"The Great Silk Road The term was introduced into historical scholarship at the end of the 19th century. This term refers to the system of ancient caravan trade routes linking the countries of the West and the East.

The Great Silk Road is the longest trade route the world has ever seen. Its length was 12,800 kilometres. The trade route existed for more than seventeen centuries and connected the peoples of the largest civilisations of that time - China, India, Central Asia, the Middle East, Russia and Europe.

The exhibition, which opened in St. Petersburg, presents reconstructions of dolls of peoples who lived on the territories of the Great Silk Road. These are more than thirty ethnic groups from Central Asia and the Caucasus. The material on these dolls was collected Marina Aleksandrovna Mishina for more than fifteen years. It formed the basis of her travel book, The Silk Road Dolls.

Twenty female artisans from the Caucasus and Asia took part in the exhibition Marina Aleksandrovna. The authors presented their reconstructions of dolls from museum collections and contemporary ethnographic collections.

Creative workshop puppets Marina Mishina are varied in their purpose, form and decoration. Each stitch or garment detail is not a random set of elements, but the result of a deep scientific immersion in history and traditional culture.

We are grateful for the experience and knowledge of folk art researchers, Marina Mishina and her colleagues, who preserve the great heritage of our ancestors and carefully convey it to our contemporaries.

The exhibition runs until 30 April 2022.
Address: St. Petersburg, Kamennoostrovsky Prospect, d. 64, к.3.

Thank you to Anastasia Novopoltseva for providing the photo material.

Text prepared by Irina Panfilenok.