Unknown Artist, advertisement for the Torgsin shop in in the Europe Hotel on Leningrad’s Nevsky Prospekt, c. 1933-1936

Chromolithograph

Inv. no. ab_31538

This English-language advertisement for the most exclusive Torgsin* shop in Leningrad was intended for foreign visitors to the city with enough wealth to purchase the antiques, icons, rare books, and church furnishings in precious metals being sold off by the Soviet government. Torgsin was founded in summer 1930 ostensibly to supply foreign sailors and short-term visitors to the USSR with souvenirs and, more importantly, foodstuffs that were difficult to find in the majority of Soviet stores. The organization’s mission was, in fact, far more complex. It was one of several state agencies working to amass gold and hard currency to pay for Soviet industrialization. In 1931, Torgsin stores once barred to all but foreign passport holders opened their doors to Soviet citizens who could now purchase scarce foods and consumer goods using old gold coins, jewelry, silver table wares, and church goods made of precious metals. They were very successful and ultimately became one of the most important sources of convertible currency available to the Soviet government. In 1932, the shops were permitted to sell antiques, as this advertisement shows.

It is important to note that it does not advertise the several Torgsin shops in Leningrad where Soviet citizens could exchange some family heirloom for staple foods. It is specifically for the shop located in the luxurious Europe Hotel at Nevsky Prospekt 36, which had been rehabbed and re-opened in 1933 under the jurisdiction of state travel agency Intourist. It is illustrated with an image of an eighteenth-century gold clock with an elephant-form automaton – a rare and expensive item worthy of a museum collection – set against the outline of what is most likely a carved hardstone covered vase in gilt bronze mounts. Photographs of the interiors of Torgsin stores such as that in the Europe Hotel show that they were full of all the sort of items listed on the advertisement: “paintings, china [porcelains], furniture, bronze, jewellery, icons [and] furs.” While the most important paintings were sold in a closed process to major international dealers, porcelains and decorative items from the Imperial palaces could be found in Torgsin’s shops in central Moscow and Leningrad. Torgsin shops were closed in February 1936.

Published:

Nataliia Semenova and Nikolas Il'in, eds., Prodannye sokrovishcha Rossii: Istoriia rasprodazhi natsional'nykh khudozhestvennykh sokrovishch (Moscow: Slovo, 2021), p. 221 (illustrated).

 *Torgsin is the acronym for “Trade with Foreigners,” but the full name was the All-Union Association for Trade with Foreigners on the Territory of the USSR (Всесоюзное объединение по торговле с иностранцами на территории СССР).