Chumachenko Anna I

My souvenir – Matryoshka.
I went to Sochi with the chamber orchestra
and it was my first trip to Russia. And of course
I brought a souvenir from there - a
Matryoshka doll.
Matryoshka is a Russian wooden toy, in the
form of a painted doll, inside which there are
smaller dolls similar to it. The number of
nested dolls is usually three or more. They
usually have the shape of an egg with a flat
bottom and consist of two detachable parts,
an upper and a lower one. The traditional
matryoshka dolls depict a woman in a red
sundress and a headscarf. Nowadays, the
themes for painting are diverse: fabulous
characters, girls, and families. Parody
matryoshka dolls depicting political figures
have also become common. Relatively
recently, a matryoshka doll with a portrait
image began to gain popularity — a portrait
matryoshka doll.

The first eight-seater doll made in 1890 by V. P. Zvezdochkin and S. V. Malyutin, called "Matryona", was
a round-faced peasant girl in an embroidered shirt, sundress and apron, covered with a colorful
handkerchief, in whose hands was a black cock. A girl with a black cock was followed by a boy, then a
girl again. All the figures were different from each other, and the last, the eighth, depicted a swaddled
baby. In 1890, their mass production began as toys and souvenir. At the end of the XIX century, when
the search for the "Russian folk style" was underway, E. G. Sapozhnikova-Mamontova brought from
Japan dolls embedded in each other, depicting the "seven gods of happiness", which inspired the
Russian masters who invented the matryoshka doll. In 1900, the matryoshka was first presented at the
international exhibition of handicrafts in Paris and was awarded a medal, however, in the conditions
of the beginning of the economic crisis in the same 1900, the workshop "Child Education" was closed
and its entire range was transferred to the zemstvo educational and demonstration workshop in
Sergiev Posad. As a result, it was Sergiev Posad (where woodcarving was developed and families of
artisan toy manufacturers lived) that became the main center for the production of nesting dolls. In
1904, a large order for nesting dolls was received from Paris, and later their export to other countries
began. In 1909, for the centenary of N. V. Gogol, nesting dolls depicting the heroes of "The Inspector"
and "Taras Bulba" were carved. Later, dolls were created based on the plots of A. S. Pushkin's fairy
tales, folk epics and legends. Before the 1917 revolution, matryoshka dolls were called "Matryona" or
"Matryoshka". This name was one of the most common female names and was associated with the
mother of a large family, who had good health and a portly figure. Subsequently, this name became a
household name and began to mean a turntable, colorfully painted wooden product. In 1970, a 70-
seat matryoshka doll with a height of one meter was made for the Expo-70 exhibition in Japan.