Russian Chocolate Wrappers

$26.50

Seigensha 2024

Russian chocolate wrappers aren’t just charming to look at; they’re expressions of the historical and social conditions under which they were created. They have their roots in imperial Russia around the turn of the twentieth century, when innovative packaging design flourished. The sensibilities nurtured then were carried on in the Soviet era by designers who continued to produce sophisticated wrappers even after the major confectioners had been nationalized. Depicting everything from Cyrillic lettering to animals, folktales, animated films, famous paintings, historical occurrences, and holidays to even current events, wrappers became inextricably associated with their chocolates in people’s minds—so much so that one catchphrase proclaimed, “Get your morning news in the paper, your evening news in a chocolate.”

The book introduces beloved Soviet-era designs primarily from the 1950s to 1980s owned by Smirennyi, editor-in-chief of the Moscow journal Tara i upakovka devoted to packaging design.

Softbound | 160 pp | Color Illustrations | 5.75 x 8.25 in | Japanese/Russian

S04373