С НОВЫМ ГОДОМ! -- Happy New Year

Let's START (СТАРТ) the New Year with Misha, the Russian Bear mascot of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. You can see the Olympic rings on the belt he is wearing in this picture. According to Wikipedia:

In Russian, Misha is a short form for the Russian male name Mikhail (Michael), and Mishka is a diminutive of Misha.This name, in any of its forms, is a common colloquialism in Russian for a bear, because it is similar to the standard name for bear медведь (medved). Also, most anthropomorphic bears in Russian fairy tales have this name. It is thought to originate as euphemism for medved, which was tabooed because of magical thinking that letting out the "true name" of the dangerous animal may cause it to come and attack.

 This is a 1979 Soviet New Year postcard (postal card). The back has preprinted postage and artwork by a young child.