Even if you have yet to visit Russia, you've likely seen images of contemporary matryoshka dolls. The latter range from folk aesthetics to representations of political leaders and even athletes (ugh! indeed). Considered a traditional Russian souvenir, the dolls actually originated in the late 19th century inspired by their Japanese counterparts. Evidently, this was a Silver-Age version of kawaii.

So it seemed natural to use matryoshkas as icons for a website on Russian art in that very period that I created many moons ago and recently came across in my old files. These were a Red-Army soldier, peasant, worker, and...kolobok, a fairy-tale character, posing as a proud sailor from Aurora. All girls! Except for kolobok--whose delicious, carb-filled, baked goodness is beyond classification.

Great, now I'm hungry.