What I won't need to buy in Russia

Matrishkas:
This is a set of 7 Tsars
1. Nicolas II 1894-1917
2. Peter the Great 1682-1725
3. Catherine II 1762-1796
4. Paul I 1796-1801
5. Alexander I 1796-1801
6. Nicolas I 1825-1855
7. A birdlike creature holding a sword and shield.

1. Vladimir Putin
2. Boris Yeltsin
3. Gorbachev
4. Leonid Brezhnev
5. Nikita Khrushchev
6. Josef Stalin
7. Vladimir Lenin
8. Nicolas II (the last tsar)
9. Catherine II
10. Peter the Great
1. Vladimir Putin with George W. Bush
2. Boris Yeltsin with Bill Clinton
3. Mikhail Gorbachev with Ronald Reagan
4. Leonid Brezhnev with Richard Nixon
5. Nikita Khrushchev with John F. Kennedy



Booklets: I have received as gifts over the years that I would be tempted to purchase again if I didn't already own them:



























Icons: At least one of these is from St Catherine's Monastery in Egypt, the oldest monastery in the world.









The last one is from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. The cathedral was built in the 1800s to show gratitude to God for saving them from Napoleon. The center of the icon is a picture of the church. At the top is Christ receiving the martyred priests. The picture around the edge and bottom show the priests being killed by communist soldiers. The church was torn down by the communists so that they could build a monument to the Soviets, but the foundation leaked, and they eventually turned the site into a giant swimming pool. The church was rebuilt in the 1990s close to the original.

Miscellaneous:

These pots of honey are part of a set. I have 2 of them; I'll be hitting the grocery store to get the rest of the set since I've never seen such fancy honey pots.

This is one of two posters that Stephen brought home for Gary. I have no idea what it's saying.








T-Shirts


The front of this t-shirt is the Kremlin with St. Basil's Cathedral in the foreground. On the back is the Cyrillic alphabet.








This one says KGB in the front. Apparently the back is the equivalent of "Loose lips sink ships."