Matryoshka

A matryoshka doll is a symbol of Russian country and its culture. It is truly a doll for child's play, but it began its history just over 100 years ago as a highly collectible art form. The matryoshka doll (the matryoshka) is a nested doll with two halves to be pulled apart. The outer figure contains increasingly smaller versions of itself. The largest figure is usually on the order of 2-12 in (5-30 cm) tall, although larger ones up to several feet tall have been made. And the smallest may be very tiny - less than 0.25-in (0.6-cm) tall.

The painted image on the dolls is most often a woman to be worn a traditional Russian costume (sarafan). The woman is a mother; the names Matryona and Matryoshka were common Russian country names for generation. Both come from the Latin root mater for mother that is why matryoshka has come to mean "little mother" based on the idea that the outer or largest doll holds her babies inside like an expectant mother and that each daughter in turn becomes a mother. They are symbols of fertility and motherhood and have a modified egg shape. But sometimes it is called babushka or grandmother because of  kerchief on her head.

Matryoshkas in the set are not necessarily identical. The outer doll may wear a costume that is green, the next one red, the third blue, and so on. Or the costumes may be the same, but each doll may carry something different in her hands. For example, the outer doll may carry a bowl of salt (representing welcome and the family's offering of its wealth to guests—salt was once very rare), the next may hold a loaf of bread (a symbol of welcome in Russia), the third doll may carry a basket of strawberries (for the sweetness of the garden) and a fourth may hold several large beets (a traditional Russian vegetable symbolizing the richness of the earth).