This “Olympic Mishka” (Olympic Bear) souvenir was a gift to the Chkalov Museum from Tatyana Viktorovna Fyodorova, the Mosmetrostroy deputy manager, one of the pioneer builders of the Moscow subway, a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st and 2nd convocation sessions, and a Hero of Socialist Labor.

According to the memoirs of Fyodorova’s adopted daughter, a Korean girl named Lydia Kim, Tatyana Viktorovna always wanted to fly in the sky. Instead, at the age of 18, she went underground to arrange transport tunnels there following the order from the Komsomol Party. However, two years later, inspired by Chkalov’s example, Fyodorova decided to go to a gliding school.

There she quickly mastered the aircraft and was the first in her group to jump with a parachute. According to eyewitnesses, she landed in someone’s vegetable garden. Then Fyodorova was given a garrison cap with an asterisk and a service shirt for her courage.

Subsequently, Tatyana Fyodorova parachuted many times. She had to start from heavy bombers, jumping from the wing, from the turret, and into the bomb hatch. Fyodorova participated in numerous parades and holidays, where it was necessary to demonstrate the skill of parachuting. She came out the winner in competitions and participated in training camps. She could always remember one of them by looking at a huge Tula samovar standing on the shelf, which had an inscription:

In her book “Moscow is Overhead”, the Mosmetrostroy deputy manager wrote,

The souvenir “Olympic Mishka” from the museum’s collection shows the mascot of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The organizing committee chose the bear as a symbol of perseverance and strength — the qualities inherent in athletes. The character was created by the book illustrator Viktor Chizhikov, who submitted his sketch to the contest for the best illustration of a bear.