The matryoshka is dated to 1890, but its origin story is less settled

The matryoshka is usually dated to 1890, when a set designed by the painter Sergey Malyutin at the Abramtsevo circle was carved by the turner Vasily Zvyozdochkin. Britannica credits the Abramtsevo artists with the first doll. The first set had eight pieces, and it is now kept in a museum at Sergiev Posad. The dating and attribution are less settled than the usual story. Some sources give 1892 or 1898. Encyclopedia.com credits the design to Princess Tenisheva’s craft school at Talashkino, which is a minority view. The Japanese prototype is uncertain: sources name a Fukuruma doll, a daruma figure, or a set of Seven Lucky Gods, and Zvyozdochkin’s memoirs do not mention a Japanese doll at all. Production moved to Sergiev Posad when the Abramtsevo workshop closed in the late 1890s, and the town became the main centre. The meaning people repeat, of the largest doll as a mother with her children inside, is a common interpretation.