Soviet Porcelain | Tableware

Mid-1950s
Porcelain, overglaze painting, gilding

Tureen with a lid, round dish, 3 oval dishes, 2 bowls with lids, sauce-boat, 3 small plates, 2 soup-plates, pepper-pot and salt-cellar

The Volga-Don Canal connected the Volga and the Don rivers at their closest point outside Volgograd.  The canal was built by GULAG inmates in an unprecedentedly short period between 1948 and 1952 and went down in history as a major construction project of the Stalin regime.  It was inaugurated on May 31, 1952, at 1:55 pm and ships started plying the canal the following day. On July 27, 1952, the canal was named after V.I. Lenin.   Simultaneously, a Stalin monument was unveiled at the first lock (from the Volga side), later pulled down and replaced with a Lenin monument on the same pedestal.