The Beginning of Russian Matryoshkas

The early Matryoshka, or Russian nesting doll, dates back to 1890 and is believed to have gained inspiration from Japanese souvenir or gift dolls. However, the idea of nested items was already popular in Russia, as is evidenced in such items as carved Easter eggs and wooden apples. In 1885, the first Fabergé egg was created. It included a nesting of yolk, egg, chick and hen.

The creation of Matryoshka dolls started through the effort of Sergei Maliutin, a visual artist who worked in the folk crafts shop of a popular Russian businessman and arts enthusiast, Savva Mamontov. The shop was located at Abramtsevo Estate in Moscow. When Maliutin saw Japanese wooden dolls, he was inspired to create a toy similar to those Japanese dolls, but in Russian style. The biggest among the Japanese dolls was one that had an unusually long chin. Later, he began to make several sketches of the dolls in Russian version. The dolls were engraved by Vasiliy Zvezdochkin, and afterwards, Maliutin painted the dolls in Abramtsevo at the Children’s Education Workshop-Salon. A total of eight dolls were made, consisting of an outermost doll, which is a girl with a rooster, the other six dolls in the middle were girls, and the innermost doll was a baby boy. Those dolls gained popularity when Savva’s wife, M.A. Mamontova, showed the dolls at the World Exhibition in 1900 in Paris, where the dolls were awarded a bronze medal. Shortly after the exhibition, several places in Russia began to make Matryoshka dolls.