1.
Ilya Repin
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Ilya Yefimovich Repin was a Russian realist painter. He was the most renowned Russian artist of the 19th century and he played a major role in bringing Russian art into the mainstream of European culture. His major works include Barge Haulers on the Volga, Religious Procession in Kursk Province, Repin was born in Chuguyev, in Kharkov Governorate, Ukraine into a family of military settlers. His father traded horses and his grandmother ran an inn and he entered military school to study surveying. In 1863 he went to St. Petersburg Art Academy to study painting but had to enter Ivan Kramskoi preparatory school first and he met fellow artist Ivan Kramskoi and the critic Vladimir Stasov during the 1860s, and his wife, Vera Shevtsova in 1872. In 1874–1876 he showed at the Salon in Paris and at the exhibitions of the Itinerants Society in Saint Petersburg and he was awarded the title of academician in 1876. In 1880 Repin travelled to Zaporozhia in Ukraine to gather material for the 1891 Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks and his Religious Procession in Kursk Province was exhibited in 1883, and Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan in 1885. In 1892 he published the Letters on Art collection of essays and he taught at the Higher Art School attached to the Academy of Arts from 1894. In 1898 he purchased an estate, the Penates, in Kuokkala, in 1901 he was awarded the Legion of Honour. In 1911 he traveled with his common-law wife Natalia Nordman to the World Exhibition in Italy, in 1916 Repin worked on his book of reminiscences, Far and Near, with the assistance of Korney Chukovsky. He welcomed the Russian Revolution of 1917, celebrations were held in 1924 in Kuokkala to mark Repins 80th birthday, followed by an exhibition of his works in Moscow. In 1925 a jubilee exhibition of his works was held in the Russian Museum in Leningrad, Repin died in 1930 and was buried at the Penates. Repin was born in the town of Chuguyev, in the Kharkov Governorate of the Russian Empire and his father Yefim Vasilyevich Repin was a private in the Uhlan Regiment of the Imperial Russian Army. As a boy Ilya was educated at the school where his mother taught. From 1854 he attended a military Cantonist school and he did not have fond recollections of his childhood, mainly due to the military settlements his family lived in. In 1856 he became a student of Ivan Bunakov, an icon painter. In 1859–1863 he painted icons and wall-paintings by commission for the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, in 1864 he began attending the Imperial Academy of Arts, and met the painter Ivan Kramskoi. In 1869 he was awarded a gold medal for his painting Job
2.
Tver Oblast
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Tver Oblast is a federal subject of Russia. Its administrative center is the city of Tver, from 1935 to 1990, it was known as Kalinin Oblast, named after Mikhail Kalinin. Tver Oblast is a region of lakes, such as Seliger, much of the remaining area is occupied by the Valdai Hills, where the Volga, the Western Dvina, and the Dnieper have their source. Tver Oblast is one of the tourist regions of Russia with a modern tourist infrastructure, there are also many historic towns, Torzhok, Toropets, Zubtsov, Kashin, Vyshny Volochyok, and Kalyazin. The oldest of these is Rzhev, primarily known for the Battles of Rzhev in World War II, staritsa was the seat of the last appanage principality in Russia. Ostashkov is a major tourist center, Tver Oblast is located in the west of the middle part of the East European Plain. It stretches for 260 km from north to south and 450 km from west to east, the area of Tver Oblast is 84201 km², the 38th of 83 subjects. This is 0. 49% of the territory of Russia, the largest area the size of the territory of the Central Federal District. Tver Oblast as a whole is characterized by flat terrain with alternating lowlands and highlands, in the western part of the province, occupying about one-third of its area is Valdai Hills, with elevations of 200–300 m above sea level. It is surrounded by depressions, lowlands have a height of 100–150 m highest point of the area has a height of 347 m, is located on a hill Tsninsky. The low point - the extreme north-west area of the rivers edge Kunya on the border with the Novgorod Oblast, minerals discovered and developed in the Tver Oblast are mainly deposits of ancient seas, lakes and swamps, and partly a consequence of glaciers. Minerals of industrial importance are the seams of brown coal Moscow coal basin, the largest deposit is Bolshoy Nelidovskiy, which gave between 1948 and 1996 about 21 million tons. Widespread powerful peat deposits totaling 15.4 billion m³, the estimated reserves of peat are 2,051 million tonnes, representing approximately 7% of the stock of European Russia. From 1971 to 1999, has developed more than 44 million tons of peat, the region is a watershed of the Caspian Sea and Baltic Sea. In the south, Belsky district has tributaries of the upper reaches of the river Vop. Go to the Caspian Sea basin owns 70% of the region, in the region of more than 800 rivers longer than 10 km total length of about 17,000 km. Its source is in Ostashkov area, the most important tributaries of the Volga, Mologa, Dipper, Tvertsa. Other important rivers, the Western Dvina and its tributary Meza, Mtsa, the climate is humid continental, transitional from continental Russia to the more humid north-western regions
