MERLION has determined specific features of national gifts

What a genuine Russian souvenir should be? On the one hand, everyone wants something ingenious. On the other hand, a gift involving a national flair is to trigger a chain of familiar associations, in order to make this flair as a matter of fact identifiable in this way or the other. Caviar and vodka are the irreplaceable demand leaders among foreign tourists, but, as a matter of fact, such a present will not be kept for long with the owner. GIFT Review magazine did some hard thinking together with manufacturers of souvenirs about characteristic features of the indigenous style and get itself familiar with some achievements in this field. Svetlana Baskakova, Procurement Director of lines of activity “Office stationery” and “Business gifts” of MERLION Company was among the speakers.

“Every traveller brings souvenirs home as a keepsake from his trips. These can include fridge magnets, postcards sent by mail to himself to the homeland, and a cup comprising city symbols. Such goods as USB flash disks in embodied in Russian nesting dolls and spoons with Khokhloma painting embodied in pens enjoy strong demand travelling across our country. But if someone wants something memorable, and exclusive, our Company, as an official distributor of the Swiss brand Caran d’Ache, will be glad to offer an unusual souvenir: fountain pens and rollerballs of Yuri Gagarin Limited Edition series.

The famous words of Yuri Gagarin are engraved at the body of every pen: “Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it! Gagarin”. The inscription is made in Russian and reproduces the handwriting of the cosmonaut and his personal signature.

This memorable souvenir is provided in two variants of finish: silver and gold. The number of writing items made of silver corresponds to the year of the first flight of Yuri Gagarin into space – a circulation comprises 1,961 fountain pens and 1,961 rollerballs. A circulation of golden issue comprises 50 fountain pens and 50 rollerballs”.