A man dressed as a Santa Claus poses at the front of the Kollhoff Tower at Potsdamer Platz square in Berlin December 14, 2014. (Photo by Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters)

Runners dressed in Christmas-themed outfits compete during a charity Santa run in Shanghai, China, November 29, 2015. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

A woman plays on a swing on the beach in Santa Monica, Calif., Wednesday, June 22, 2022. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)

An employee dressed in a Santa Claus costume plays with cats at the Catgarden in Seoul, South Korea, December 14, 2020. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

People dressed in costumes have a break while marching during the Vijanera Festival, in the small village of Silio, northern Spain, Sunday, January 3, 2016. The Vijanera masquerade, of pre-Roman origin, is the first carnival of the year in Europe symbolizing the triumph of good over evil and involving the participation of crowds of residents wearing different masks, animal skins and brightly coloured clothing with its own complex function and symbolism and becoming the living example of the survival of archaic cults to nature. (Photo by Francisco Seco/AP Photo)

Ayaka Oshita, a 27-year-old diver, practices in preparation for the upcoming seasonal feeding performance as a Santa diver at Sunshine Aquarium at Ikebukuro in Tokyo, Japan, 07 December 2021. Oshita has 15-month experience for feeding fish at the aquarium after she joined the aquarium in 2019. The Santa diver performance will be held for three days around the Christmas time. The aquarium will not inform the performance time to avoid the visitors' crowd due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Kimimasa Mayama/EPA/EFE)

A Zombie Santa is pictured Death Yard Haunted Attraction in Hendersonville, Tennessee December 10, 2014. The Nashville-area haunted house is getting into the Christmas spirit this weekend, with Zombie Santa, his undead elves and a demonic reindeer going on the attack for fun and charity. (Photo by Harrison McClary/Reuters)

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.