Russian traditional culture

матрёшка-a symbolizes the unique traditional culture of Russia.

(The Legend of Dolls)

Once upon a time, a young man lost his parents and sister when he was a child, but his sister was trapped by heavy snow on the road of herding sheep and finally lost in the vast Xue Hai; My brother missed his sister so much that he carved a wooden doll with him. Every year, my brother will carve a bigger one. In his mind, my sister is one year older. After many years, my brother carved many wooden dolls. This story has been circulated for a long time, and gradually the doll has become a traditional Russian handicraft and a gift for young men and women to express their love.

The image of a doll is usually a girl or a woman wearing traditional Russian national costumes. They usually wear Sarah (сараан), red, blue, yellow and green headscarves on their heads, red cheeks, big eyes and red mouths, smiling slightly and holding a basket in their hands.

The name матрёшка comes from матрена, which means "mother of the family" in ancient Greece and is a very common name for rural women in old Russia.

The production process of dolls is very demanding. Generally, the wood used is березиосинылипы, which has been stored and dried for many times. In this way, a beautiful handicraft is made. The image of each set of dolls is basically the same, but the details of the patterns can still be handled in an ingenious way.

With the change of Russian concept and the diversification of market demand in recent years, many new ideas have emerged that break through the tradition and cater to the trend. Political leaders, fairy tales, cartoon characters, movie stars and sports stars all appear in the doll patterns. For example, the author has seen an ingenious series of "Soviet Leaders". From the inside out are Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, chernenko, andropov, Gorbachev and Yeltsin. The update also includes today's Russian President Vladimir Putin. There are also some works that satirize reality. For example, someone designed a series of sex scandals of US President Bill Clinton: opening the outermost Clinton, there is a Lewinsky hidden inside, and there is another one inside Lewinsky. Ironically, it is hilarious.

Taowa is probably the most traditional handicraft with Russian characteristics. It consists of a series of hollow wooden dolls from big to small. The big one is small, the small one is smaller ... the innermost one may be only as big as a grain of rice. Common sets are generally 3, 7, 10, and the most is said to be as many as 60 sets.

In fact, this "traditional" Russian handicraft has only a history of more than 100 years. There are different opinions about the time and way of its invention. But basically, it was created by an artist named сергеймалютин at the end of 19, inspired by a similar Japanese folk toy.

Dolls with a history of only a hundred years have become world-renowned Russian folk handicrafts and symbols of Russia's unique traditional culture.