It's all Greek to me!

Thanks Sarah. :) You're up early! Thought I was all on my lonesome. Well I couldn't believe my luck when I saw these hats amongst this lot. It will be interesting to see what I can find out from the links that Laura's provided. I'll try and take a clearer photo today and report back.
 
Hi Louise,

Sorry I "disappeared" for a while yesterday and didn't get back to the thread. I don't have photos of mine and wouldn't even know where to find them. Both are Persian lamb like yours, they are very 70s, his and hers hats that you would picture on Russian diplomats of the era. I'm pretty sure that's where yours is from and would guess that they belonged to a world traveler who went to both countries.
 
I think too the lettering on the first hat's label is Russian. It's a looong time that I taught myself the cyrillic alphabet, and I always struggled with reading it as soon as they used cursive letters, or when something was handwritten... I never learned the language, but I swapped stamps with someone in Russia for a time, and wanted to read what it said on them.

The big letters on the label mean "ROT-FRONT". No idea what that means - I even threw my Russian dictionary out some time ago (gee, I should have known that it might still come in handy! :damnit: ). The first word underneath the animal, or whatever it is, says "Leningrad", I would say I'm pretty sure. I can't make out the word beneath that.

This hat reminds me too a bit of the folk styles - not just the cossacks, but hats as they are worn in central Asia and the steppes - lotsa countries there that once belonged to the Soviet Union too, and maybe this hat was inspired by those styles.

Karin
 
I have nothing to add other than that green blob does look weasel like... I thought PePe Le Pu when I saw it... however you spell his name lol.
 
had a little google - 'Rot Front' was the name of a fur factory in Leningrad (eg scroll down to the name 'Khaim Shmerkovich Libin' on this page: http://www.libin.org/list1.html but that's not the only mention).

I bet that's the company you have attested here, so not perhaps a sign of belonging to a Stakhanovite Urals outpost. The slogan seems to have been adopted by a few established manufacturing companies in the early 1930s as a political gesture (the candy firm still exists).

Interesting!
 
Interesting indeed! I've just emailed the gal that sent this to me in the hope she knows something about its origins. I've got plenty of information here though. Thank you all again. :headbang:
 
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