The wonderful taste of chocolate sweetness of the Alenka trademark dates back to 1965. It is noteworthy that the image on the wrapper of the legendary chocolate bar was created on the basis of a photograph of a real child. The artist only slightly changed some details of the face of the cute girl Elena Gerinas, who is currently an adult woman with a scandalous story related to the production of Alenka chocolate products.
The prototype of the girl, depicted on the legendary Alenka chocolate bar, was barely eight months old when her adoring parent, who is fond of photography, took a historical photograph. This happened in 1960, and the photojournalist was able to catch that unique moment, which later became well known throughout the USSR. No one was surprised that the parents of a beautiful and very colorful girl wanted to publish a photo of their beloved child in some popular publications. After all, a brown-eyed girl in a bright headscarf aroused affection in many adults of that era.
The popular magazine “Soviet Photo” was the first information platform that gladly posted a photograph of Elena Gerinas. And in 1962 the large-circulation edition "Health" followed this example. In the early 'sixties, a photo of a cute girl with an open eyes flaunted all over the country. However, the creators of the Alenka chocolate wrapper made the fateful decision only after a long search, which was crowned with success four years later.
The history of Alenka chocolate
Flavoring richness of creamy delicacies made Alenka chocolate the most recognizable brand in the country, which became possible thanks to the unique recipe and ingredients used. The confectionery specialists of the Krasny Oktyabr factory invented it in 1964. Today, the etymology of this name is no longer reliably known. According to some reports, the daughter of the legendary pilot-cosmonaut V. Tereshkova inspired the creators of the famous brand to make such a decision, but the heads of the confectionery production association categorically denied this information.
In the first design versions of the "Alenka" chocolate wrapper, there was not even a hint of the well-known type of this delicacy. As was customary in the era of communist construction, the artist-developers tried to implement ideological themes such as May Day or International Women's Day. Thematically, it is important to understand that the first batches of Alenka chocolate produced at the Krasny Oktyabr factory did not use a wrapper with the image of a charming girl at all.
And therefore, fame and recognition to Elena Garinas did not come immediately after the release of the products of a well-known brand. Initially, managers set the task of finding a corporate identity for a brand of confectionery products for the developers of the wrapper layout. In their opinion, only the image known to the whole world could bring sufficient recognition of the product for its popularization among the widest layers of the population. Of course, in this search, the classical visual arts turned out to be a priority. And it was Alyonushka in the picture of the famous artist Vasnetsov who was chosen as the highest priority in this casting of images.
However, the thematic unanimity in the camp of the management of the Krasny Oktyabr plant regarding the image on the Alenka chocolate was not destined to materialize, since the USSR Government, for still unknown reasons, did not approve this decision. One can only assume that, as always in that period, Vasnetsov's painting could not withstand the "high moral level" of the standards established in the Soviet Union. There is also a version of this kind that the painting depicted not a sufficiently optimistic plot, and the chocolate wrapper was considered exclusively as a life-affirming beginning of the builders of communism.
After a series of failures, the long-awaited success followed, when the leaders of this project decided to organize an all-Union competition to find a title image for branded products. The presentation of the innovative project took place in the newspaper "Evening Moscow". The thematic article established the norms for the contestants, which indicated the requested photos from the family archives. Photos of little cute girls who could be considered the national pride of the country were allowed for the casting.
And it was the photograph of Elena Gerinas that was able to overcome the huge competition and become the head of the list of winners of the competition. Thus, the artist's daughter A. M. Gerinasa - Elena - became the face of the wrapper of a delicious creamy chocolate "Alenka". However, it should be noted that the original photo, participating in the national competition, is somewhat different from the final version of the image of the girl on the chocolate wrapper. The last design option, which was installed in 1966, had a positive impact on the popularization of the product. The updated image has been slightly corrected from the original version in some details of the face: eye color, face contour, eyebrow shape and upper lip.
Elena Gerinas' lawsuit
Elena Gerinas in 2000 filed a lawsuit in a Moscow court regarding the recovery of monetary compensation for the long-term use of her childhood photograph from the confectionery enterprise "Red October". Already quite an adult woman suggested that she would be able to receive a large sum of money from the domestic flagship of confectionery products as a fine for unauthorized use of her photo. It was about five million rubles. However, the court did not justify the hopes of Elena Gerinas and issued a decision justifying the management of the Krasny Oktyabr factory.
The fact is that the copyright holders of the popular confectionery brand defended their version of what was happening, which excluded the presence of the image of Elena Gerinas on the wrapper of Alenka chocolate. They stated that the wrapper does not depict a specific person, but a collective image. Regarding Elena herself, a version was expressed that the artist Maslov, who was working on the project at the stage of its adoption in its final form, was only inspired by the mentioned photo. Although he took it into work to design the layout of the wrapper for Alenka chocolate, he significantly modified it, changing many details of the image. Thus, the final appearance of the image could not be identified as a photo of the eight-month-old girl Elena Gerinas, which was recognized by the court.
The court decision established that the owners of the Krasny Oktyabr company could not be found guilty at the suit of Elena Gerinas and were exempted from monetary compensation due to the groundlessness of the claims. The drawing on the chocolate wrapper of the Alenka trademark was recognized as a work of art that does not relate to a photograph of a particular person.
Brief biographical information about Elena Gerinas
Despite the fact that a judicial investigation of the Alenka chocolate wrapper was carried out and the artist's creative initiative was established, and not plagiarism of someone else's property, many lovers of this confectionery product may be interested in the biography of Elena Gerinas. After all, it was this woman who for a long time kept in suspense many witnesses of the erupted dramatic story.
Elena Gerinas was born in 1959 in Moscow. She is a native Muscovite, whose parents are a journalist and photojournalist. Subsequently, the girl did not follow in the footsteps of her parents, but chose a professional career as a pharmacist. Today she lives in Khimki near Moscow in her own house. Elena Gerinas is married, in which two children were born, currently living separately from their parents. She is not a public person and prefers to lead a rather secluded lifestyle.
The end of the story about the legendary domestic chocolate "Alenka"
The sensational story with chocolate products of the Alenka trademark initiated an unhealthy excitement that unfolded on the Internet. Nowadays, many age-matched women with a baby photo used in 1966 claim to be the prototype for the legendary image.
Interestingly, the Alenka cream chocolate, which has become a kind of symbol of the Soviet era, is now out of stock, and the story of the image on its wrapper worries Elena Gerinas' fans to this day.