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Saint Petersburg
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Saint Petersburg is Russias second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is politically incorporated as a federal subject, situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 271703. In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, between 1713 and 1728 and 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia. In 1918, the government bodies moved to Moscow. Saint Petersburg is one of the cities of Russia, as well as its cultural capital. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Saint Petersburg is home to The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. A large number of consulates, international corporations, banks. Swedish colonists built Nyenskans, a fortress, at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, in a then called Ingermanland. A small town called Nyen grew up around it, Peter the Great was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, and he intended to have Russia gain a seaport in order to be able to trade with other maritime nations. He needed a better seaport than Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea to the north, on May 1703121703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans, and soon replaced the fortress. On May 271703, closer to the estuary 5 km inland from the gulf), on Zayachy Island, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city. The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia, tens of thousands of serfs died building the city. Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate, Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712,9 years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war, he referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital as early as 1704. During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the bank of the Neva, near the Peter. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan, by 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be located on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed, but is evident in the layout of the streets, in 1716, Peter the Great appointed French Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences, University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great, in 1725, Peter died at the age of fifty-two. His endeavours to modernize Russia had met opposition from the Russian nobility—resulting in several attempts on his life
4.
Genre art
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Genre art is the pictorial representation in any of various media of scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, and street scenes. Such representations may be realistic, imagined, or romanticized by the artist, some variations of the term genre art specify the medium or type of visual work, as in genre painting, genre prints, genre photographs, and so on. Rather confusingly, the meaning of genre, covering any particular combination of an artistic medium. Painting was divided into a hierarchy of genres, with painting at the top, as the most difficult and therefore prestigious. But history paintings are a genre in painting, not genre works, the following concentrates on painting, but genre motifs were also extremely popular in many forms of the decorative arts, especially from the Rococo of the early 18th century onwards. Single figures or small groups decorated a huge variety of such as porcelain, furniture, wallpaper. Genre painting, also called genre scene or petit genre, depicts aspects of life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. A work would often be considered as a genre work even if it could be shown that the artist had used a known member of his family. In this case it would depend on whether the work was likely to have intended by the artist to be perceived as a portrait—sometimes a subjective question. The depictions can be realistic, imagined, or romanticized by the artist, because of their familiar and frequently sentimental subject matter, genre paintings have often proven popular with the bourgeoisie, or middle class. Genre themes appear in all art traditions. These were part of a pattern of Mannerist inversion in Antwerp painting, giving low elements previously in the background of images prominent emphasis. The generally small scale of these paintings was appropriate for their display in the homes of middle class purchasers. Often the subject of a painting was based on a popular emblem from an Emblem book. The merry company showed a group of figures at a party, other common types of scenes showed markets or fairs, village festivities, or soldiers in camp. In Italy, a school of painting was stimulated by the arrival in Rome of the Dutch painter Pieter van Laer in 1625. He acquired the nickname Il Bamboccio and his followers were called the Bamboccianti, whose works would inspire Giacomo Ceruti, Antonio Cifrondi, jean-Baptiste Greuze and others painted detailed and rather sentimental groups or individual portraits of peasants that were to be influential on 19th-century painting. Spain had a tradition predating The Book of Good Love of social observation and commentary based on the Old Roman Latin tradition, practiced by many of its painters and illuminators
5.
