s with illustrations to popular tales.

The tradition to congratulate people with a postcard with a New Year was originated in England in the first half of the XIX century and quickly spread throughout Europe. In Russia until 1917 on the creation of color, art, illustrated postcards worked well-known artists, photographers and publishers. But after October 1917 greeting cards, as a matter of everyday life of bourgeois society, was completely discontinued. And only during the Great Patriotic War open letters came back to Soviet citizens.

The real heyday of New Year cards is coming in 1950-60s. It is certainly one of the most interesting periods in the history of New Year cards in the Soviet Union.

The exhibition is full of amazing warmth and charm of special New Year cards of 1950s. They depicted funny fairy-tale characters, animals and magical smiling cheerful, kind old man, a friend of every Soviet child - Santa Claus. This is true witnesses of their time, business cards of the era.

Then the visitors are offered characters of Russian folk tales. They are replaced by no less popular characters tales of Russian writers. The charm of fairy fiction of Russian writers is complemented with illustrations of foreign authors such as E.-T.-A. Hoffmann, H.-C. Anderson, D. Rodari.