As a rule the effort to revive the vanishing art of the people in European countries has met with failure. Popular artistic handicraft is the result of the native material needs of the folk, as well as of their spiritual need for expression in the production of beautiful things. When the life of a tribe which has achieved through the centuries a harmonious equilibrium and unity becomes violently disturbed by outside influences, the chances of preserving the original manual arts are diminished or indeed lost.

The many different peoples of the Soviet Union have certain traditional handicrafts, and the Soviet administration is fostering them. Their practice is growing rapidly, and the products are every year appearing in much greater quantities and spreading more widely over the Union as a whole. There are two large shops in Moscow dealing solely in native peasant handicrafts. Their goods come from all over the Soviet Union, and they do a roaring trade although prices are by no means low. A Russian friend of mine bought a charming set of carved mammoth-tusk chess-pieces, made in the Arctic; the pawns were reindeer, the king a hunter, the queen an old nanny, the castles nomad tents, and so on. He paid a thousand roubles, which at that time—1935—represented about six weeks' average Russian income. At the present exchange rate it would be about £40. The set was worth quite that much.