Matryoshka dolls are considered a primordially Russian souvenir and therefore are so popular among tourists coming to Russia from different countries. All the more interesting is the fact that these wooden painted figurines of elegant beauties, embedded in each other, have far from Russian roots.
The first Russian nesting doll
The prototype of a cheerful, chubby Russian girl, embodied in classic nesting dolls, was brought to Russia from Japan at the beginning of the 19th century. The souvenir from the land of the rising sun was a wooden figurine of the old Japanese sage Fukuruma, nesting into each other. They were beautifully painted and stylized in the spirit of the traditions of the ancestor country of the modern nesting dolls.
Once in the Moscow Toy Workshop, the Japanese souvenir inspired the local turner Vasily Zvezdochkin and the artist Sergei Malyutin to create such toys. The craftsmen carved and painted similar figures that fit one into the other. The first analogue of a Japanese souvenir was a girl in a headscarf and a sundress, subsequent matryoshka dolls depicted cute funny children - boys and girls, on the last, eighth matryoshka, a swaddled baby was drawn. The matryoshka most likely got its name in honor of the female name Matryona, which was widespread at that time.
Sergiev Posad nesting dolls
After the closure of the workshop in Moscow, in 1900, craftsmen began to make nesting dolls in Sergiev Posad, in a training workshop. This type of folk craft became widespread, not far from the capital there were workshops of the Epiphany, Ivanov, Vasily Zvezdochkin, who moved to Posad from Moscow.
Over time, this souvenir toy gained such popularity that foreigners began to order it from Russian craftsmen: the French, the Germans, etc. Such nesting dolls were not cheap, but there was something to admire! The painting of these wooden toys became colorful, ornate, and varied. The artists portrayed Russian beauties in long sundresses and painted scarves, with bouquets of flowers, baskets and knots. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the mass production of nesting dolls for foreign countries was established.
Later, male nesting dolls appeared, for example, depicting shepherdesses with a pipe, mustachioed suitors, bearded old men with hooks, etc. Wooden toys were arranged according to a variety of principles, but the pattern, as a rule, was necessarily traced - for example, matryoshka-grooms were paired with matryoshka-brides and relatives.
Nesting dolls of the Nizhny Novgorod province
Closer to the middle of the 20th century, the matryoshka spread far beyond the borders of Sergiev Posad. So, in the Nizhny Novgorod province, craftsmen appeared who made nesting dolls in the form of slender tall girls in bright semi-shirts. And Sergiev Posad craftsmen made these toys in the form of more squat and magnificent young ladies.
Modern nesting dolls
Matryoshka is still considered one of the symbols of Russian culture. Modern nesting dolls are made in a variety of genres: in addition to classic drawings, they contain portraits of famous political figures, TV presenters, movie and pop stars.
In Sergiev Posad, the Toy Museum houses collections of nesting dolls by various masters of the early and mid-20th century, as well as the first nesting dolls painted by the famous artist Sergei Malyutin.
