Old postcards Russian souvenir

The small Russian souvenir section brings together postcards from 1967 to 1969 with short genre titles. The captions read like a list of little scenes: “Poultry Maid” and “The frost is mild, yet it won’t let you stand still” (both 1968), “Archery” and “Bon Voyage” (1967), and “Toy” (1969). The second is phrased as a folk proverb; the others name an occupation, a wish or an object.

One 1968 card is titled “Moscow Nights”, the same name as the song by the composer Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy with lyrics by Mikhail Matusovsky. It was first written as “Leningrad Nights”, was heard in a documentary about the Spartakiad, the Soviet national multi-sport games, and became widely known through radio broadcasts. It was later recorded by singers, choirs and orchestras in many countries.

The catalogue captions are brief, and one 1969 card carries only the number 98 instead of a title, so with these vintage Soviet postcards it is safer to judge the subject by the image than by the heading.

Each card can be examined closely on a scan taken from the original.