Sergiev Posad was the place where the first nesting doll was made by artist Sergei Maliutin and a turner Vassiliy Zviozdochkin. This old Russian town is located 73 km (about 45 miles) from Moscow. It was built up around famous Trinity-St.Sergius Monastery. In 1340 the monk Sergius founded a small temple lost in the midst of the wild thick forests. Later it became the biggest monastery in Russia.

    Arts and crafts were flourishing in the towns and villages nearby the monastery. Wooden toys, which were known as "Trinity" toys, became particularly popular. According to the legend the first "Trinity" wooden toy was made by the Prior of the Monastery, Sergius Radonezhsky.

    Sergiev Posad was a colorful, truly Russian town. The Monastery lent a unique peculiarity to it. The huge marketplace in front of the Monastery was almost always full of different people: merchants, monks, pilgrims and craftsmen.

   A professional artist made the first painted matryoshka of Sergiev Posad just for fun. That is why these dolls are so expressive and won admiration of adults and children. In the initial period of matryoshka development particular attention was paid to faces of matryoshka.

   The faces of the early matryoshkas of Sergiev Posad were oval and strict. The heads of many matryoshkas were greatly enlarged. That's why the face dominated the body. These dolls look primitive because of this disproportion, but at the same time they are very expressive.

   Matryoshka types were rather different. They portrayed both male and female characters. There are some ethnographic matryoshkas: Gypsy Woman, American Man, Turk, Chinese and Ukrainian. The matryoshka of Sergiev Posad consisted of 2 to 24 pieces. The most popular dolls consisted of 3, 8 and 12 pieces. In 1913 a 48-piece matryoshka made by N. Bulichev was displayed at the Exhibition of Toys in St. Petersburg.

   In 1918 the unique Museum of Russian and Foreign Toys was opened in Sergiev Posad. The first Russian matryoshka by S. Maliutin is a part of its exhibition.

    In the 19th the toy craft of Sergiev Posad became the greatest in Russia. It has grown on the base of ancient art traditions coupled with the local school of applied arts. Hundreds of homesteads, over two thousand craftsmen were involved in creating all types of toys, molded and turned on a lathe.

The master-craftsmen of Serguiev Posad make toys from the 16th century. The local legend says that Tatycha, the native deaf-and-dumb craftsman, once carved a lime doll and traded it to a merchant selling girdles by the monastery walls for the decoration of his store. The doll, attracting attention to the merchant's goods, was soon bought.

    In the 19th the toy craft of Sergiev Posad became the greatest in Russia. It has grown on the base of ancient art traditions coupled with the local school of applied arts. Hundreds of homesteads, over two thousand craftsmen were involved in creating all types of toys, molded and turned on a lathe.

Toy Museum was established in Moscow in 1918 by the artist N.D.Bartman. In 1921 it was transferred to Sergiev Posad. B. Shergin called Sergiev-Posad the capital of the toy kingdom. He wrote, "According to popular legends the first wooden toy was contrived by St. Sergius. He would carve ('with this very knife in a sheath on the belt') birds and horses of lime-wood and gift them to children with a blessing.
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