Marvellous wooden and clay toys are a bright phenomenon in Russian folk art. Nizhny Novgorod oblast has several centres of toymaking, each having its own artistic style and special techniques.


    One of the centres of wooden toys is the village of Fedoseyevo situated close to the town of Semyonov. The trade developed there at the end of 17th century. These toys are tenderly called "balyasy" meaning "gay, funny, made by a wit or a joker". The masters are so skilled that they make these toys using only two tools: the knife and the axe. The toys are made of smooth boards, firmly nailed together, and painted bright yellow with simple ornament of thin twigs with scarlet flowers and green leaves.

Masters can make up to 70 kinds of toys. Their images are evoked by real impressions. The images of horsemen, horses harnessed to carts, village sleighs, wooden peasant axes and hammers are rooted in ancient times. Later, mills, merry-go-rounds, houses, furniture, board sawyers appeared. The technology progress at the turn of the 20th century gave us the images of the steamer, the aeroplane, the motor-car, the tram, etc. The toys are very interesting to play with. If you draw a string, the mill will rotate its sails, the sawyers and blacksmiths will move, showing the process of hard work, the horses on the merry-go-round will gallop, the motor- car will open its doors, inviting the child to get in.

    The toys are usually made in a small workshop beside the house, with women helping the men in accessory work and painting. Yakov Alexandrov is considered to be the pioneer of Fedoseyevo toys. He could make the toy image simple and extraordinary expressive. The traditions of the craft were followed by Zotei Kokurin, who, at the age of 80, could make 30 kinds of toys, and Efim Mordashov, who used to come to fairs and festivals with a bast-box full of funny toys. There are whole dynasties of toy-makers: the Shesterikovs, the Pachuyevs, the Poluektovs and others.

The town of Lyskovo is one of the most interesting centres of wooden toymaking in Nizhny Novgorod oblast. Here the family of famous toy-makers - the Yagnyonkovs - has been famous since the middle of the 19th century. The toys were made of aspen or pine with a knife and an axe. Lathed and carved parts were combined in one toy. The assortment of the toys is various: skates, dolls, blacksmiths on mobile laths, carved animals, push-toys, merry-go-rounds, harnessed horses and toy furniture (tables, chairs, armchairs, sofas).

Lyskovo horses are archaic, their images are religious, coming from the image of the Slav pagan deity of the Sun. These flat figures with a simple clear silhouette let the master show only the main features of the image. Craftsmen made various horses: "koleski" (with the heads facing opposite directions), two-wheeled horses with a round hole in the centre of the toy; four-wheeled horses. A long stick was attached to the round hole, and the child could push the toy in front of him. The toys were painted white, yellow, crimson and violet with ornaments of stripes, dots, circles, segments in black or white colour. The whole family took part in the toymaking process. The father was the head, the other members helped him. Being traditional and inexpensive, these toys were most popular at local markets.

From the earliest times the centre of the lathed toy in Nizhny Novgorod oblast has been the villages, situated close to Semyonov along the forest banks of the river Kerzhenetz. Craftsmen lathed wooden pyramids, apples, buckets, mushrooms, pears, push-toys and, even, toy samovars with tea-sets and other toys inside of them. At the beginning of the 20th century, a master from the village of Merinovo Arsenti Mayorov turned and painted the first matryoshka. Everybody admired it at once because it image reflected the people's idea of a beautiful Russian woman-mother.

Now the traditions of the lathered toys are being carried on in the "Semyonov Painting" enterprise in the town of Semyonov. Semyonov matryoshka has gained special popularity in the world. It's a beautiful souvenir, representing the folk art of Russia. The originality of the design, the laconism of the form and the brightness of floral painting are combined in it. It is made of lime-wood, aspen or birch, which were dried in the open air for several years. The process of making this seeming very simple toy is rather complicated. The piece of wood undergoes fifteen operations before it becomes a really beautiful toy. It is turned in a lathe, primed, dried and painted by hand. Painting consists of several stages: outlining the contour of the face and the clothes, colouring the face, the kerchief and the apron. Semyonov toy is noted for its skilfully painted large bouquet of flowers: roses, tulips, poppies, bluebells, etc. The finished article is lacquered. Talented masters can make a one-piece matryoshka and matryoshka-sets consisting of up to 18 pieces. There are also unique works: 40-, 50- and even 72-piece sets. The thickness of the lathed dolls can be only compared with an egg-shell. There are even "singing matryoshkas" with a built-in musical mechanism. The dolls "Russian Molodetz" (a young man) and "Russian Krasavitza" (a beautiful girl) together with the crew of the spaceship "Salut-7" flew in space. The workers of the "Semyonov Painting" enterprise are creating new toy-souvenirs, using the images evoked by Russian national fairy-tales, bylinas (Russian epics), life scenes of old Nizhny Novgorod.

In the 19th century, in the villages around the town of Gorodetz, the craftsmen who produced spinning-wheels made painted wooden toys as well. With the help of simple tools - the axe and the knife - they carved "zapryazhki" (harnessed to carts horses with proudly outstretched necks), push-toys, dolls, made out of a half-log, flat at the front and curved from behind. The articles were brightly decorated in the style of Gorodetz painting. Most famous were the toys by Gorodetz master Ignati Mazin created in the 1920s- 1930s. The images of his toys reflected the life of Nizhny Novgorod Povolzhye (the area around the Volga). They were loving couples, nurses with children, girls with yokes, schoolchildren, skiers, Red Army men. In Gorodetz there is a family of toy-makers - the Krasnoyarovs: the father Fyodor and his son Timofei Krasnoyarov, whose toys gained popularity in 1960s -70s. Timofei put his heart and soul into his works and they were real masterpieces. Besides traditional images he also made mechanical toys noted for lively invention and originality. The master placed carved figures of wood sawyers, a shepherd with a pipe or a dancing girl on a small box with a simple wooden mechanism inside. By means of a handle the toy was set into motion and a simple tune was heard. Another toy of his "Soldiers on Mobile Laths", was also very interesting. With a light movement of the hand the laths on hinges would move, forming the grenadiers in one or four lines.

    At present Gorodetz toys are being produced by the artists of the "Gorodetz Painting" enterprise. One of their works - the toy "Gorodetz Merry-Go-Round" was presented at the exhibition "Russian Wood from Ancient Times till Present" in Paris in 1973. It was a great success. Young artists E. Staroverova, V. Derevyanko, N. Privalovskaya have designed and are making a series of toys representing colourful figures of the inhabitants of a small town on the Volga.