Art within Art: Russian Dolls

Matryoshka dolls – they have made Russian doll-makers famous the world over, so much so that when they say Russian dolls, most people actually mean Matryoshka dolls. These dolls are actually a set of figures of decreasing size placed one inside another. The name Matryoshka is a diminutive of the Russian female name Matryona. The plural form in Russian is Matreshki, while in the US, they are sometimes called stacking dolls.

Typically, a set of Matryoshka dolls consists of a wooden figure that can be opened to reveal another, smaller figure of the same kind inside. That in turn has another figure inside, and so on. This pattern has given rise to the term ‘nesting dolls’ to describe these dolls. Usually, there is a minimum of six nesting figures in each set of Russian dolls. The shape of the dolls is mostly cylindrical, rounded at the top for the head and tapered towards the bottom, but the dolls have no hands or legs except those that are painted on. Indeed, the beauty of these dolls lies in the painting, which can be fantastically elaborate.

Most Matryoshka dolls follow a particular theme, and the theme can be almost anything, ranging from fairy tale characters to Soviet leaders. Interestingly, though always identified with Russia, Matryoshka dolls are not a traditional Russian skill; the first set of these dolls dates from 1890, and was apparently inspired by Japanese souvenir dolls. However, the Russians were familiar with the concept of nested objects, courtesy Faberge Easter eggs, the first of which was made in 1885, with a nesting of egg, yolk, hen, and crown.

I can’t help telling you an interesting story bout how the Russians discovered Matryoshka dolls. The story goes that one Sergei Malyutin, a painter from a folk crafts workshop on the estate of a famous Russian industrialist, came across a set of Japanese wooden dolls representing the Seven Gods of Fortune, one within another. So Malyutin drew a sketch of a Russian version of the dolls, had it carved by artisan Vasiliy Zvezdochkin in a toy workshop and painted it himself. There were eight dolls, alternating between boys and girls, with the innermost being a baby. In 1900, the wife of the industrialist presented the dolls at an exhibition in Paris and won a bronze medal. Soon, many Russian craftsmen began making Matryoshka dolls in various themes.

During Perestroika, Matryoshka dolls themed on Soviet leaders became very popular. The commonest version had Mikhail Gorbachev on the outside, then Leonid Brezhnev, then Nikita Khrushchev, Josef Stalin and finally the smallest, Vladimir Lenin. Matryoshka dolls that represent old women are often called babushkas, and those that represent old men, dedushka.

The reputation of these dolls have led to their use in several areas of popular culture, including in one of the several ’couch gags’ during the credits of The Simpsons, in which the Simpson family appear on the couch as Matryoshka dolls. The dolls have also appeared on Sesame Street, as a tool to teach children how to count.