Posted by Arthur on November 5, 2014, 4:08 pm, in reply to "Re: Soviet gifts?"
All State visits include the exchange of official gifts which are more or less lavish. I guess that the State Visits from leaders of countries of the former Communist "Eastern block" were not an exception, in this regard.
Nevertheless, Queen Elizabeth II very rarely met such Communist leaders. Nicolae Ceaucescu was the only Communist president ever received in State visit in Britain (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_state_visits_received_by_Queen_Elizabeth_II). Khrushchev's visit in 1956 was not a State visit, but an official visit.
And Queen Elizabeth II never visited the "Eastern block" before 1993 (so, after the collapse of the "Iron Curtain" and of the Communist dictatorships), the only exception being Yugoslavia in 1972 (but Marshal Tito had a rather independent policy towards the USSR). She also visited China in 1986 (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_state_visits_made_by_Queen_Elizabeth_II).
So the gifts from Communist leaders must be very rare in the Royal Collection. I don't know what official gifts Ceaucescu and Tito presented to Queen Elizabeth II, but as Romania and Yugoslavia have/had little gem mines, I assume these gifts were not jewels.
Khrushchev's gifts in 1956 were particularly lavish (despite the fact that his visit was only an official visit, and not a State visit), precisely because it was the first visit by a Soviet leader to London (and to a Western capital) since the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, and because he wanted to develop warmer relations with Western countries after the ice-cold relations of the post-WW2 Stalinist era (but the relations turned again very cold with the Hungarian and Suez crisis later in 1956, the Berlin crisis in 1961 and the Cuban crisis in 1962). Gifting the Queen and the Royal Family with priceless presents was probably a diplomatic way to express his respect towards his host and Britain - in the hope to gain their sympathy in return.
I do not know if other Queens or Princesses received jewels from Soviet leaders like Queen Elizabeth II. If I well remember, King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, and King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia paid State or official visits to the USSR.
on November 5, 2014, 4:08 pm, in reply to "