MESSENGERS OF THE SOVIET FUTURE

Opening Saturday: Think of them as tiny windows into the past: 300 postage stamps spanning nearly a half-century of Russian history, from the Bolshevik revolution through the 1950s. After the overthrow of the czar, Soviet leaders had flocks of unemployed artists and a semiliterate populace to inform. Artfully graphic propaganda trains crossed the country announcing the new era, and postage stamps touted the country's new goals -- building palaces, lofting blimps, raising healthy children, increasing grain production, transforming the world. For this unusual show, the Museum of Russian Art has borrowed 300 rare stamps from a private collector. Each holds a glimpse of a moment lost in time, when anything seemed possible in a newly minted country. (Ends Sept. 20. Museum of Russian Art, 5500 Stevens Av. S., at I-35W and Diamond Lake Rd., Mpls. $5 adults. 612-821-9045 or tmora.org)

MARY ABBE