History of Russian dolls

Russian dolls is most popular Russian national souvenir. It is a folk art which came in at the end of 19th century which was a period of great economic and cultural development in Russia. This was also the time of uprising of Russian culture mainly Russian Art. Proficient artists worked along with folk craftsmen who preserved this artistic and traditional skill. The first Russian nested doll set was carved in 1890 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin and designed by Sergey Malyutin in Moscow. This craft continued to be a regional folk art until after it was presented a bronze medal at the World Exhibition in Paris, Russian dolls were then hand crafted in many places in Russia. The craft of creation of the renowned Russian nesting dolls was developed from an already renowned and developed folk art of creating Easter eggs nested one within another.
The wood used was limewood, birch, alder and aspen wood. Matryoshka dolls basically consists of a wooden figure which separates, top from bottom, to reveal a smaller figure of the same shape inside, which has, in turn, another figure inside of it, and so on..... Quite a lot of attentiveness is kept while shaping and crafting the thinness of the dolls.
Russian doll derived its name matryoskha from the Latin word mater which meant mother in English. Russian family life was displayed out through the dolls, usually a peasant mother in traditional dress with a babushka scarf, and a portly figure and her many offspring. Here detailed attention was given to the facial expression of the dolls. While both male and female figures were portrayed, usually the innermost doll in the set of Russian nesting dolls was mostly a baby. Thus it articulated the oldest symbol of human culture.
The theme of Matryoskha can be anything, ranging from Christmas Products to Matryoshka Charms. Modern artists create varied and new styles of Russian nesting dolls. Regular themes do include Flower nested dolls, Christmas collections, fairy tales nested sets…
The new ones include animal nesting sets, famous politicians portraits musicians, geek themes, popular movie stars etc . These days it even includes the promotional gifting features like employee category of the company, bizaare events, Brand names, vodka themes, cloth branding themes, regional specifications etc. Today many artists specialize in painting themed matryoshka dolls that feature specific categories of subjects, people or nature.
All such delightful combinations make the charm of Russian dolls unsurpassable.