Baboushka Russian Dolls

The very first Baboushka Russian dolls were created in the late 19th Century and was painted as a young girl in a simple “saraphan” dress with apron and headscarf. A cockerel was also painted on this very first Matryoshka. The girl’s name was Matrena (Matryosha/Matryoshka as a tender version), which was a very popular Russian name at the time.

The toy consisted of eight figures. A girl figure was followed by a boy one and so on down the line. Each of the paintings was different to the previous one with the last one being a swaddled baby. The toy was painted in gouch.

Today, this very first Matryoshka Russian doll is exhibited in a museum of toys in the city of Sergiev Posad, which is considered one of the spiritual centres of Russia and was the centre of Russian doll manufacturing for many years.

However even before the first Matryoshka appeared, Russian craftsmen were making wooden Ester eggs which were hollow inside and could be opened. Therefore the version of a direct succession between the Japanese toy and the Russian Matryoshka is not quite that straight forward.

The dolls are often referred to as Babushka dolls, which can have numerous western spellings such as babooshka or even baboushka.