Matryoshkas

A matryoshka doll, also called a babushka, is a set of wooden dolls nested inside one another. The name matryoshka comes from the Latin word matrona or mater meaning mother. It is the diminutive form of the Russian first name Matryona. The first matryoshkas were made in 1890 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin and designed by folk painter Sergey Malyutin. Traditionally the outer layer is a woman dressed as a Russian peasant. The figures inside may be male or female, and the smallest doll is typically a baby turned from a single piece of wood. The designs are always quite elaborate, and nowadays they can range from fairy tale characters to Soviet leaders. The matryoshka dolls were popular not only in Russia but also in East Germany. After German reunification, the matryoshka doll became a very popular GDR souvenir that was sold alonside pieces of the Berlin Wall on the streets. Today you find a huge variety of matryoshka dolls in souvenir shops in Berlin. I got my first matryoshka from a Russian colleague of my father who was visiting West Berlin. I remember her red fingernails, long and shining like fire. When she took the dolls apart, explaining with her great Russian accent, how to do it, I thought, she is like a magician with ten red magic sticks, turning one big doll into seven small ones.