Wool In National Dress Russia

Original vintage poster from the Wool in National Dress series featuring a colourful image by Drake Brookshaw (1907-1993) depicting a man wearing a hat and playing music on a stringed instrument with a cossack dancer in boots jumping high with his arms outstretched in the background, an image of the world showing where Russia is marked with a red arrow on a globe next to the title in red and information below:  Russia is, today, more correctly known as the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics - briefly the USSR. There are sixteen of these Republics stretching right across Northern Asia and into Eastern Europe. Reaching well into the Arctic Circle in the north and being almost sub-tropical in the south, this great land mass presents extremes of climate. The winters, generally, are severe, particularly so in the Northern Caucasus, from which the costume comes. The people seek the protection of wool against the bitter cold - even when whirling madly in the steps of the National dance. The men wear lambskin caps and knee length woollen coats, and, when outdoors, snug furs made from the skins of Astrakhan lambs killed at birth. The musical instrument is a balalaika, played by plucking the strings like a guitar, and very popular in Slav countries. Issued by the International Wool Secretariat. Fair condition, creasing, tears, staining.