This is the most comprehensive book ever written on the dolls that have become the symbol of Russian folk culture, if not Russia itself.  
The first Russian matryoshka was made in 1899 in Sergiev Posad, a small monastery village and a center of wooden toy making near Moscow.  Sergiev Posad, whose workshops also created toys for the children of the czars, has continue to be an important center of matryoshka making over one hundred years later.  Many other aspects of matryoshka production have also remained remarkably unchanged over the intervening century, despite the upheavals that Russia has experienced.  The photos in this book reveal a Russia that most would think had disappeared long ago.
The matryoshka quickly bacame a favorite toy in Russian homes.  They are now a favorite souvenir for tourists and a collectible known and loved throughout the world.  As the controls of the Soviet economy have vanished, independent artists have made the dolls a canvas for their talent and expression.  From simple toy to work of art, the full. colorful spectrum of the art of the matryoshka is sample in this book.  Lavishly illustrated.