CULTURE WATCH : A Red-Letter Day for Shoppers

In true capitalist style, demand for authentic Soviet merchandise has increased since the Soviet Union dissolved. Everything from Red Army jackets to children’s toys can be purchased by consumers eager to get a piece of the former Soviet empire.

Russian Dressing, a New York-based mail-order catalogue that specializes in Soviet-made merchandise, began in 1988 and now offers more than 40 pages of items.

“Phones were ringing off the hook” after the August putsch , and interest continues to be strong, says Violet Smythe, a company representative.

The now defunct hammer-and-sickle flag, pins made from dismantled SS-20 missiles (a way to beat swords into plowshares, the catalogue notes), wooden “nested” dolls known as matryoshki and a host of other products are available.

At Homeworks in Santa Monica and Russian Connections in Los Angeles, shoppers can find such items as wooden toys stamped Made in the U . S . S . R . , small tin cars with Cyrillic lettering and sets of nested dolls featuring such former Soviet leaders as Gorbachev, Khrushchev, Lenin and Stalin. In a sign of changing times, the latest set features Russian President Boris Yeltsin (pictured).

And come May 1 (the ex-Soviet national holiday), Barq’s, a New Orleans-based soft drink company, plans a “Soviet Union Going Out of Business Sale” complete with “Communist Party Favors.”