Lady Afraid of a Dog: A Soviet porcelain figure, Lomonosov Porcelain Factory, Leningrad, circa 1932

after the 1927 model by Natalia Danko, inscribed in Russian 'Coward', with impressed factory mark and IK (Cyrillic) for modeller Ilia Kuznetsov

The figure of the 'Coward' is most likely a caricature of the people of the NEP period. The New Economic Policy was a temporary introduction of more market-oriented economic approaches, aimed to support the country after the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. This brief period of relative economic prosperity allowed the country to get a glimpse of the excess and glamour of the roaring twenties. Such a 'capitalistic' lifestyle was not in line with Party policies, and the NEP was swiftly abolished by Joseph Stalin in 1928.

For further information, please see T. Nosovich, I. Popova, Gosudarstvenniy Farforoviy Zavod, St Petersburg, 2005, p. 530 and V. Levshenkov, Tvorchestvo Sester Danko, St Petersburg, 2012, p. 243.