Serfdom
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Serfdom is the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism. It was a condition of bondage, which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe, serfs were often required not only to work on the lords fields, but also his mines, forests and roads. The decline of serfdom in Western Europe has sometimes been attributed to the Black Death, Serfdom became increasingly rare in most of Western Europe after the Renaissance, but conversely, it grew strong in Central and Eastern Europe, where it had previously been less common. In Eastern Europe the institution persisted until the mid-19th century, in the Austrian Empire serfdom was abolished by the 1781 Serfdom Patent, corvée continued to exist until 1848. Serfdom was abolished in Russia in the 1860s, in Finland, Norway and Sweden, feudalism was never fully established, and serfdom did not exist, however, serfdom-like institutions did exist in both Denmark and its vassal Iceland. According to Joseph R. Strayer, the concept of feudalism can also be applied to the societies of ancient Persia, ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Muslim India, China, james Lee and Cameron Campbell describe the Chinese Qing dynasty as also maintaining a form of serfdom. Tibet is described by Melvyn Goldstein to have had serfdom until 1959, bhutan is described by Tashi Wangchuk, a Bhutanese civil servant, as abolishing serfdom officially by 1959, but Wangchuk believes less than or about 10% of poor peasants were in copyhold situations. The United Nations 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery also prohibits serfdom as a form of slavery, the word serf originated from the Middle French serf and can be traced further back to the Latin servus. In Late Antiquity and most of the Middle Ages, what are now called serfs were usually designated in Latin as coloni. As slavery gradually disappeared and the status of servi became nearly identical to that of the coloni. Serfs had a place in feudal society, as did barons and knights, in return for protection. Thus the manorial system exhibited a degree of reciprocity, one rationale held that a serf worked for all while a knight or baron fought for all and a churchman prayed for all, thus everyone had a place. The serf was the worst fed and rewarded, but at least he had his place and, unlike slaves, had rights in land. A lord of the manor could not sell his serfs as a Roman might sell his slaves and this unified system preserved for the lord long-acquired knowledge of practices suited to the land. Further, a serf could not abandon his lands without permission, a freeman became a serf usually through force or necessity. Sometimes the greater physical and legal force of a local magnate intimidated freeholders or allodial owners into dependency, often a few years of crop failure, a war, or brigandage might leave a person unable to make his own way. In such a case he could strike a bargain with a lord of a manor, in exchange for protection, service was required, in cash, produce or labour, or a combination of all. These oaths bound the lord and his new serf in a feudal contract, to become a serf was a commitment that encompassed all aspects of the serfs life
6.
Krasny Kholm, Krasnokholmsky District, Tver Oblast
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Krasny Kholm is a town and the administrative center of Krasnokholmsky District in Tver Oblast, Russia. What is now Krasny Kholm was first attested as the village of Spas-na-Kholmu as early as 1518, the village belonged to the Antoniyev Monastery of St. Nicholas until its lands were secularized in 1764. In the course of the administrative reform carried out in 1708 by Peter the Great, the area was included into Ingermanland Governorate, but in 1727 it was transferred to Moscow Governorate. In 1775, Tver Viceroyalty was formed from the lands which belonged to Moscow and Novgorod Governorates. In 1776, the village was granted town status and received its current name, in 1796, the viceroyalty was transformed into Tver Governorate, Krasnokholmsky Uyezd was abolished, with its territory transferred to Vesyegonsky Uyezd. The railway between Rybinsk and St. Petersburg reached the town in 1899, boosting its development, on March 10,1918, Krasnokholmsky Uyezd was re-established. On April 25,1921, it was transferred to newly established Rybinsk Governorate, on February 6,1923, Rybinsk Governorate was abolished and the uyezd was transferred back to Tver Governorate. On March 3,1924, Krasnokholmsky Uyezd was abolished and split between Bezhetsky and Vesyegonsky Uyezds, on July 12,1929 the governorates and uyezds were abolished. On July 23,1930, the okrugs were abolished and the districts were subordinated to the oblast. On January 29,1935, Krasnokholmsky District was transferred to newly established Kalinin Oblast, within the framework of administrative divisions, Krasny Kholm serves as the administrative center of Krasnokholmsky District. As an administrative division, it is, together with two rural localities, incorporated within Krasnokholmsky District as Krasny Kholm Urban Settlement, as a municipal division, this administrative unit also has urban settlement status and is a part of Krasnokholmsky Municipal District. The main industrial enterprise in the town is Krasny Kholm Electromechanical Plant, there are enterprises of timber, textile, and food industries as well. A railway connecting Moscow and Mga via Sonkovo and Pestovo passes through Krasny Kholm, there is a major railway station in the town. Krasny Kholm is connected by roads with Ustyuzhna via Vesyegonsk, with Tver via Bezhetsk, there are also local roads with bus traffic originating from Krasny Kholm. Krasny Kholm contains thirteen cultural heritage monuments of significance and additionally forty objects classified as cultural and historical heritage of local significance. The federal monuments are the buildings of the Antoniyev Krasnokholmsky Monastery, on the bank of the Mologa River, within two miles from the town, lie the ruins of the Antoniyev Monastery. The monastery cathedral was commissioned by Andrey Bolshoy in 1481, it was consecrated in 1493 and was rebuilt in limestone half a century later and this building—the oldest in the oblast—was reduced by the Bolsheviks to rubble, it still stands roofless and continues to decay. The Intercession Church, as well as 17th-century walls and cells, were demolished or mutilated beyond repair
7.
