Exhibitions
Christmas Tree of Our Green Years
Kolomenskoe
NOVEMBER 15, 2022 – JANUARY 15, 2023
Welcome to the ‘Christmas Tree of Our Green Years’ exhibition opened on 15 November.
Over 800 museum and private collection items that you can see at the Palace of Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich will attract all the family members.
In our New Year projects, which have been regular at the Kolomenskoe museum for several years, we try to illustrate as accurately and vividly as possible different historical periods, using archive documents and various collections and often touching on events poorly explored or rarely lit up in displays for the lack of visual material.
Natalia Polonnikova, historian, the exhibition Curator
At our display’s thematic sections you will learn about the ‘Christmas Tree before the 1917 Revolution – late XIX and early XX century’ and the ‘Christmas Tree in the Vladimir Lenin era (1918 – 1924)’, know ‘What Made Them Ban the Christmas Tree in 1925-1930?!’, see in the ‘New Year Back in Moscow in 1935-1936’ and the ‘New Year at Wartime (1941-1945)’, find out about the ‘Moscow Kremlin Traditions of the 1950s and 1960s’, imagine a ‘New Year walk around Moscow streets and shops in the 1970s and 1980s’ and finally look at ‘Designers Christmas Trees from the 1990s and 2000s’.
The Russians started decorating Christmas trees as early as after the 1850s, yet, there are few surviving examples of such old decorations. On display you will see some of them – common toys made of cotton wool, cardboard and glass as well as a few rarities (some of which have been exhibited for the first time). The decorative toys on display are connected with the USSR history – some used to belong to Vladimir Lenin’s family, other present the heroes of the epoch (this thematic tendency appeared in the 1930s-1940s). Almost any Russian will recognize the mass-produced USSR decorations of the 1970s, and most probably – the decorations from East Germany and Czechoslovakia. For the first time the display will include ‘baby’ Christmas trees decorated with miniature toys. The modern times will be illustrated by copies of the late XIX and XX century toys as well as originals from well-known Central Russian craft centers – glitter balls from Zhostovo and Gorodets, majolica toys from Gzhel and Yaroslavl and sculptures of Ded Moroz (the Russian character close to Santa Claus) from Bogorodskoe.
WE RECOMMEND A GUIDED VISIT TO THIS EXHIBITION
Nikolay Zhukov. ‘A Christmas Tree from our Nursery’. 1951. Paper, watercolors. Elets Local Town Museum collection
POSTCARD. USSR. 1950s - 1960s. Paper, printing. I.P.Vorobiova private collection
POSTCARD. USSR. Early XX century. Paper, printing. I.P. Vorobiova private collection
Decorative Christmas Tree toys of various periods
Wooden box with Christmas tree decorations. Early XX century. Wood, colored paper, glue, metal, paint. Gorki Leninskie Museum-Reserve. Belonged to Vladimir Lenin’s family
A sample ‘Baby Christmas Tree Set №3’. Russia. 1962. Glass, plastic, coloring, cardboard. A.A.Pribytkova private collection
An artificial ‘baby’ Christmas Tree in a case. 1960. The ‘Glass Tree Decorations’ factory. Paper, wire, wood and paper molding powder. I.A.Kurbatova private collection
Frontier Sentry. Leningrad, Russia. 1938 - 1941. ‘Izokult’ craft society. Cotton wool, cardboard, paper. V.V.Borisov private collection
Nikolay Zhukov. ‘A Christmas Tree from our Nursery’. 1951. Paper, watercolors. Elets Local Town Museum collection
POSTCARD. USSR. 1950s - 1960s. Paper, printing. I.P.Vorobiova private collection
POSTCARD. USSR. Early XX century. Paper, printing. I.P. Vorobiova private collection
Decorative Christmas Tree toys of various periods
Wooden box with Christmas tree decorations. Early XX century. Wood, colored paper, glue, metal, paint. Gorki Leninskie Museum-Reserve. Belonged to Vladimir Lenin’s family
A sample ‘Baby Christmas Tree Set №3’. Russia. 1962. Glass, plastic, coloring, cardboard. A.A.Pribytkova private collection
An artificial ‘baby’ Christmas Tree in a case. 1960. The ‘Glass Tree Decorations’ factory. Paper, wire, wood and paper molding powder. I.A.Kurbatova private collection
Frontier Sentry. Leningrad, Russia. 1938 - 1941. ‘Izokult’ craft society. Cotton wool, cardboard, paper. V.V.Borisov private collection
Nikolay Zhukov. ‘A Christmas Tree from our Nursery’. 1951. Paper, watercolors. Elets Local Town Museum collection
POSTCARD. USSR. 1950s - 1960s. Paper, printing. I.P.Vorobiova private collection
POSTCARD. USSR. Early XX century. Paper, printing. I.P. Vorobiova private collection
Decorative Christmas Tree toys of various periods
Wooden box with Christmas tree decorations. Early XX century. Wood, colored paper, glue, metal, paint. Gorki Leninskie Museum-Reserve. Belonged to Vladimir Lenin’s family
A sample ‘Baby Christmas Tree Set №3’. Russia. 1962. Glass, plastic, coloring, cardboard. A.A.Pribytkova private collection
An artificial ‘baby’ Christmas Tree in a case. 1960. The ‘Glass Tree Decorations’ factory. Paper, wire, wood and paper molding powder. I.A.Kurbatova private collection
Frontier Sentry. Leningrad, Russia. 1938 - 1941. ‘Izokult’ craft society. Cotton wool, cardboard, paper. V.V.Borisov private collection
The unique materials from the Russian State Film and Photo Archive are a singular feature of the present display and make the core of its 8 themes, from the pre-Revolution Russia to the present-day Christmas tree authors’ design.
Natalia Polonnikova, historian, the exhibition Curator
In the 1927 archive film entitled ‘Getting Ready for Christmas’ you can see smart show windows in Okhotny Ryad Street and Arbat Square in Moscow. The film shows how a true holiday fair was arranged in the midst of the anti-Christmas campaign! The ‘Life as it Is’ plot filmed in 1929 shows a family New Year celebration – with a table served for guests, a decorated tree and a consequent active shopping, skiing and skating. The wartime is reflected in the ‘Celebrating Christmas in Field Trenches’ film by Yakov Protazanov (1914) and the ‘Stand Up for the Defense of Moscow, №6’ film by Rafail Gikov (1941). The display includes not only battlefield documentaries but also the New Year celebration organized in air shelters and for war prisoners. The 1930 documentaries introduce the new epoch characters figuring in the celebration: ice pilots (those who guide travelers through frozen waters), order bearers, air pilots and even the governing communist party members. With the spread of TV, such film plots grew into the nation-popular ‘Little Blue Light’ New Year music show. The display will reveal the history of the famous Moscow Kremlin New Year performances for children and trace the birth and transformation of thematic performances in general.
The exhibition space is designed to remind of the historic New Year pavilion built in 1936 in Manezhnaya Square in the center of Moscow as well as a 1970 shop (where you can take a photo at a mock New Year counter).
The project partners:
Kolomenskoe, Novgorod, Alexandrovskaya Sloboda, Gorki Leninskie, and the Dmitrov Kremlin Museum-Reserves, Nikolay Bartram National Museum of Toys, Elets Local Town Museum, the Russian State Film and Photo Archive, the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the ‘Fragrant Joys’ manufacture and private collectors.