Abramtsevo-Kudrinsky carving technique emerged around 1882 when painters Ilya Repin and Vasily Polenov discovered a wooden panel carved by an unknown master, with a wavy sprout with floral rosettes and berries on it. The painters took a shine to the smooth shapes, laconic texture, simple geometric patterns, and the nicely fitting background, and picked them up as the distinguishing features of what was to become famous as Abramtsevo-Kudrinsky carving technique.

A special role in the formation of the Abramtsevo carving school is attributed to Yelena Polenova, an illustrator, painter, and graphic artist, a sister to painter Vasily Polenov. She started off with drawing: Yelena was a student to the famous Pavel Chistyakov, then attended Ivan Kramskoy’s Drawing School, and later took lessons from Charles Chaplin in Paris.

In 1882-1885, together with Elizaveta Mamontova, a public person and organizer of cultural events, Yelena Polenova founded in Abramtsevo a school offering training in traditional Russian crafts to the local peasant families. The classes were taught by craftsmen from the nearby locations, Khotkovo, Akhtyrki, Kudrino, and Mutovka. The overall length of the free tuition was three years, and thereafter a graduate would get a workbench and a set of tools as a gift from the school. Ex-students became home workers, or apprentices, who worked at home and did the work they were told to do by their masters at the joiner shop.

Elena Polenova’s designs were used to craft an impressive variety of carved pieces, from salt cellars and jewel, shelves and picture frames, to armchairs, chairs, and chests of drawers. At first, they were available for sale at the Folk Crafts Museum near the Nikitsky Gate in Moscow. Later, in Petrovka Street in Moscow, there was opened a special “Russian Works Shop”. In 1885-1892, Yelena Polenova was the art director of the Abramtsevo Joiner Shop.