Bezhetsk
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Bezhetsk is a town and the administrative center of Bezhetsky District in Tver Oblast, Russia, located on the Mologa River at its confluence with the Ostrechina River. The settlement of Bezhichi was first mentioned in 1137, when it was owned by Novgorod, the original name, with the literal meaning of refugees, suggests that early settlers were former Novgorodians. Historical Bezhichi was located 20 kilometers north from the present-day town, in the early 15th century, the area of Bezhetsky Verkh was annexed by Grand Duchy of Moscow. Since 1433, Bezhetsk had its own prince, who was subordinate to the Grand Prince of Moscow, in the course of the administrative reform carried out in 1708 by Peter the Great, Gorodetsk was included into Ingermanland Governorate, but in 1727 it was transferred to Moscow Governorate. In 1766, Gorodetsk was renamed Bezhetsk, in 1775, Tver Viceroyalty was formed from the lands which previously belonged to Moscow and Novgorod Governorates. In 1776, Bezhetsk became the seat of Bezhetsky Uyezd, in 1796, Tver Viceroyalty was transformed into Tver Governorate. Bezhetsk remained the center of the uyezd until 1929. On July 12,1929, the governorates and uyezds were abolished, Bezhetsky District, with the administrative center in Bezhetsk, was established within Bezhetsk Okrug of Moscow Oblast. On July 23,1930, the okrugs were abolished and the districts were subordinated to the oblast. On January 29,1935, Kalinin Oblast was established and Bezhetsk was transferred to Tver Oblast, in the late 20th century, Bezhetsk, as a reference small town with well-preserved archives, became a subject of detailed academic studies of the 18th-century Russian countryside. Within the framework of administrative divisions, Bezhetsk serves as the center of Bezhetsky District. As an administrative division, it is, together with four rural localities, as a municipal division, this administrative unit also has urban settlement status and is a part of Bezhetsky Municipal District. Enterprises of timber, textile, and food industries, as well as a plant producing air compressors, are located in Bezhetsk, a railway connecting Rybinsk and Bologoye via Sonkovo passes through Bezhetsk, which is an important railway station. Bezhetsk is located on the road connecting Tver and Vesyegonsk and it is also connected by roads with Sonkovo, Kesova Gora, and Maksatikha. There are local roads as well, with bus traffic originating from Bezhetsk, the Mologa River is not navigable. Bezhetsk contains seven cultural heritage monuments of significance and additionally twenty-four objects classified as cultural and historical heritage of local significance. The federal monuments include trade arcades and the Church of the Presentation of Mary, the oldest building in Bezhetsk is the white tent-like campanile of the Vvedenskaya Church, which was built by Yaroslavl masters in 1680-1682. The church itself was destroyed during the Soviet years, the Vozdvizhenskaya church goes back to the turn of the 18th century
8.
