Perhaps the Soviet Union’s greatest piece of soft power. I would argue the Matryoshka’s cultural reach in India rivalled, and perhaps outlasted, what Coca Cola did for America or Hollywood did for American culture. In the 1970s, 80s and 90s, almost every upwardly mobile Indian household seemed to have a set sitting proudly in its showcase.
For many of us, the USSR arrived not through politics, but through a little wooden doll inside another little wooden doll and books from Raduga and MIR publishers.
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