"Sweetheart from Tver" [Vintage]

Product Description

Milashechka from Tver (Милашечка из Твери). This cute Kalinin (see below) matryoshka's name translated into English means "sweetheart". She is made from a somewhat thicker wood with many decorative elements which are painted with woodburnt (pyrographic) enhancements. The uncommon colors are bright and the paint thickly applied. Circa late 1980's. 5 nest, from 3⅜" down to ⅞". 1 only, as shown.

The Kalinin Matryoshka (Калининская Матрешка) was made in Kalinin, situated on the Upper Volga River 110 miles NW of Moscow. In actuality, Kalinin was the medieval city of Tver, but had been renamed Kalinin after one of Stalin's loyal henchmen. After 1991, many cities were restored to their pre-Soviet names, for example Sergiev Posad (Zagorsk), Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin), Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky) to name just a few. Thus, Kalinin was restored back to Tver.