National Toys in Russia

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Matryoshka

 

In Russia there are some national toys wgich are popular across the country. Today some of them became popular in many other countries as a true symbol of Russia and its culture. Matryoshka and Cheburashka are one of them.

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Matryoshka doll is a group of wooden dolls each of the dolls is smaller than previous one and they can be put inside one of another. First Matryoshkas appered at the end of 20th century by famous Russian folk painter Vassily Zveyozdochkin and and wood carver master Serge Malyutin and immediatelly became popular among Russian craftsmen.

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Officially matryoshka is designed with the face of women or grandmother (old women) dressed in traditional Russian clothes. However, today you can find some other variations for exemple with images of government and famous people including other themes like caricatures or national fairy tales. The number of Matryoshka dolls inside the big one may vary from 5 up to 50 dolls and even more.

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Cheburashka

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Cheburashka is another one iconic Russian toy character, that was popular in Soviet Period. It was a literature personage of Eduard Uspensky books, later appeared in cartoons. Cheburashka is a new creature on our planet that nobody has never seen before. He is small, brown and has very big ears.

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Cheburashka has also a friend Crocodile Gena another one main character of the stories and cartoons with whom he always got in funny situations. Today in Russian folklore there are many jokes and funny stories about them.

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Cheburashkais popular among Russians and even on official level he was many times a symbol of Russian Olympic team

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Other national toys, popular in Russia

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There are also some other toys that became symbols inside Russian culture. Like Russian bear (Olympic Games 1980), Snow leopard (Sochi Olympic games 2014) and the new one that has all the chances to become popular - the Wolf Zabivaka - a chosen mascot of FiFa World Cup 2018 that will take place in Russia.  

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