As the story goes, the first matrioshka was made in 1890, in Sergiev Posad. Like Pinocchio it had own Mister Geppetto, even two. They were woodcarver Vasiliy Zvezdochkin (literally 'Starman') and painter Sergei Maliutin. The nesting doll's star ascended in 1900 at the Paris exhibition. So this young maiden babooshka doll is almost 120 years old. Later artist Maliutin has been elected member of the Fine Art Academy. His technically complicated landscapes and portrait paintings are famed. But simple designed first nesting doll gave birth a whole guideline of applied folk art.

The second half of 19 century was the time of social demography shifts. Emancipation from slavery in 1861 gave rise to education problems of have-beens serfs. Some artists have been inspired by idea to create the samples of applied artwork for subsequent spreading among handicraftsmen. The artists circle under the leadership patron Savva Mamontov has been formed. Workshops have been located in the old estate Abramtsevo adjacent to the historic toys manufacturing centre Sergiev Posad. The idea to produce such nested dolls like the first matrioshka of painter Sergei Maliutin immediately fell in the fertile ground of traditional homecrafts.

The are styles of babushka dolls other than Sergiev Posad nesting dolls. There are Polhovsky Maidan babooshka nesting dolls, Semenov matryoshka, Tver matrioshka, Ulyanovsk babushka nesting dolls and some other.