Imperial Academy of Arts
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The Russian Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was founded in 1757 by Ivan Shuvalov under the name Academy of the Three Noblest Arts. Catherine the Great renamed it the Imperial Academy of Arts and commissioned a new building, the academy promoted the neoclassical style and technique, and sent its promising students to European capitals for further study. Training at the academy was virtually required for artists to make successful careers, formally abolished in 1918 after the Russian Revolution, the academy was renamed several times. It established free tuition, students from across the country competed fiercely for its few places annually, in 1947 the national institution was moved to Moscow, and much of its art collection was moved to the Hermitage. The building in Leningrad was devoted to the Ilya Repin Leningrad Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, since 1991 it has been called the St. Petersburg Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. The academy was located in the Shuvalov Palace on Sadovaya Street, in 1764, Catherine the Great renamed it the Imperial Academy of Arts and commissioned its first rector, Alexander Kokorinov, to design a new building. It took 25 years to complete the Neoclassical edifice, which opened in 1789, konstantin Thon was responsible for the sumptuous decoration of the interiors. He also designed a quayside in front of the building, with stairs down to the Neva River, Ivan Betskoy reorganized the academy into a de facto government department, it supervised matters concerning art throughout the country, distributing orders and awarding ranks to artists. The academy vigorously promoted the principles of Neoclassicism by sending the most notable Russian painters abroad, in order to learn the ancient and Renaissance styles of Italy and it also had its own sizable collection of choice artworks intended for study and copying. The adherents of this movement became known as peredvizhniki, led by Ivan Kramskoi, they publicly broke with the Academy and organized their own exhibitions, which traveled from town to town across Russia. Ilya Repin, Mikhail Vrubel and some other painters still regarded the academys training as indispensable for the development of professional and technical skills. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Imperial Academy passed through a series of transformations, after the Academys move to Moscow that year, the building in what was then called Leningrad was renamed Ilya Repin Leningrad Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. The national academy has stayed in Moscow, in 1991 it was renamed the Russian Academy of Arts. The old academys art collection, which included works by Poussin, David. During the Soviet era, academies were free of tuition fees as they were financed by the government, many would-be students would apply to the Academy for as many as six or seven years in a row without success. With just twenty places available and thousands of applicants, the competition was brutal, well-known graduates of Ilya Repin Leningrad Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1930–1950s include, The Russian Academy of Arts has been headquartered in Moscow since 1947. Its current president is Zurab Tsereteli and its vice-president is Tair Salakhov and it is also called the St. Petersburg State Academic Institute of Fine Arts, Sculpture and Architecture. - Saint Petersburg, NP-Print Edition,2007, the Leningrad School Russian Academy of Arts The St. Petersburg State Academic Institute of Fine Arts Sergei V. Ivanov
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Pyotr Basin
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Pyotr Vasilievich Basin was a Russian religious, history and portrait painter. He studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts under Vasily Shebuyev, after graduating, he spent the next eleven years in Rome on a fellowship, which he was given for his painting of Christ driving the money changers from the Temple. While there, he created almost 100 works, upon his return to Saint Petersburg in 1830, he was made an Academician for his portrayal of Socrates saving Alcibiades. The painting itself required some saving, as the ship carrying it from Rome was wrecked, causing water damage, after that, he began teaching and was appointed a Professor in 1836, a position he held until 1869 when he became a Professor Emeritus and State Councilor. He lost his eyesight in 1870 and they include forty paintings and icons for Saint Isaacs Cathedral. He is mentioned in a story by Taras Shevchenko and his best-known student was Nikolai Ge. Media related to Pyotr Vasilievich Basin at Wikimedia Commons
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Maxim Vorobiev
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Maxim Nikiforovich Vorobiev, or Vorobyov was a Russian landscape painter. He was the son of a soldier who later served as a custodian at the Imperial Academy of Arts. At the age of ten, he was enrolled in the classes and went on to study landscape painting with Fyodor Alekseyev. In 1809, Alekseyev joined an expedition to explore the areas of Central Russia. From 1813-1814, he accompanied the Russian army on its campaigns in Germany, in 1815, he became a teacher at the Academy, a position he held until his death. Most of this work had to be done in secret to avoid interference by the local Ottoman authorities, besides the ancient ruins, he also drew sketches of contemporary Jerusalem and the Dead Sea as well as scenes from Istanbul, Smyrna, Jaffa and other places he passed through. The final result was a collection of over 90 watercolor sheets that would serve as the basis for many paintings and he received a lifetime pension for his work there. During the Russo-Turkish War he was attached to the retinue of Nicholas I to sketch and make paintings upon his direction, which included several scenes from the Siege of Varna. Following the sudden death of his beloved wife Cleo in 1840, he fell into a period of chronic depression and his output decreased to a trickle, consisting largely of sketches made from 1844 to 1846 while travelling through Italy in an effort to assuage his grief. When he died, most of his paintings were still in his possession or being passed around by friends, the majority are now in palaces or private collections. He was also a talented violinist, some of his best known students were Lev Lagorio, Mikhail Clodt, Alexey Bogolyubov and Ivan Shishkin. His adopted son, Sokrat, also became a landscape painter and art teacher
11.
