Voznesensk nesting dolls. Bus tour to the Matryoshka Museum (Voznesensk). Matryoshka factory in Voznesenskoye

Russian craftsmen are especially famous for the art of woodworking. Carved and chiseled souvenirs and household items that come out of their hands are able to truly fascinate anyone. And the painting of local artists complements the image of each creation and gives it its originality. The fastest and most successful of all this art developed in the Voznesensky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region - and there were reasons for this.

The South-East of the Voznesensky region is sandy non-chernozem lands. It is not surprising that it was here in 1667 that the participants in the uprising of Stenka Razin were exiled. The calculation was simple: it is impossible to eat enough from the fruits of such lands, which means that the days of the former rebels are numbered. And yet they survived and founded the settlement of Polkhovsky Maidan, the name of which is well known to everyone who is interested in Russian folk crafts.

The lack of food grown on their own land forced the exiles to look for new ways. They were trade and turning. Very quickly, local turners became famous for their art, and over time, other settlements of the region began to take part in the famous Nizhny Novgorod fairs, which made their works famous not only throughout Russia, but also abroad. And when in the 19th century the matryoshka borrowed from the Japanese gained popularity, the talent of turners and artists of the Nizhny Novgorod region was fully revealed.

Souvenirs of various types, sizes and styles of painting are liked by everyone, without exception.

Types of matryoshka

Semyonovskaya Matryoshka, Polkh-Maidan Matryoshka, Voznesenskaya Matryoshka - these names have long been heard. It was in the city of Semyonov, Nizhny Novgorod Region, that the 72-seat matryoshka, which was striking in its complexity, was carved - the height of the largest is exactly one meter.

Each artist, each region has its own special style of painting. Semyonovskiye nesting dolls are distinguished by a large area of \u200b\u200bunpainted places. On the apron of such a red and yellow nesting doll - it is also called classic - there is always a bouquet of large flowers, slightly shifted to the right from the center. In the center of the composition of the Polkh-Maidan nesting doll, there is also a large rosehip flower (rose). It has more clarity, brightness, lines differ in saturation, it is somewhat reminiscent of colorful stained-glass windows. Ascension artists love smaller floral motifs and are not afraid to experiment with colors and styles.

The classic Semyonovskaya nesting doll is always popular and loved.

Matryoshka today

Surprisingly, the tradition lives on and develops to this day. Come to Voznesenskoye for at least a day and take a walk around the village. Linden logs are dried in almost every yard. Each of them must lie in the air for three years in order to be admitted to the sacrament of creating a matryoshka. In almost every house, in their free time from work and household chores, men still sharpen nesting dolls, and women paint them - each in its own way. Children, growing up, watch this and very quickly become masters: sons get up at the lathe, and daughters help paint matryoshka dolls. Fairs are still held, where the eyes run up from the beauty and variety of souvenirs.

Accessories are always hand-painted, even the smallest ones. These wonderful bright little things have a special appeal for all genders and ages.

Matryoshka factory in Voznesenskoye

The factory of goodness and happiness is the name of the Volesprom factory by the employees who recently celebrated its nineth anniversary. Here they started using new German machines, on which you can grind even more workpieces of excellent quality. New nesting dolls, toys and souvenirs are created here, well-known in their homeland and in various places of the planet, and the inhabitants of the village themselves offer their creations, thanks to which the assortment grows even more.

The factory supplies wholesale and trading companies with matryoshka dolls, toys, accessories and other souvenirs. In the capital of the Czech Republic, Prague, since 2010, the VMCL wholesale division has been operating, which made Voznesenskaya Matryoshka a name known and loved in many European countries and overseas.

You can admire and order the products of the factory and its partners (Gzhel, Khokhloma and other famous brands) on the official website of VMKL matreshkaoptom.ru. All questions will be answered by mail [email protected]

There are many villages and villages in the Voznesensky District of the Nizhny Novgorod Region. The most famous of them is perhaps Polkh-Maidan. This village is known for its painted toys and of course matryoshka dolls.

In fact, for the first time, a matryoshka appeared in the Nizhny Novgorod region in the village of Merinovo, Semyonovsky district. It happened in 1922. Then they brought it from the Moscow province, everyone liked this curiosity, they decided to try it too.

But the master will not copy, he will bring his own. This is how the image of Semyonovskaya matryoshka was born. And Polkh-Maidanovskaya appeared even twenty years later. This is what art critics Natalia and Sergei Kvach say.

In Polkh-Maidan itself, they claim that, they say, even before the revolution, dolls-matryoshka were brought to the capital along with salt shakers and piggy banks, but this information has not been documented.

One way or another, but still the most popular product in the Nizhny Novgorod Territory, and especially in the Voznesensky District, is the matryoshka.

Some time ago there was an art-production association "Polkhovsko-Maidanskaya painting". But with the beginning of "perestroika" the enterprise collapsed. It turned out to be more profitable for turners and artists to work at home, in their own turners.

