Russia: Russian Woodmen dolls made from moss, fir, cones, etc...

      Suppose that you had been born in that vast country which is called Russia, I wonder what kind of a dolly would have fallen to your lot? Much, of course, would have depended upon the class in which you were born, for the mass of the people are very poor. Since the Revolution, when all the rich folks were captured or killed, or fled to other lands, there are hardly any people at all with money. But, even under these conditions, I expect that you would have had a doll of some kind, for the peasants are very ingenious people, and (during the long winter days, when the earth is covered with snow for months together) they make all sorts of different things, including toys for the children to play with.

      Look at the picture of the two Russian woodmen dolls, and the curious things of which they are made: hewn out from rough blocks of wood, with painted faces, with fir cones for arms, and dressed entirely in moss, with shoes of plaited fiber. A strange pair they look, especially the one with the long beard and flat cap. One has a tiny hatchet stuck in his belt, that does not show in the photograph, but you can see the long wooden staves that they use to walk with. I do not think that these dolls look very "cuddly," do you? But, then, if you lived in one of the far-away small villages, you would never have seen any other kind of dolly, and so would have loved these very much indeed. The people in these villages almost all work on the land in summer, and the women and children, even quite little girls, have to work as hard as ever they can to get in the crops before the intense cold comes back again, and the country as far as you can see is buried under snow, while the rivers all freeze up.

      All Russia is not like this, however, and if you had been born in one of the great cities, such as Moscow, you would have found life much easier, especially if your parents had been rich. When the cold weather came, you would have been dressed in thick furs to keep you warm, and have been driven everywhere in a sleigh. The shops were simply wonderful, and contained lovely dollies, quite as beautiful as anything that you could find in the most wonderful London shop. Here you might buy a little boy doll, - Ivan for his name - dressed in a navy blue suit, with top-boots, and an overcoat very much like ours, always lined and trimmed with thick fur. For the inside short fur is used, while the collar and cuffs have long fur that buries the hands and neck in a warm and comfortable manner. Always, too, a little round cap is worn, made of the same fur as the collar and cuffs.

      If the dolly was supposed to be of the humbler peasant folk, she would be dressed in black and white with a cap, the brim of which is drawn down so far over the forehead as almost to cover the eyes. Over the dress a long, loose, shapeless black or brown coat, reaching right down to the heels, covers everything, though beneath her skirts would be long top-boots that reach almost to the knees. So, according to her rank, dolly looks in Russia, as she is cuddled and put to bed by the little peasant girl, or as she rides with her little mistress in the comfortable sleigh which glides over the frozen ice of the river near the capital at Petrograd.

 Matroyshka (stacking dolls) are perhaps the most 

famous dolls from Russia.