I am the pastor of two Russian-speaking Baptist churches in New York
City, with parishioners from virtually every republic of the former
Soviet Union.  I have yet to discover a mechanical musical instrument
from Russia, although I am told that some piano rolls were made there,
so there must have been some player pianos somewhere.

About 1-1/2 years ago a composer from Ukraine was in my house and
reveled at my Marque Ampico.  I asked him about automatic instruments
in the former Soviet Union.  He had only seen such a piano in a movie
once, but had never seen or even heard of any other mechanical musical
instruments.

Last week a correspondent from Moscow was in our house.  She had never
seen or heard of any such instrument there either.  Since, during the
Soviet era everyone was expected to learn how to play a musical
instrument, there was apparently no need for anything mechanical.

Concerning Karl Faberge, he was French but his factory was in St.
Petersburg, Russia.  Most of the eggs, toys, clocks and music boxes
he made were strictly for the aristocracy.  The grandfather of a close
friend of mine made clocks for Karl Faberge in St. Petersburg.  At the
time of the Russian revolution the Faberge factory moved to France and
the artisans scattered -- the clockmaker went to Holland and then
later fled there and went to South America.

There is a fairly good collection of Faberge eggs and one very nice
music box in the Forbes Museum in New York City.  It is free and well
worth the time to visit.

The Russians made poor copies of cuckoo clocks, but had fine
chronometers.  One company built "grandfather" clocks as if they were
tower clocks.  The mechanism was in the bottom of the clock, with the
shaft going up to the face.  These things were built like tanks and
weighed about as much as well.

Russian porcelain is among the finest in the world, but rarely seen
outside of the former Soviet Union, except when working among
immigrants.

As for Sitka, Alaska, don't forget that Alaska was once part of Russia.
The Russian Orthodox church is the predominant church of that state.
Sitka was a Russian settlement.

Vincent Morgan
New York City