Private business

In all the surrounding settlements, one after another, enterprises were closed, jobs were cut. People did not lose heart, but urgently retrained as matryoshka students. Fortunately, the majority have been accustomed to turning from childhood, and the demand for tararushki and nesting dolls only grew.

Local leaders did not tire of repeating later that thanks to her, the matryoshka, they managed to avoid a social explosion. No unrest of the masses. Everyone, without support, found himself.

From the book of Nikolai Shemyakin "What are they rich in?"

With the growth of qualifications, the assortment changed, piggy banks, boxes, and other toys were added to the matryoshka dolls. Even the bosses of the middle hand passed into turners, since it was clearly possible to earn more.

The men turned, the wood was harvested, and the women and children painted. Gradually, the private trade began to develop in all directions. A division of labor has appeared: some are harvested linden, others turn, others paint. Dealers appeared and their places at fairs in Moscow.

Photo gallery

More expensive than money

In the 1990s, not only in Nizhny Novgorod, but also in the surrounding regions, their own bills appeared. This was due to the lack of cash, so they called the "local currency" by the name of the head, "Nemtsovka" for example.

In the Voznesensky district, there was no need to introduce their own money. Local matryoshkas, selling their goods, received real official money every week, which naturally then dispersed throughout the district.

Every joke contains a grain of truth

Once, a well-known journalist wrote in the April Fool's edition of the local newspaper that a monument to the matryoshka would soon be erected in the Voznesensky district. He indicated the exact place - at the entrance to the regional center from the Polkh-Maidan side, the author indicated Z. Ceritelli.

At the top of the note there was a corresponding note indicating the joke. But, despite this, many took it for the truth. And most importantly, even the district leaders liked the idea.

"The right decision! And the place was chosen well. Matryoshka became the breadwinner of not one Maidan, but the entire district ”- one of the leaders told the author of the note personally.

For various reasons, the monument has not yet been erected. But residents are sure that he will definitely be there.

About a trip to Polkhovsky Maidan, about how I managed to get to know the life of this amazing village, and about the search for the traditional "Maidan" nesting dolls. Then I didn't manage to buy such a nesting doll, but now I find out about the village day, which is celebrated in Polkhovsky Maidan every year on September 21. And I decided to go there again that day, in the hope that a fair would be organized there, and it would be possible to find what I was looking for.

In the morning I go by bus on the way to Voznesenskoye. Alamasovo, Naryshkino, Sarminsky Maidan, Bytkhyzino - again we pass through the same villages. The road is in poor condition, the bus drives slowly and it is drizzling with a nasty rain, and in addition, the landscapes outside the window and the poor villages are a sad morning. In Voznesenskoye I change to a bus to Polkhovsky Maidan, and he goes along the familiar path: it passes through the village and in the middle of it goes down to the pond, passes again, and at the last intersection turns south. The road is also broken, it goes among some abandoned meadows, and now, finally, it turns to Polkhovsky Maidan. Having passed through the village, the bus stopped near the church on the small central square.

I decide to go to the church, at that moment there was a service, and many residents were present at it, and a pleasant old priest conducted the service. The decoration of the temple is modest, but the carving seems to be old, and then the thought comes that for many years nothing has changed here and, perhaps, even the services were not interrupted in Soviet times.

Then he knocked on several houses, and bought some blanks there, a mobile carousel "Romashka" was mounted on the square, a village holiday was being prepared. He asked someone if the nesting dolls would be sold, but the answer was no. Here I think that in principle, this is how it should be, there are few outsiders in the village, and the residents will not sell nesting dolls to themselves! The matryoshka that I was looking for, then I bought everything, but that was a year later in Nizhny Novgorod on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya. In the meantime, I am returning to Voznesenskoe (as its locals for some reason call Voznesensk). And so I decide to look into the Matryoshka Museum, which was invited to visit by a large stand on the main street. Once before that happened to visit Voznesenskoe, and even then I wanted to visit the museum, but it was closed that day (Saturday). Not far from the place where the descent to the lower part of the village begins, there is a small alley, and this is where the museum is located. Fortunately, on this day (Wednesday) it is open.

The museum is housed in two rooms, the smaller of which houses lathes. There are such lathes in many houses in the Polkhovsky Maidan, as well as in some of the surrounding villages and in Voznesensky itself. They were once manually driven, with a second person turning a large flywheel. I don’t remember whether there was such a wheel in the museum or not.

There is also a set of turning chisels, and I must say - they are different from those that we used in labor lessons at school.

Nearby is another machine, also old, with a foot drive, and factory-made (the first was clearly homemade). The first turning stock appeared in the Polkhovsky Maidan back in 1812, and gradually the turning craft spread to the whole village.

In another, larger room, as you might guess, there were nesting dolls. And here there was also a small model of an old workshop, with a lathe and a wheel.

At first glance, there are not so many exhibits in the museum. There are several large sets of matryoshka dolls, about several dozen dolls, and some of them, probably, were made specifically for the museum.

There are nesting dolls with traditional.

And with not very traditional ornamentation.

