A Soviet porcelain group "Sailor Playing an Accordion" "Progress"...

A Soviet porcelain group "Sailor Playing an Accordion"

"Progress" group (Lenartprogress), Leningrad, 1950-1960

Inscription in Russian "Farewell to the Rocky Mountains" in gray overglaze around front of base; and "Northern Fleet" in Russian in gilt lettering on sailor's cap; marked to underside: '71' in red; '18' in black overglaze; and '9' impressed in paste.

H: 9 3/4 in.

PROVENANCE:

Ode to Joy Collection, Connecticut.

Literature
Oda k Radosti/Ode to Joy, p. 231, illus. 152. cat. no. 174

The inscription refers to the song, "Farewell, rocky mountains" by composer Evgeniy Zharkovskiy on a poem by Nikolai Bukin, written in 1943. The original version of the poem was published under the title "I cannot live without the sea". The song describes the 40 months in the coastal waters near Murmansk, where Soviet sailors fought fierce battles against the Germans. The Nazis failed to break through the defense neither on sea nor on land.

The 'Progress Artel' was founded after WWII on a government order along with many other cooperative associations to provide jobs for the disabled, many of them veterans.