Russian Matryoshka... Russian???

Throughout its time history that can be traced back to the times of Kievska Rus’, Russia intersected with numerous nations and cultures and lived under different regimes. While preserving its uniqueness, Russia adopted some elements that greatly enriched and shaped the culture. Some commonly accepted world-known Russian components were adopted not long ago, while others, truly Russians, remain unknown. Every now and then I will reveal such secrets. Here’s one of them…

The well known Russian nested doll, named “Matryoshka” is the number one souvenir foreign individuals try to acquire when in Russia or hosting Russian visitors. Matryoshka is considered as “Russian” as you can get. However, the history reports that Matryoshka came around only in the 90s of the XIX century, when a woodturner Vasilii Zvyozdochkin made a doll copying the concept from a Buddhist monk figure brought from Japan.