#2
The Globe and Mail (Canada)
May 23, 2002
Unhip Bush dolls fail to stack up
Clinton and friends still rule Moscow's matryoshka market
By MARK MACKINNON

MOSCOW -- This should be George W. Bush's week in Moscow. The U.S. President begins his first visit to Russia today and arrives in town with a new nuclear arms-reduction pact ready for the signing.

But in the city's matryoshka doll markets -- the truest way to gauge what's hip in this country -- he stands beaten, as his father was, by Bill Clinton.

Yesterday, 24 hours before Mr. Bush was to land in the city, souvenir sellers on Moscow's storied Arbat Street were hoping for brisk sales of the wooden dolls, some newly painted with the U.S. President's face, smiling under a large white cowboy hat. But the Bush dolls were being scorned by tourists in favour of Clinton dolls that have been on the market for years.

"I guess he is not like Clinton, he is not so interesting," a vendor named Igor said. Clinton dolls were outselling Bush dolls two-to-one, he said, just as they would on any other day. At Igor's stand, the two presidents -- never known to enjoy each other's company -- were separated only by a serious-looking Harry Potter. The main difference between the two presidential dolls, both priced at a negotiable $30, is the story they tell.

Traditionally, matryoshki are hand-painted wooden dolls depicting rosy-cheeked women in gaily coloured dresses. Beginning with the mother, each opens in the middle to reveal a smaller doll inside, with sometimes 20 or more dolls of descending size hidden inside the largest.

Inside the Bush doll is a brief history of the U.S. presidency. The largest doll is Mr. Bush, with smaller dolls of his predecessors -- Mr. Clinton, George Bush Sr., Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter -- hidden inside.

The Clinton doll takes tourists back to a simpler, pre-Sept. 11 time, when the world was obsessed with Mr. Clinton's office romance. "Inside are his friends," smiled Igor, proudly pulling the Clinton doll apart to reveal a few familiar faces. Monica Lewinsky, of course, in her blue dress, and Paula Jones.

Igor stopped to consider the fourth doll, a blond woman with a striking resemblance to Mr. Clinton's wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, now a senator. "I'm not sure who this one is," Igor said with a shrug. The fifth and final doll carries a picture of a saxaphone.

A few stalls away, Natasha, another vendor, said Mr. Clinton conveys a classic story of sex and intrigue that appeals to tourists more than Mr. Bush's good-versus-evil fight against the terrorists.

"Bush is not popular. He is boring. Clinton is so fascinating -- to Russians, to Americans, to everyone," she said.

Since the days of glasnost, and the first daring matryoshki of Mikhail Gorbachev, the dolls have been used to lampoon political leaders or honour celebrity.

One stall along the Arbat, for instance, features a Beatles matryoshka, which opens from a wide-waisted John Lennon down to a tiny Ringo Starr. The most popular model is a caricature of Russian President Vladimir Putin, which opens to reveal his predecessors, from Boris Yeltsin to the last Tsar, Nicholas II. (Inside Nicholas is an infinitesimal Rasputin, the monk who wedged himself into the Tsar's marriage and helped the collapse of the House of Romanov.)

Recently, terrorist matryoshki have become commonplace at souvenir stalls, with al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden playing the role of the mother, and other figures, such as Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, lurking inside. However, the Osama dolls were reportedly poor sellers.

BACK TO THE TOP    #207 CONTENTS    NEXT SECTION