Sunday 11 December 2011

Matryoshkas: Moscow, Munich, Manchester


This stallholder travelled 1000km from the Black Forest in Bavaria, where Munich is the major city, to Manchester to sell its traditional Bavarian cuckoo clocks at the Christmas markets.

However, the stall is dominated by the wonderful Russian Matryoshka dolls. The first Matryoshka dolls were made in Moscow in 1890 and depict Russian peasant women in traditional dress.

With the Soviet dawn of perestroika in the 1980s dolls appeared depicting Soviet leaders from Gorbachev down to Lenin. These days you can also find versions of the Matryoshkas as fairy tale figures, sports players, The Simpsons and The Beatles. I am pleased to report that only the traditional Matryoshkas were on sale here.


There's a cute video of two of the Christmas markets at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SustfvoRAVI It reminds me of an independent low budget romantic film, with the bashful young woman, the soundtrack and the angles of some of the shooting.

10 comments:

  1. Our daughter each have a Matryoshka doll! They are lovely and fun to play with .... stacking and unstacking!

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  2. Great picture. I have always loved seeing these dolls.

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  3. These are great. Wonderful picture Chrissy!

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  4. These Russian matryoshka dolls are adorable!
    Thanks for sharing,
    Léia

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  5. These Russian dolls make a lovely extra addition to Christmas decorations.

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  6. Wonderful colour ! My son loves to play with them, time and again. Please have a good new week ahead.

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  7. Oh no you mean I cannot get my Putin doll right here in Manchester. My little sister had some of these when we were young.

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  8. The one in the middle looks just like the one we bought in Tallinn about 5 years ago.

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  9. Thank you so much for featuring my video! I'm really glad you liked it :)

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