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When the cold war with the Soviet Union was at its zenith, virtually all things Russian were looked upon with suspicion. Even the refugees who came to the United States after WWII tried not to appear "too Russian" because their homeland, after all, was our country's enemy. Consequently, Russian decorative arts were not popular, either. Nor were they generally available because importing them was relatively difficult.
Today, all that's changed. Both Americans with family ties to Russia, Ukraine and other parts of the former Soviet Union - and those with absolutely no connections to those countries - enjoy collecting Russian decorative arts and using them as accent pieces in their homes. They find them at shops that specialize in Russian pieces. Mail-order catalogs, including those that sell museum reproductions, are another source.

Visit a store or flip through a catalog, and you'll see there's a lot more to Russian decorative arts than nesting dolls, as charming as those are.
Olga Shukin, a native of the northern Russian town of Sebezh near the Latvian border, opened "Maison Russe" (or "Russian House") in Lisle [Illinois] in 1976. The time seemed right as relations between the superpowers were starting to thaw.
But why a french name? Shukin explained that French life and culture had a great influence on Russian life. French was spoken by the Russian aristocracy, and many fine shops in Moscow and St. Petersburg were given French names.
Yet, her son, Vitaly, who now runs the shop at 1720 Ogden Avenue with his younger sister, Masha Furmanova, admits that "having a name that could emphasize the nature of the shop while also omitting the word 'Russian' was a big plus during the Cold War years. Today we go by the "Russian Shop" as well as by 'Maison Russe' in order to attract a larger audience."
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The Russian Shop / Maison Russe