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| Aren't they cute? I bought some for my mom and female friends. |
The outer layer is a woman dressed in a Russian folk costume called sarafan while the innermost doll is typically a baby lathed from a single piece of wood, hence it cannot be opened. Traditionally the number of nested figures is five.
The name Matryoshka might have originated from the Russian first name Matryona, usually associated with a robust rustic Russian woman. It is also known as Russian nestling doll (матрёшка) or babushka doll.
Vasily Zvyozdochkin (in 1890) carved the first set which was designed by Sergey Malyutin.
Modern artists create many new styles of nesting dolls such as portraits or caricatures of famous politicians, musicians and popular actors.
Matryoshka is a testimony of cultural exchange between Russia and China. Ironically, China, not the former, has the world’s largest babushka doll located in its northeastern city of Manzhouli (Inner Mongolia). It measures 30 meters or 98.4 feet high.
(sources: wikipedia, goarticles.com, and russianmatryoshka.blogspot.com)
