Welcome to the Russian Nursery: Toys and Games in Nineteenth-Century Russia

An online lecture with Liliya Dashevski 

What did children play with in nineteenth-century Russia? Many of us might immediately think of the matreshka—the iconic Russian nesting doll. But surprisingly, matreshkas were not actually traditional folk toys at all. They were invented at the very end of the nineteenth century to look traditional.

So if Russian children were not playing with matreshkas, what were they playing with?

This talk examines the rich and often underexplored world of children’s toys and games from both peasant and elite households, from handmade wooden figures to imported European dolls, board games, and paper theatres. It shows that Russian play culture was not simply “traditional” or “European,” but a blend of both. Russian childhood was shaped by a vernacular craft tradition shared across social classes and by a Europeanized model adapted to elite educational goals. Looking at toys allows us to rethink how Russians imagined childhood, culture, and identity in a period of profound social change.