A Santa Claus puppet holding a Christmas tree is pictured against the sun in Berlin November 23, 2014. (Photo by Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters)

Hungarian wrestlers fight during the Hungarian wrestling Championship in Budapest November 29, 2014. (Photo by Laszlo Balogh/Reuters)

Steam emerges from a cooling tower of the nuclear power plant Leibstadt near Leibstadt, Switzerland, November 18, 2014. (Photo by Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters)

A mannequin stands in a textile factory in Madrid, Spain May 19, 2014. (Photo by Andrea Comas/Reuters)

A woman looks out of a dusty window after boarding a bus to be transported to see the casket of Nelson Mandela at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday December 11, 2013. On Thursday, December 5, 2013, Mandela died at the age of 95. (Photo by Markus Schreiber/AP Photo)

Free for Editorial Use Ballerinas from The Royal Ballet School perform on December 2, 2025 under Covent Garden's first festive snowfall to launch the destination's daily December snow flurries. (Photo by Paul Grover/Covent Garden)

To produce the images that convey his fatalistic and ironic approach to life, tinged with hope, he needed the environment and knowledge of Mother Russia, oiled with a bit of bribery to certain circus trainers. Enter the Great Russian Bear, the personification of Russia for the last several centuries, onto center stage and into his studio. The bear is recognized as both brutish and cute – Misha was the mascot for the 1980 Olympic Games – and has remained a symbol of Russia since Tsarist times. In 2009 it is the symbol of the United Russia Party.