Matrioskas, an endless souvenir
In 1890 the first doll was created inside another doll which they called and today we know as matryoshka . It is said that they were copied from a similar toy that already existed in Japan and that they were born as an entertaining wooden toy in which they were going to look like girls and boys of different sizes until ending with a very small piece in the shape of a baby. It is believed that the innocent little toy was the Russian way of expressing motherhood: a mother who generates endless –always odd- churumbeles girl and boy, girl and boy, until she reaches the baby. Large family that in the ancient workshops of the ancient Russia hand painted on the more vivid primary tones.
When one travels to Russia, especially to St. Petersburg either Moscow , it is inevitable not to trip over the Russian dolls in every corner. The matryoshka is Russia and just looking at it transports us to the country, in the same way that a tulip takes us to Holland, a pizza to Italy or a tagine to Morocco. What would a trip be without your souvenir? And what would a souvenir be without being a reflection of the changes that a country is undergoing?
Those first moms with multiple children became at a certain moment a reflection of the political succession of the country with the caricature of putin as a large matryoshka that hid in turn the caricature of Yeltsin and thus an odd number of politicians dyed drag queens playing dolls with the national flag in the form of a souvenir of the country.
It is so, inevitable, today Russia matryoshkas of all kinds and shapes are made: matryoshkas of famous people, movie myths, soccer players, singers... But perhaps the one that I could have liked the most of all the reinventions of the matrioskas is the one that, without a doubt, has been born from the supreme ingenuity: the matryoshka cabinet-bar. There was any moment when it occurred to someone, an enlightened person or a realist, to create the matrioka that hides the perfect drink for a cold land, the vodka.
That discreet and innocent doll in whose interior she hid and hides a necessary bottle of vodka to alleviate the icy Russian days. What would a trip to Russia be without a flask of vodka hidden in any pocket of your oversized coat? But next to that hip flask one does not lose coquetry. Of Russia I took the bar doll and a pair of earrings with trails matryoshka bright red that I wear on spring mornings to remember the intense cold and the story of an unforgettable journey.