Teddy Bear Turns 100

It was this Friday that an exhibition dedicated to the centenary of one of infants' most favourite toys, opened in the children's museum centre of the Veliky Novgorod Kremlin.

The teddy bears have occupied two halls. The first one exhibits 99 bears from the St.Petersburg toys museum, mainly those of the 1910-1960 make, representing Russia, Germany and the USA. On display are an American teddy bear, manufactured in the early 1940s, which was brought to Russia as part of humanitarian aid during the second world war, a German bear of 1950 with a nickel-plated Steif ring in his ear, a rare Russian velveteen bear of the '30s and an equally rare one manufactured at the Donetsk toy factory in the 1960s (Donetsk is a coal-extracting centre in Ukraine).

The second hall contains 107 plush teddy bears of all ages, donated at the request of the local Novgorod experts by both infant and adult residents of Veliky Novgorod.