Playing cards National

In 1900, in the illustrated review "Spark", the "New Russian Cards" were announced, issued by the Card Factory of the Imperial Educational House based on the originals of the artist Nikolai Karazin (1842-1909). The deck was sold in Russia under the name "Highest grade". On the maps, the author depicted representatives of the four nationalities that make up the Russian Empire: the club suit - Little Russians, the spade suit - Kazakhs or Kirghiz, the diamond suit - Poles, the heart suit - Great Russians.
N.N. Karazin is a Russian battle painter and writer, a participant in the Central Asian campaigns. He designed the books of A.S. Pushkin, N.V. Gogol, F.M. Dostoevsky, D.V. Grigorovich, N.A. Nekrasov, L.N. Tolstoy, I.S. Turgenev. In 1904-1905, a complete collection of his literary works was published.