Vyatka Matryoshka Grushenka brown/red with girl

Traditional style Vyatka or Kirov matryoshka / nesting doll / Russian doll

The first matryoshka ( nesting doll ) was produced by Sergei Malutin in Sergiev Posad in 1890 painted on a set of dolls produced by Vasily Zvyozdochkin. As Matryoshki became popular other places such as Vyatka and Semenov also started specialising in their production.

This set is from the Vyatka (Вя́тка) region about 950km north-east of Moscow. In the 1780s Catherine the Great had renamed the ancient town of Khlynov to Vyatka although Vyatka had also been a name for the town from its previous history. In the 1930s it was renamed yet again in honour of the dissident communist Sergei Kirov who had been executed by Stalin.

The residents of the Vyatka region began to paint matryoshki as far back as in the 1920s and the style is normally blond and blue eyed in opposition to the Semenyov matryoshki that are dark haired and dark eyed. The straw encrusted style, that this region is well known for, developed a little later.

These wooden toys are a great way to help kids to develop hand and eye coordination (recommended for children three years and above). You can stack the nesting dolls on top of each other or maybe play a little game of guess what’s inside with your little ones. Whatever game you want to play, and whatever you call these dolls, whether stacking dolls, nesting dolls, Russian dolls or Matryoshka your kids will enjoy the real life interaction and the fun.

We should add that these matryoshka are not traditionally called Babushka dolls and that babushka actually means grandmother in Russian.

Imported by Babushka / Babushkas the original Matryoshki* specialist .. Melbourne / Dunedin / Berkshire

* Russian nesting dolls / Russian stacking dolls - matryoshki is plural and matryoshka singular.