Where?

Although Russian nesting dolls are world renowned, information on their history and provenance can be quite contradictory. It seems generally recognized however that the first Matryoshka dolls were created in a ‘Children’s Education’ workshop in Abramtsevo, an estate located north of Moscow, around 1890. Abramtsevo had been purchased in 1870 by Sawa Mamontov, a wealthy industrialist and patron of the arts. Famous Russian artists worked alongside folk craftsmen who were collectively seeking to recapture the quality and spirit of medieval Russian art.

Why?

Legend has it that at a traditional Saturday meeting somebody brought an unusual set of Japanese wooden dolls representing Shichi-Fuku-Jin,the Seven Gods of Fortune. The largest doll was that of Fukurokuju- a happy, bald god with an unusually long chin. (There is also a legend that the first doll of such a type on the island of Honshu in Japan was made by unknown Russian monk). Sergei Maliutin, a Russian craftsman and illustrator of children’s books, was greatly inspired by these dolls and decided to create a Russian equivalent.

(It is worth noting that nested figurines were already in evidence in Russia in the form of Easter eggs or Faberge eggs).

Who?

Maliutin sketched out his idea and got Vasiliy Zvezdochkin to do the carving. Maliutin later painted the carved figure and the first set of Russian nesting dolls was born. This first set, comprised of eight dolls showing Fukuruma is in the Artistic Pedagogical Museum of Toys (APMT) in Sergiyev Posad, the cultural centre for the making of matryoshka dolls.

After the World Fair in Paris in 1900, the Russian nested doll became very popular and began to be manufactured on a large scale in Sergiev Posad. In 1913 a 48-piece matryoshka made by N. Bulichev was displayed at the Exhibition of Toys in St.Petersburg.

And then … Socialism…

The initial artistic blossoming of the matryoshka doll, both of the classic rural mother and other characters, was soon nipped in the bud by the new ideology, socialism, and mass production.

Some matryoshka types were developed for manufacture in factories but private making of matryoshkas or other handicrafts was forbidden in the USSR ; in any case,  all the craftsmen were ordered to work in the factories.

However there was a handful of people who created and painted original matryoshkas but it was not typical. These dolls were bought by private collectors and are now quite rare.

It wasn’t until the early 1990’s, when the old economic system was destroyed and artists and talented artisans regained artistic and creative freedom, that the rebirth of the hand crafted Russian nested doll occurred.