…a sailor’s hatband

This hatband comes from a sailor who served on HMS King Edward VII, a pre-dreadnought military battleship, which was launched in 1903, and was sunk by a mine off Cape Wrath Scotland, during passage to Ireland in January 1916. 

There is detailed information about the ship, and a photograph of it sinking, on the following link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_King_Edward_VII 

Fortunately, the vessel took a full nine hours to capsize and sink, and just one life was lost in the process.

 

…a Russian Christmas card dated 1983

This is not, of course, a Christmas card, but was sent as such, as a joke, by a friend.

The card in fact celebrates the Komsomol, the youth wing of the Communist Party, and the girl is presumably holding a copy of Lenin’s biography or collected works, with his name shown in Cyrillic.

Formed in 1918, the Komsomol accepted recruits from the age of fourteen to the age of twenty eight, although its leaders and functionaries could be older. Wikipedia has an excellent page on its history and purpose, but does omit one significant fact.

Russia’s great leader Stalin became increasingly distrustful of other centres of influence, and to maintain his iron grip the “man of steel” began in the 1930’s his infamous purges of the military, government officials and fellow politicians, which resulted in show trials and the deaths or exile of hundreds of thousands of citizens. (Some suggest as many as a million). Of the first seven leaders of the Komsomol, six were arrested and shot. The seventh was merely arrested. Lucky break eh?

With the fall of communism, the Komsomol was disbanded in 1991.

…a dozen different hats

This anonymous Edwardian family group shows the great variety of hats that were worn in that period. Sensible bonnets for children, and for adults the larger and more flamboyant the better was the current fashion in that pre-war era. Naturally, one chose one’s hat and its adornments to suit one’s personality, and not everyone conformed to the standard pattern. The woman at the back, third from the left, is wearing the very latest style, a large flat cap that was a pointed counter to the fancy bows, feathers and frilly additions of most female head wear.