How did the image of ‘Father Frost’ change in Russia? (PHOTOS)

How did the image of ‘Father Frost’ change in Russia? (PHOTOS)
David Sholomovich/Sputnik; Mikhail Tereshchenko/TASS
The winter old man with gifts became a necessary character of the New Year only in the Soviet years, but this character has existed in folklore since ancient times.

The symbol of the New Year, the kind winter old man with presents, was completely different in Slavic mythology. He was a deity who could freeze a person or a harvest to death and they tried to appease him with offerings. 

How did the image of ‘Father Frost’ change in Russia? (PHOTOS)
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The Russian ‘Morozko’ folk tale describes an encounter with this old man: the female protagonist withstands his tests of cold and then he bestows her with riches. However, he freezes another character to death.

How did the image of ‘Father Frost’ change in Russia? (PHOTOS)
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Ded Moroz only began to be associated with the onset of Christmas and New Year in the second half of the 19th century. On some old postcards, you can see an old bearded old man in a red coat and with a Christmas tree.

How did the image of ‘Father Frost’ change in Russia? (PHOTOS)
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At that time, the main winter holiday was Christmas, not New Year's Eve, and, in Russia, they tried to create an analog of ‘Grandfather Nicholas’ (‘Nikolai the Worshipper’ or ‘Santa Claus’) like in the West. 

How did the image of ‘Father Frost’ change in Russia? (PHOTOS)
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But, Ded Moroz only became the central and positive character in the 1930s, when the USSR made the main winter holiday New Year's Eve, not Christmas.

How did the image of ‘Father Frost’ change in Russia? (PHOTOS) 1940s
Sergey Vasin/MAMM/MDF/russiainphoto.ru

A kind old man together with his granddaughter ‘Snegurochka’ (‘Snow Maiden’) now visits children on New Year's Eve and brings them presents. 

How did the image of ‘Father Frost’ change in Russia? (PHOTOS) In the Palace of Sports of the Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow, 1950s.
Semyon Mishin-Morgenstern/MAMM/MDF/russiainphoto.ru
How did the image of ‘Father Frost’ change in Russia? (PHOTOS) Ded Moroz, 1960s.
Davod Sholomovich / Sputnik

Ded Moroz on postcards was depicted not only together with New Year presents and children, but also side by side with the achievements of Soviet industry and science.

How did the image of ‘Father Frost’ change in Russia? (PHOTOS)
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With a nuclear icebreaker, with a train on the Baikal-Amur Mainline or on the wings of a new airplane. 

How did the image of ‘Father Frost’ change in Russia? (PHOTOS)
Archive photo
How did the image of ‘Father Frost’ change in Russia? (PHOTOS)
Archive photo

Besides New Year's celebrations, Ded Moroz also began to take part in Maslenitsa festivities.

How did the image of ‘Father Frost’ change in Russia? (PHOTOS) Maslenitsa in Suzdal, 1970s.
Isaak Dynin / TASS

And to visit plants, factories and collective farms before the New Year, in order to communicate with the workers of the Soviet Union.

How did the image of ‘Father Frost’ change in Russia? (PHOTOS) Ded Moroz and Snegurochka with miners in the Chelyabinsk Region, 1980s.
Boris Klipinitzer / TASS

The tradition of celebrating the New Year with Ded Moroz and Snegurochka became common across the whole country, even in places where there were no fairy tales and legends about him originally. It was preserved even after the collapse of the USSR.

How did the image of ‘Father Frost’ change in Russia? (PHOTOS) On the shore of Lake Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyz SSR.
Nikolai Zhiganov / TASS

Nowadays, different regions of Russia have their own symbolic New Year wizards. For example, in Yakutia, there is Chyskhaan, in Yamal – Yamal Iri, in Tatarstan – Kysh Babai. 

How did the image of ‘Father Frost’ change in Russia? (PHOTOS) Chyskhaan, Yakutia.
Evgeny Biyatov / Sputnik

The official residence of the Russian Ded Moroz, meanwhile, is in Veliky Ustyug in the Russian North.

How did the image of ‘Father Frost’ change in Russia? (PHOTOS)
Pavel Kuzmichev
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