A set of matreshki consists of a wooden figure which can be pulled apart to reveal another figure of the same sort inside. It has in turn another figure inside, and so on. The number of nested figures is usually three or more. The shape is mostly cylindrical, rounded at the top for the head and tapered towards the bottom, but little else; the dolls have no hands (except those that are painted). The artistry is in the painting of each doll, which can be extremely elaborate.

Matreshki are often designed to follow a particular theme, for instance peasant girls in traditional dress, but the theme can be almost anything, ranging from fairy tale characters to Soviet leaders.

The first Matryoshka dollset was carved in ***0 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin from a design by Sergey Malyutin, who was a folk craft painter in the Abramtsevo estate of the Russian industrialist and partron of arts Savva Mamontov. The doll set was painted by Malyutin himself. Malyutin's doll set consisted of eight dolls — the outermost was a girl holding a rooster, six inner dolls were girls, the fifth doll was a boy, and the innermost was a baby.