Figure 1.--Here we see Gandfather Frost in January 2009. The children seem glad to see him and well done up for the cold weather. Westeners know of the impish Jack Frost, but Grandfather Frost in Russia is more a Santa Claus figure. In Soviet times Grandfather Frost often had blue outfits. Now we commonly see red outfits tht make him look rather like Santa. The photograph was taken at a Moscow shopping mall. This mall had had several activities over the Christmas and New Year. On weekend they had a girl drumming marching band. The next weekend there was a youth Brass band playing music. The band was dressed in Santa Caus suits. The re were other members of the band dressed in traditional costume.

The modern Grandfather Frost looks a lot like the American Santa Claus. Grndfather Frost has worn different colored outfits over time. Today he is normally depicted in blue. Stalin personally intervened to make the blue costume standard. He is actually a charcacter of ancient origins. Grandfather Frost (Ded Moroz) is an ancient personage, taken from pagan times. There are a lot of old fairy tales about him (sometimes in those tales figure two Frosts - young and old, and they struggle to determine who of them is more powerful). A Russian word "Moroz" (frost) is derived from the ancient Slavic root "mor" (death). But later Ded Moroz became a cheerful and good old man, who "covers seeds with a snow blanket and keeps 'em safe until the spring comes". Nevertheless, his staff is deadly dangerous for people, animals and everything alive: "Who touches my staff will sleep and never wake up" - Ded Moroz says in one tale. A lot of Russian fairy tales about Moroz can be easily compared with a German fairy tale "Frau Holle", for example. Ded Moroz (under slightly different names) often figures in Russian books (Nekrasov - a poem "Moroz Red Nose", Dahl - a tale "Moroz Ivanovich", Schwarz - novel "Two Brothers" and so on), dramas (Ostrovsky - "Snegurocka") or films (Row - a movie "Morozko", USSR-Finland. He is similar to the less benevolent elf-like Jack Frost in America and Britain. He appears to have been an interesting, but relatively minor character during theTsarist era. And this did not change at first, even after the Revolution. Russian children were left after the Revolution without anyone to bring their Christmas gifts, in fact without Christmas itself. The Soviets needed a character to dispense gifts to distance children from Christmas and St. Nicholas. This assignment was given to Grandfather Frost, although it took some time. This involved a convulted transition involving Marxist dogma. Grandfather Frost was at first attacked as being a reactionary figure. During the 1930s, however, Soviet officials finally concluded that the children needed presents. And thus the Soviet media began to promote Grandfather Frost / Ded Morozas as ideologically acceptable New Year fi]gure for the children. Russian depictions of Grandfather Frost seem to have used the American Santa as a model. Like Santa, Grandfathe Frost arrives with his bag of toys--although less secretly. He does not have a reindear like Santa, but does have a sled-like Troika. He appears to have super powers and Frost can punish evil doers by instantly freezing them. Grandfather Frost appears to have continued as a New Year icon for the children even after the end of the Soviet Era.

Created: 8:21 AM 1/14/2009
Last updated: 6:27 AM 1/15/2009