The Museum of Soviet Toys “Back to Childhood”

The Museum of Soviet Toys “Back to Childhood” was opened on December 15th, 2018 in the Odoev Village, Tula Region. This is a joint project of Sergei Vasilievich Kuznetsov (the Filimonov Toy Museum and Accordions of Grandfather Filimon Museum) and the Tula collector Tatyana Alexandrovna Kravets.

The choice of place and topic was not made by accident. Every year, the Odoev Village is becoming more and more popular with Russian tourists and today it is associated, above all, with toys. Therefore, it was decided to continue the toy theme. A clay toy is a fun object that was mainly played with almost until the middle of the 20th century; later it lost its dominant role, giving way to an industrial toy. You can get acquainted with all this diversity in one place – the Odoev Village, Tula region. Organizers recommend that you first get acquainted with a clay toy, and then with an industrial one.

The museum has more than 1,000 toys made in various cities and republics of the USSR from the 1930s to 1991, when the Soviet Union became history. The museum’s collection is designed for a wide range of visitors. Adults are going “Back to Childhood” with great interest as their teenage years coincided with the period of Developed socialism. At the same time, modern children brought up on electronic games also look with curiosity at what their mothers and fathers played with, and maybe even grandparents when they were their age. It so happened that most of the collection is made up of dolls: from miniature “naked” girls to large walkers, who were the dream of any Soviet girl. Thematic selections of soft toys such as cute teddy bears, funny bunnies, and dogs lovingly seated on shelves will not leave anyone indifferent! Toy items of doll life (furniture, dishes, irons, meat grinders, and fans) recreate the interiors of Soviet apartments, as they are miniature copies of their real prototypes. Few people know that in Soviet times, every plant was obliged to produce something for the domestic needs of workers. And many enterprises did this by releasing children’s toys, partially restructuring technological processes for miniature models of the main products. A separate section represents the interests of Soviet boys – military-style toys. These are shooting guns, models of military equipment, children’s pistols, machine guns, and, of course, entire armies of tin and plastic soldiers. What would we do without toy cars? There are many of them and they are different. Do you remember the battery-powered game “At the Wheel?” It is in the museum too! Ask the guide and you will definitely be given a chance to play it!

The museum’s collection includes musical, mechanical, clockwork, educational, board, and first electronic toys. Here you can see toys made from various materials: papier-mache, celluloid, rubber, polyethylene, wood, tin, cardboard, and even pressed sawdust. In addition to those toys that were produced in the ex-USSR republics, the collection also contains samples from the countries of the socialist community – the GDR, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. There are no such countries anymore, but the toys that were made in them remain! It will be interesting for Tula residents to see toys produced at Tula enterprises! The creation of another museum in the Odoev Village makes it even more attractive and contributes to further development of tourism in the region!

In the near future, it will be possible not only to look at toys in the Museum, but also to make them with your own hands, organize children’s parties, take part in mini-performances, get together on thematic gatherings and share your childhood memories, and order sightseeing and thematic tours.

We can assure you that visiting the Museum of the Soviet Toy “Back to Childhood” will not leave anyone indifferent! We invite you to open your door to childhood!