Bringing Home the Gifts

Whether you have been in Russia for a week or a year, you will certainly be expected to bring home gifts. So, in honor of International Women’s Day, here are some gift ideas for wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, girlfriends, grandmothers and other deserving females.

For a sweet tooth, chocolates from the Krasny Oktyabr (Red October) factory are a sure winner. This dark, rich chocolate is widely available in stalls and kiosks, as well as at the factory’s retail stores throughout Moscow. You can buy both individual candies — krasnaya shapochka (Little Red Riding Hood), mishki (bears) and melodiya (melody) — and gift boxes, for example the nicely packaged Nadezhda ($7) or a gift tin of mishki ($11.50). For those who are not wild about chocolate, the factory stores also sell coffee ($6.50 for 500 g). Another great chocolate (and a personal favorite) is Vizit from the Babayevskoye factory ($6). It comes in a pink box decorated with an old-fashioned painting of a courting couple and is available in GUM and many street kiosks.

These days, it is something of a challenge to find Russian-made perfume, whereas Hugo Boss and Chanel #5 are sold everywhere, and for exorbitant prices. One decent option is Kuznetsky Most (eau de toilette, $12.50 for 100 mg), from the Novaya Zarya factory. You can find it downtown at Tverskaya 4 — interestingly, it is perched alongside the new cologne Mer (mayor), inspired by Moscow’s powerful mayor, Yuri Luzhkov.

If folk art is more up her alley, try wool platki (shawls) from the town of Pavlovo Posad. Featuring bold floral designs, these shawls can be worn out to the opera or used as a kerchief in cold weather. A large shawl costs anywhere from $10 to $35. Silver jewelry made from amber or malachite is also popular. These days, pseudo-archaic styles featuring huge, clunky stones are all the rage.

Lacquer boxes — another popular gift — vary in style according to the town in which they were made. The main centers of this craft are Palekh, Mstera, Fedoskino and Kholui. Palekh boxes are distinguished by stylized, elongated figures painted in tempera in red, black and gold, whereas Fedoskino boxes are done in oil using more subdued, glowing colors. An authentic lacquer box takes about three months to make and costs anywhere from $80 to $110 (medium-sized box). The tiniest details are painted on with miniscule squirrel or mink brushes. The designs are traditionally copied from existing paintings or drawings, but today, more and more artists are creating their own designs.

Earthenware ornaments ($2-$20) made in Dymkovo, a village near Vyatka, are a must for miniature collectors. Masters from Dymkovo create colorful, inventive figures of both people and animals, characterized by bright colors and an expressive simplicity. Designs are executed without preliminary sketches, and, as a result, each Dymkovo toy is different, reflecting the personality and mood of the artist who created it.

China fans will be charmed by the blue and white floral patterns of gzhel. Although the roots of this ancient craft are obscure, it certainly existed during the time of Ivan the Terrible, who called the Gzhel-producing region “the sovereign’s land.” Today, you can find small ornaments, tea services, clocks, chess sets, and even an entire fireplace (!) at the Gzhel Trade House on Sadovaya-Samotechnaya. Prices range from $5 for a small figure to $738 for a deluxe tea service.

Buying Tips

On Saturdays and Sundays, the Izmailovo souvenir market does a brisk trade in everything from nesting dolls to CDs to paintings. In terms of variety and selection, Izmailovo is hard to beat. But, as vendors cater mainly to foreign tourists, their prices may be higher than those in shops. Bargaining is expected and even de rigeur, so it is best to take a Russian friend with you to avoid getting ripped off. You can pay in dollars, although this practice is, strictly speaking, illegal. Vendors are known to prefer hard currency and will usually offer a better price for baksy.

Above all, beware of fakes. Lacquer boxes are frequently faked using color copy paste-ons. According to Marina Meledina, Director of the Moscow Culture Foundation’s Salon on Pyatnitskoi, such boxes cost about one-tenth what authentic ones cost and are relatively easy for a wary eye to spot. A more subtle form of deception involves the item’s place of origin. “They’ll write Fedoskino when it’s actually made in Lipetsk,” Meledina said. “If they use the right technology, the Lipetsk box is not necessarily worse, but it’s still not right.” On lacquer boxes, always look for the name of the lacquer tradition on the left side, the subject of the painting in the center and the artist’s name on the right.

If you don’t feel like spending the day haggling with vendors, Moscow has plenty of shops specializing in folk arts and crafts. “In a shop, if you have any doubts, ask for a certificate specifying the origins of a piece,” Meledina advised. Another alternative is Dom Khudozhnikov (Central House of Artists) at Park Kultury, where you can buy unique and reasonably priced arts and crafts by local artists and also catch their latest art exhibit.

Whether you buy at a market or shop, save your receipts. Many travelers return from Russia with horror stories of seemingly harmless souvenirs being confiscated by Russian Customs. As Meledina explained, certain items are considered part of the “national heritage,” and, in order to take home paintings or items made before 1947, travelers need special permission from the Culture Ministry. Otherwise, a simple receipt should suffice ...

– Anna Hoare