Taltsy Museum of wooden architecture located on the way from Irkutsk to Listvyanka welcomes visitors to its newly-opened exposition of ornaments that were used by Russians to festoon New Year trees during the Soviet-time era.

First Christmas ornaments had originated in Germany, and very soon Russian craftsmen found out that producing decorations could be a profitable business. They started manufacturing ornaments from cotton wool, cardboard and papier-mâché. The first colored glass Christmas ornaments appeared in 1847.

Decorations from the early Soviet years are very different from modern Christmas ornaments produced and sold in Russia nowadays. Soviet people decorated trees with candies and gingerbreads as well as handcrafted dolls created by family members for the New Year and Christmas holidays. These dolls passed on from generation to generation are presented now at Taltsy museum. The first Soviet ornaments were made of pressed cotton by using hand-made molds. Figures of humans and different animals used to be the most common characters. Then, the figurines were painted and covered by starch paste and mica to make it firm.

Soviet-era New Year tree ornaments always reflected the current political agenda in the country. First glass ornaments had invariable Soviet red star. Red Army soldiers and cavalrymen of Budenny's army who was one of the Revolution leaders became the main characters used for decorating trees at that time. During the World War II these were replaced by military parachutists and search and rescue dogs. In 1950s, agricultural themes dominated in fashion: ornaments in the forms and shapes of tomatoes, carrots, onions, grapes and wheat sheaves were very popular. The most common figure during Nikita Khrushchev’s governing was a corncob. When space exploration era began astronauts, satellites and space rockets evidently appeared on Soviet New Year trees.

In 1949 a product line of Christmas ornaments were produced which was devoted to fairytale characters created by Alexander Pushkin. This was the year when we celebrated a 150-year anniversary of Alexander Pushkin – the greatest Russian poet. And since that time Russians used many other literature characters including Buratino – Russian version of Pinocchio and Little Red Riding Hood to adorn the tree.   

Christmas ornament exposition in Taltsy Museum is opened till spring. Adult Russian visitors can recall here memories of their childhood while kids and foreign guests have a unique chance to get to know Russian history illustrated in Christmas-time decorations.