History of the Russian Revolution
A pack of playing cards about the Russian Revolution, USA, c. 2021.
Produced by the Barclay Mountain Co. (Pennsylvania), this pack of 52 cards and 4 jokers offers a wealth of information and photographs on the history of the Russian Revolution. According to the company’s website “Some people tell their stories through books, artwork and movies. We tell our stories using playing cards and tarot cards” – and indeed the information (leading up to and after the 1917 revolutions) is detailed, wide-ranging and historically accurate. The jokers present the story of Rasputin and his influence over the royal family of Tsar Nicholas II. See the box►
Above: History of the Russian Revolution playing cards produced by the Barclay Mountain Co., Pennsylvania, USA, 2021.
By Peter Burnett
United Kingdom • Member since July 27, 2022
I graduated in Russian and East European Studies from Birmingham University in 1969. It was as an undergraduate in Moscow in 1968 that I stumbled upon my first 3 packs of “unusual” playing cards which fired my curiosity and thence my life-long interest. I began researching and collecting cards in the early 1970s, since when I’ve acquired over 3,330 packs of non-standard cards, mainly from North America, UK and Western Europe, and of course from Russia and the former communist countries.
Following my retirement from the Bodleian Library in Dec. 2007 I took up a new role as Head of Library Development at the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to support library development in low-income countries. This work necessitated regular training visits to many sub-Saharan African countries and also further afield, to Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh – all of which provided rich opportunities to further expand my playing card collection.
Since 2019 I’ve been working part-time in the Bodleian Library where I’ve been cataloguing the bequest of the late Donald Welsh, founder of the English Playing Card Society.
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