In 1937, the USSR astonished the world with its jewelry. At the International Exposition of Art and Techniques in Paris, they presented a map of the Soviet Union, made of rubies, diamonds, amethysts and other gems.
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This is an article, printed in a Soviet newspaper, which tells about the effect the Soviet pavillion has produced on the visitors of the fair. ‘The pavillion the USSR was a symbol of its progress… It reflected researches they conducted, and social programms they carried out… The map was undoubtedly the best exhibit of the fair’.
The map was made in the style of the Florentine mosaic and it was beautiful. It had a weight of 3.5 tons and contained over 4.5 thousand precious and semiprecious stones. It took 667 workers just 11 months to create it, which shows how much they all worked.
Apart from the map, they made precious national emblems of all the republics of the USSR, except Moldavia and Baltic republics.
Large cities were marked with precious stones framed in gold.Leningrad was marked with an alexandrite; the North Pole was marked with a diamond.
Moscow was marked with a ruby star with a hammer and sickle, made of 17 diamonds.
In the picture: the Lena River.
Names of the 16 capitals of the USSR were made of emeralds (1095 stones).
The map had been exposed at the Hermitage Museum up to 1988 (it was also shown in NY and Paris). They say that during WWII, Stalin prohibited selling the exhibits of the museum in order to purchase weapons categoracally, even though a lot of people suggested him to do that.
Now the map is being restored, and soon you’ll be able to see it in Russian Research Geological Institute.
via zlatprom
Imagine for every country on earth (well,those capable of doing so anyway) to contribute jewels so a map of the world could be crafted on these scale and fashion?
Of course, it is dreamish to imagine such thing as there are much greater matters to take care of than a jewel tithe for such display, but it would be a sight to behold.
“all the republics of the USSR, except Moldavia and Baltic republics”…
In 1937, those countries were not in the USSR. Moldova was in Romania, and Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were independent.
“except Moldavia and Baltic republics” means that they where not a part of the Soviet at the time period there fore the original statement is correct.
You are saying the same thing with different wording.
No, he said that Moldavia was not a republic, was part of Romania, was a region that belong to another country.
This is ostentatious Stalinist garbage. No communist would accept and promote this decadence; of course, by 1937 there weren’t any communists left in the Government.
it gave hundreds of artists and skilled workers jobs in an environment where creativity and free enterprise is stifled. better than nothing
i doubt someone named “marxist worker” knows anything about what a true communism would look like– you’re probably a student. for soviet, chinese, or korean communism, this work is actually pretty fitting.
Better then nothing? Actually i suspect they feared for their lives in the event Stalin wasn’t satisfied with the outcome of this serious task ordered of them, and they would rather not be on Stalin’s radar screen at all, But whatever…
Robin has more sense than you.
I think, Saying ideologie on ‘ART’ post is not good.
Looks like something the Tsars would have commissioned.
Color of background is more beautiful than gems!!!
The first picture looks like the “Worker and peasant” are in a hurry to cut the leg of Eiffel Tower
this is 1945 Soviet Union, not 1937.
One can only wonder how many war trophies resides in the Hermitage’s basement, despite their past denials. Since the fall of the Soviet Union they have started to hold public “Trophy Exhibits” but who knows how much more is still to be revealed?
What hidden WWII treasures still hide in the basement, awaiting their day to reappear to the world?