Veta was born in 1917, the year the Romanovs fell and the Soviet Union rose. Her creator, Antonina Volkov, a gifted woodworker from a noble family turned Bolshevik sympathizer, carved her as a tribute to the duality of revolution. Each of Veta’s layers concealed symbols: a falconer on the Tsar’s coat, a red star beneath her skirt, and inside, a hollow chamber for secrets. Antonina gave her to a young revolutionary, a man named Ivan Petrov, as a keepsake. “She will remind you why we fight,” she said. “Not for power, but for stories .”