The Russian word "doll" is akin to the Greek "cyclos" ("circle"), it means something folded, for example, a piece of wood or a bundle of straw that girls have long swaddled and wrapped, obeying the instinct of motherhood.
Instruction manual
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It is difficult to say what the doll’s first mission was - sacred or play, which was almost inseparable from each other. Giving the baby a doll-log, clay or wax figure, the mother gave him a toy and preserved at the same time. No wonder when making the doll, which was placed in the cradle of the baby before it was born, they did not use either scissors or a needle so that the baby’s life was “not chopped and not cut”. All playing dolls of the ancient Slavs did not have a face, just a white flap without designation of eyes, nose, mouth and ears. A doll without a face was considered an inanimate object, not accessible for instilling evil forces into it (which, as you know, enter through the eyes and mouth, less often through the nose and ears). Such a doll could not come to life and harm a child.
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Handicraft dolls appeared from the 16th century, but until the 18th century, even children from wealthy families played with wooden and rag blanks. Porcelain dolls that appeared at that time were very expensive. In Russia, for example, children from the royal family were given such dolls only on holidays. But the royal daughters, as well as girls from peasant families, from childhood were taught to sew dolls with their own hands. They played what they made themselves. The only difference was that the grand duchesses sewed porcelain heads bought abroad to homemade outfits, and their peers from the people were content with entirely rag dolls. As a rule, such dolls were stuffed with straw, sawdust, leaves, feathers, scraps of cloth left by the mother after working on adult clothes. In fact, the clothes of the dolls in general terms repeated the clothes of the people who created them. Facial features were embroidered or applied with ink and painted with natural dyes - tea, berry juice or leaf juice. In the 19th century, doll-making factories began to open. This was preceded by the invention in the 1800s of two new materials: composite (a mixture of wood chips, paper, ash, eggshells) and papier-mâché (a mixture of paper, sand, flour and cement), which replaced an expensive tree and significantly reduced the cost of production. In the early years of Soviet power, dolls were declared a "bourgeois remnant." In the 1930s, only celluloid dolls were produced in factories, and in the 1950s they were also removed from kindergartens: it was believed that they cultivated maternal feelings in babies. Instead of dolls, dolls appeared with "ideological content, " "athlete, " "schoolgirl, " and "doctor." For the production of dolls, rubber, plastic and vinyl were used, which were much more durable than composite and papier-mâché. At the end of the Soviet era, these were vinyl dolls with glass eyes that rolled up at each bow, and a battery that allowed the doll to "speak." Then the “lexical stock” of the doll was often limited to one word: “mother”, and modern analogues of this doll sing songs, offer to get to know each other and, judging by the reaction of the children, they do it very naturally.
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Today in stores a huge selection of dolls for children and dolls for adults, with European, Slavic or Asian faces, from different types of materials. Interest in dolls is understandable. They provide an opportunity to get acquainted with history, look at the past, understand what tastes were and what was considered a true embodiment of beauty. Collectible dolls are a wonderful gift. Doll collectors are very special people. Dolls for them are not only collectibles, but some kind of amazing creature that lives in their house and creates an aura of beauty around itself. The collector experiences a completely unique and warm feeling for each doll. After all, dolls are a small life!
