Figure 1.--This Soviet store window, photographed about 1980, has a display on school uniforms. There were thosands of such shops throughout the Soviet Union. |
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We have virtually no information on Russia retailing yet. One Russian reader reports that the school uniform in the Soviet Union was little changed during the 1970s-80s. The same uniform was worn with almost no changes all over the country. It was available in any shop selling goods for children. The best known store selling children's clothes was Detskiy Mir in Moscow.
Children's clothing was apparently sold in small shops all ober the country. One Russian reader reports that the school uniform in the Soviet Union was little changed during the 1970s-80s. The same uniform was worn with almost no changes all over the country. It was available in any shop selling goods for children. Arespresentative store window can be seen here.
There are some very well-known departmrnt stores in Russia.
The best known store selling children's clothes was Detskiy Mir in Moscow. The Soviet opened the largest department store in the country specializing in children's goods, like toys, clothes and so on. The store, Detskiy Mir, meant "Children's world" in Russian. It was opened in Moscow during 1957. It proved extremly popular among Soviet shoppers nd was one of the most modern stores in the country. The Soviet Union was not known as a country cattering to consumes. The popularity of the store meant that it had a great influence on Soviet children's fashion. The store was built on Lubyanskaya square. This is an address known to all Soviet cuitizens. It was next door to the KGB (former NKVD) building which had a notorious prison. Many caught up in the Great Terror and Gulag were first brought here. A Russian reader tells us that the location of Detskiy Mir there was no accident.
The GUM Department Store is the most famous store in Russia. It has a prestigious location on Red Square. It was particilarly notable during the Soviet era because it was reasonably well stocked at a time when retail stores in the Soviet Union were very poorly stocked and quality consumer goods were not widel;y available. Today GYM is still a lengend in modern Russia, but there are a wide variety of retail stores in the major cities and modern shopping malls.
Most of the stores in Gum are now multinational ones selling imported goods. There are only a few stores thatt sell Russian-made producrs. The fur coats and other fur items, for example, are almost entirely Russian made goods. There was a Russian shop tucked away in a corner away from the prime shopping mall. Around the corner from GUM, however, is a winter market. There are many stalls, but products are often the same. A popular item is a million dollars bank note selling for or $4. Of course it is a photocopied reproduction, although it doesn't say on it. The drinking cups are Russian made. These are good quality. You have the babuska dolls and St. Nicholas images as well as the usual trinklets. There is also aide range of clothing in the regular markets. Here you find a great deal of Russian-made products of varying quality.
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