The well known to all "Babushka" or otherwise called "Matrioshka" is the traditional Russian doll, that has hidden surprises, as from the time inside of it there are smaller version of it.
In this blog we will discuss thing about this doll that few of you might know of.
The real name of the doll.
In the western parts of Russia this doll is wrongly called as "Babushka". But what you might not know is that babushka actually mean grandmother
The real / official name of this dolls is Matrioshka (Матрёшка)
Matrioshka actually is the female cute way of the name Matryona, which in the 19th century was famous among the farmers and it's meaning was "mummy", "my lady" or " mother of a big family"
There are a lot of rumors regarding the names of this doll, one of them is that it was said this name to be the name of one of the servants of Mamotov.
In the end of the day we can clearly state that this name fits this dolls as from the fact its like a whole "family" (the big one could be the father, then the bit smaller the mother and then the kids)
In Russia, Matrioshka is deeply connected and represented as a symbol of family and fertility.
This Russian dolls are a traditional representation of a mother who is caring her childern inside of her, and it can be view as a chain of generations of mothers passing down the family heirlooms and values to the next generations.
Style of Matrioshka
There are a lot of companies in Russia that are manufacturing Matrioshka, thus more than one style of this doll can be found.
The most famous style of this doll is girls wearing a headscarf and a sarafan ( traditional Russian dress) with an apron. There are only 3-4 colors used ( most commonly red, yellow and green) with a black borderline
Another style of this doll, is when the designers are drawing this dolls with various flowers on the cloths. Another style could be Matrioshka wearing red or yellow dotted dressed and holding flowers. Most commonly this dolls are consisted of 6-8 figurines
Types of wood used to make Matrioshka
The selection of the wood to make this little cute dolls is the key to the whole thing.
For the preparations of t his dolls the creators traditionally used a soft type of wood. The most suitable tree for the preparation of this dolls is Linden. Though there are some companies that use birch or Scots pine.
The best time the tree to be cut to make this dolls is at the beginning of Spring or in the winter, when the trees have little to non- juice/ fluid inside.
The outside part of the doll is made from new cut trees (freshly cut tree) which later will be let to dry; that's why the doll close so tightly.
Double meaning
The Russian artists were always considering the fact to include irony in their creations.
Even before the Revolution, there were dolls such as a groom and a wife with their relatives the one inside the other ( exactly like Matrioshka).
In the 1912, for the celebration of the 100 anniversary of the Patriotic War, there were dolls made, Kutuzov and Napoleon for the soldiers.
From the Perestroika, the artists created Russian dolls that depict famous politician from all around the world. You could easily find dolls Matrioshka that depict Lenin, Stalin, Trap and even Putin, at the local souvenir shops.
I wonder how the inside figurines of those Matrioshka types look like.
The biggest Matrioshka is located in ...... China
Near the boarders of Russia and China, in the Chineze city called Manzhouli, is located a mall and a Luna Park called "Matrioshka" with the officially recognized biggest Matrioshka doll in the whole world. The height of the doll is said to be 30cm
The Matrioshka in the center is surrounded with other eight smaller dolls and then other 200 even smaller figurines.
What is fascinating to know is that nowadays the majority of the Matrioshka dolls is made in China, so if you are ever to buy a Matrioshka doll make sure to check where its made.
~~~~~~~~
Huge thanks to my best friend Gina Paul, who wrote this article and let me borrow her masterpiece and post it on my page as well.
Please let us all show our support to her and follow her website: https://ru-language.wixsite.com/russian?fbclid=IwAR0mKnrciWYrjaGE-4rG8PNDR6nJjt9dBlnODes-bYq-KS_zdEWpuC6MSHk
That's All She Wrote
Laura Melkonian
Comentarios