Matryoshka seems very ancient. However, the ancient orings of matryoshka are nothing but a marketing play for tourists. From the historical perspective, the dolls came to Russia from Japan relatively recently in 1890's . Hard as it is to belive, matryoshka is only as old as cinema!

They say that somebody brought to the Mamontovs, a renowned family of Russian industrialists and patrons of arts, a wooden carving of a buddist saint with a surprise. The doll that came from island of Honsu would break into two halves revealing a smaller one with the same trick, of which there were five. As for matryoshka's ancestors, is it only certain that they come from a tea-house in Japan whose owner once marketed a new toy, twelve dolls one inside the other. The toy was doubly nicknamed: particoloured Daruma in honour of the Japanese god of luck, and Shichifukujin after the seven shintoist gods - family patrons.

Once in Russia, matryoshka first established itself in Moscow "Children's Education" for design and marketing of the so-called ethnographic dolls dressed in folk clothes of various regions of the Russian Empire. The idea was happily married to the Japanese form to give birth to what is world-known today as a multiple wodden doll in a Russian folk dress.

The immigrant doll naturalised in the Russian soil, changing it's eastern narrow eyes for a wide stare, with roses in it's cheeks and golden curls of hair. Ten years after matryoshka made its appearance in Russia it was awarded a gold medal as a typical Russian toy at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900. After the World exibition of 1900 international orders plooded in and encouraged the opening of large workshop in Moscow's suburb of Sergiev Posad, a major centre of Russian icon painting. As a matter of division of labour, women would paint clothes and men faces since, according to the ecclesiastical rule, only men learned to paint countenances of the saints. This explains why motionless faces of early dolls from Sergiev Posad are so expressive.

After the revolution matryoshkas were ideologically purged. It was not just policemen, deacons and old-belivers who were put on the black list but also sea-maids and forest trolls, something quite understandable from the point of view of the soviet regime. Of the entire variety only one species survived, a puffsided wide-eyed lady with rosy cheeks. Production of dolls in the Soviet Union peaked at the time of 1980 Olympics when a total of 10 million sets were made. Of souvenirs bought by international travellers only the Bear, official symbol of the Olympics, was competitive.

Today a whole army of craftsmen produce dolls for sale as their fantasy and skill would suggest. From a few forms of traditional Russian matryoshka, one can always guess where the doll comes from knowing the specific method of their manufacture.

Already early in the 20th century Sergiev Posad developed its own species later called "Zagorsk" by the name that the town adopted at the time of the Soviet regim. Dolls are painted heavily without leaving a single patch of pure wood. Their warm colour palette - orange, light brown, yellow, red - inspires warmth and vitallity. This hostess doll as it is often called will invariably hold something like a samovar or a basket.

In the 1920s matryoshka came to the fair at the Nizhni Novgorod and spread out to several craftsmen villages. The most famous dolls were made in Semyonovo. They were more brightly coloured than those of Zagorsk, with contrasting combinations of red, blue and yellow in their dress. Semyonovo sets are known for their prolificasy (15-18 dolls) of wich the biggest (72-doll 1,5 m high and 0,75 m wide) was even mentioned in the Ginness Book of Records. This giantess was specifically comissioned to the Semyonovo factory as a memorable gift for the Japanese government.

Another manufacturing centre is the town of Vyatka (Kirov). In the 1960s the local matryoshka acquiring patches of straw. After rye straw is manually cut in the field, it is boiled in a soda solution to gain yellowish shade, cut and ironed, with decorative elements die-made as necessary.

The process of doll manufacture changed little from the last century, the best material being soft and easily workable linden. Trees are cut in April for juicy wood which is then freed of bark, the ends covered with the clay to avoid flaws. Before coming to the turner, blanks are patiently aged in the open air for two long years so shaft could dry to the core.

It takes a truly professional to make one round blank through 15 operations using only a primitive set of chisels and knives. The blank is covered with starch glue to have an absolutely smooth surface for paints to apply evently and avoid flowing. Since production of blanks ("whites" as they are called in slang) is a sophisticated and painstaking process, it is not surprising that every craftsman wants his own turner so that the doll perfectly falls within the size and shape of the pattern designed by its author.

Today the shops abound in dolls designed exlusively for foreing guests. Characters of Disney animations compete with sets of Russian rulers, while faces of the saints with those of the hair Beatles. True connoisseurs want only an exclusive precious doll for themselves. Dolls may be commissioned: one American wanted from Sergiev Posad a set after Alice in Wonderland, a work that required several months to complete. Some collector's items follow the style of Rubens and Gainsborough, their cost going well beyond 3 or 4 thousand dollars. A traditional 30-doll set from Russia is displayed in New-York's Gallery of Modern Art. The largest private collection of more than 6 thousand sets of different schools including original pre-revolutionary ones belongs to Robert Brokop, an American.

The art of matryoshka, despite its Japanese origins, is surprisingly Russian. Attempts to paint collapsible dolls were made in Germany, France, and Japan itself. Chinese craftsmen even set up a large-scale production of dolls with all exactness of costume detail and painting methods. But the alien nature would instantly reveal itself, foreing dolls failing to win recognition. Could it be that the unresolved mystery of matryoshka is in a short story told step by step, from the bigger doll to the smaller, with all intimacy and romance so peculiar of Russia?

Matreshka

    Belomorskaya
    Hotikovskaya
    Nolinsk (factory)
    Novokuznetsk (author)
    Ours
    Pereyaslavl-Zalessky (author)
    Polkh-Maydan (author)
    Sarov
    Semyonovo (factory)
    Sergiev-Posad (author)
    Sergiev-Posad (factory)
    Symbol
    Tverskaya