And even with the "houses" pattern, the second traditional Maidan motif (it is called houses, but they are not always there :-))

Here's some more motive for this.

Thirty-three heroes.

Fifteen Soviet republics (can you, reader, determine where who is?).

Right there in the museum there are old products of the Krasnaya Zarya factory, which was once in the Polkhovsky Maidan (did not notice any traces of it there. Maybe it was in Voznesensky?). Here professional artists have worked on the drawing, and probably one of them is the author of more recent works.

A few more works.

Several works are newer. It's a bit of a pity, but this style is now replacing the traditional Maidan ornament with a flower. And now find a traditional nesting doll. and even more so the product with "houses" has become difficult. But still, I hope, the traditional drawing, with red flowers, will not be forgotten, and there will be more work with it.

In the nineties of the XIX century A. Mamontova brought from Japan a figurine of a good-natured bald old man, sage Fukurum, to the Moscow toy workshop "Children's Education". It consisted of several figures nested one into another. Wood turner Vasily Zvezdochkin, who was then working in this workshop, carved similar figures from wood, which were also inserted into one another, and the artist Sergei Malyutin painted them for girls and boys. The first nesting doll showed a girl in a common city dress: a sundress, an apron, a kerchief with a rooster. The toy consisted of eight figures. The image of the girl alternated with the image of the boy, differing from each other. The latter depicted a swaddled baby.
The name "Matryona" was then widespread. Hence the name - "nesting dolls".

POLKHOV-MAIDANSKAYA ROSPIS - production of painted lathe products in the village of Polkhovsky Maidan, the village of Krutets and the village of Voznesenskoye, Nizhny Novgorod Region. Turning products of the masters of this craft - nesting dolls, Easter eggs, mushrooms, salt shakers, cups, supplies - are lavishly decorated with juicy ornamental and subject painting. Among the picturesque motives, the most common are flowers, birds, animals, rural and urban landscapes. Peculiarities of painting From the middle of the 19th [century] in the village of Polkhovsky Maidan they began to produce unpainted wooden turning utensils, which were sold at fairs.

From the beginning of the 1920s, apparently under the influence of similar products by Sergiev Posad masters, the Polkhov-Maidan dishes began to be covered with a burnt out outline drawing. Soon, the burning began to be painted with oil paints, and in the mid-1930s. aniline dyes diluted with alcohol. Gradually, the burned-out contour of the drawing is replaced by a more economical and easy-to-use ink guide.

In 1928-1930. in the Polkhovsky Maidan, the Krasnaya Zarya artel was formed from individual craftsmen. At the same time, an original artistic and decorative system was developed and the main specific methods of local painting were indicated. These methods received established local names: "flowers with a tip" - a flower painting is outlined with a clear black outline; "Flowers without aiming" - the drawing is drawn on the background without a linear contour; the technique "under oil" - painting with oil or nitro paints on a dull colored background, "mottling" - the simplest brush painting with strokes or dots. Cool craftsmen In 1960 the artel was transformed into the Polkhov-Maidan toy factory.

At the same time, the manufacture of similar painted turning items began to be engaged in the village of Krutets, located a few kilometers from the Polkhovsky Maidan. Using experience, turning forms and painting techniques of neighbors, krutetsk craftsmen introduce minor changes. So, for example, their nesting dolls are more rounded in shape, and in the painting of tableware, preference is given to plot motives.

In 1972, in the regional center Voznesenskoye, on the basis of a toy factory, a production and art association "Polkhov-Maidanskaya painting" was created, where artists who had undergone professional training work. Despite this, the fishery continues to exist primarily on the basis of family-based production. Men are engaged in the manufacture of lathe "linen", and women do the painting. The products produced by the association are of a more souvenir nature, their painting is more monotonous, and the drawing is less free than in the works of handicraftsmen.

Transport service by bus of the tourist class;
Tickets to museums according to the program;
Free seats for accompanying group.

An individual calculation for any number of people is possible.

Employees of the Divmult studio visited the Voznesensky Museum of History and Local Lore, dedicated, in general, to the Polkhov-Maidan matryoshka dolls and turning in general. What can I say, we were impressed. We bring to the attention of our visitors a photo report, but we still recommend that you go and see the exhibits with your own eyes. It's worth it 😉

Pond on the Varnava River Voznesenskoe

It was with this wheel that the lathe was driven until electricity appeared. By the way, it appeared in Polkh-Maidan only in 1961.

In general, the production looked like this: one sharpens, the other twirls. The model was made by Polkhov-Maidan master Ivan Grachev.

Russian nesting doll. From above - firing, from below - painted.

In addition to matryoshkas, Polkhov-Maidan masters make all kinds of toys and souvenirs

There is even such an exposition in the museum. A museum employee said that children cannot be pulled away from her

The pride of the museum is the exposition "33 heroes". The largest is 2.5 meters high (with a spear). All are chiseled from linden.

Another remarkable exposition - girls in national costumes of the peoples of the Soviet republics

In the center - a girl symbolizing Russia