The dolls, which consits of of increasing sizes placed one inside the other, will be made in the town of Semyonov on the Volga River, which is famous for its souvenirs in the traditional Russiankhokhloma style.

The trial sample of the souvenir, a matryoska in a red dress and a yellow shawl, are due to be presented to representatives of Sochi 2014 at a festival of folk crafts which will take place in Semyonov on June 18 and 19.

Craftsmen from Semyonov will also make other souvenirs for the Olympics, including wooden boxing gloves, skates and hockey-sticks, ornamented in the khokhloma style.

It is some consolation for Matryoshka dolls, which were shortlisted to be one of the mascots for Sochi 2014 but were, in the end, overlooked. 

The word Matryoshka comes from the Russian word "Mat" which means mother

Their history dates back to 1890 when the first set was carved by Vasily Zvyozdochkin from a design by Sergey Malyutin,  a folk crafts painter, and consisted of eight dolls - the outermost a girl holding a rooster, six inner dolls were girls, the fifth doll was a boy, and the innermost was a baby.

In 1900, Savva Mamontov's wife presented the dolls at the World Exhibition in Paris, and the toy earned a bronze medal.

Soon after, Matryoshka dolls were being made in several places in Russia.

Their manufacturing peak was during the 1980 Olympics in Moscow when 10 million sets were produced and, along with the official Russian bear mascot Misha, were the most popular souvenir at the Games.

At the Vancouver Olympics last year McDonald's created a special "matryoshka" box to welcome Russian athletes to the Winter Games.

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