Patriarch Hermogenes of Moscow
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Hermogenes, or Germogen was the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia from 1606. It was he who inspired the uprising that put an end to the Time of Troubles. Hermogenes was glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1913, at the Holy Synod of 1589, which established the patriarchy in Moscow, Hermogenes was appointed Metropolitan of the newly conquered city of Kazan. During the following two decades, he gained renown for a number of Muslim Volga Tatars converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, in 1606, Hermogenes was summoned by False Dmitry I to take part in the Senate recently instituted in Moscow. There he learnt about the design to marry a Roman Catholic woman, Marina Mniszech. At that he was exiled from the capital, only to return with great honours several months later, when the tsar had been deposed. Metropolitan Isidore handed the Patriarch the staff of the holy hierarch Peter, and the Tsar gave as a gift to the new Patriarch a panagia, embellished with precious stones, in the ancient manner, Patriarch Hermogenes made his entrance riding upon a donkey. During Vasilys reign, Hermogenes generally supported the efforts to pacify the country and anathemized Ivan Bolotnikov. When Vasily was dethroned and the Poles took hold of the Moscow Kremlin, Hermogenes staunchly opposed their plans to put Wladyslaw IV on the Russian throne, unless he converted to Orthodoxy. Despite knife threats from some of the boyars, he refused to sign any petitions to the Polish king, in December 1610 Hermogenes distributed letters to various Russian towns, urging the populace to rise against the Poles. When the volunteer army under Prokopy Lyapunov finally approached Moscow, he defied the Polish exhortations to anathemize the army, despite being threatened with death penalty, he cursed the Roman Catholics and showed support for Lyapunov. After that, he was arrested and thrown into the Chudov Monastery, there he heard about the new volunteer army, mustered by Kuzma Minin and commanded by Prince Pozharsky, and blessed them both. Thereupon the patriarch was beaten and starved to death, the body of Hermogenes was buried in the Chudov monastery, but in 1654 was transferred to the Moscow Dormition cathedral. The purported relics of Patriarch Germogen were accidentally found in one of the crypts of the Chudov Monastery during the 1913 repair works, in connection with the Romanov Dynasty Tercentenary, celebrated that same year, he was canonized as a hieromartyr and transferred to the nearby Dormition Cathedral. The Russian Orthodox Church commemorates him on February 17, the day of his death, and May 12 and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary
12.
Sophia of Lithuania
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Sophia was the only daughter of Vytautas the Great of Lithuania and his first wife, Anna. On 21 January 1391, while her father was engaged in the Lithuanian Civil War and she was the longest serving consort of Russia. After Vasilis death in 1425 she became regent for their ten-year-old son Vasili II and her father supported Vasilis claim to the throne, which was disputed by his uncle, Yuri of Zvenigorod. Sophia was buried in the Ascension Convent, the sarcophagus was moved in 1929 to the Cathedral of the Archangel by Soviet authorities and her husband was a son of Vladymir, Prince of Kiev. His paternal grandparents were Algirdas and Maria of Vitebsk, vasilisa Vasilievna, wife of Alexander Ivanovich Brukhaty, Prince of Suzdal, and Alexander Daniilovich Vzmetenj, Prince of Suzdal. Simeon Vasilievich Maria Vasilievna, wife of Yuri Patrikievich and her husband was a son of Patrikas, Prince of Starodub, and his wife, Helena. Vasily II of Moscow Her listing, along with her husband, in Medieval lands by Charles Cawley
13.
Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts
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The Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts was an organization devoted to promoting the arts that existed in Saint Petersburg from 1820 to 1929. It was the oldest society of its kind in Russia, until 1882 it was called the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. After 1917, it became the All-Russian Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, in 1833, Tsar Nicholas I formally confirmed the Societys existence by law and placed it under his personal protection. Before then, many young artists benefited from Society grants that enabled them to study overseas, among them were Karl Bryullov and Alexander Brullov in 1822, Alexander Ivanov in 1827 and Alexey Tyranov in 1830. In 1860, the Society established a competition for painting. That same year, according to the Societys records, their exhibitions had attracted 56,000 visitors, works were sold to the value of 33,900 Rubles, in fact, after 1840, the Society was managed by various members of the family. Duke Maximilian held that position until 1851, followed by his wife, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, his daughter, Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna, after the Revolution, the Society gave up its charitable activities and became a sort of art club with educational functions. In 1924, it came under control of the State Academy of History of Material Culture, the Drawing School was created by a decree of Tsar Nicholas I in 1839. At first, the school taught only sketching and drawing and its objective was to enable artists to participate in crafts and industrial activities, as well as training teachers. Students were admitted all year and the lessons were free, until 1858, after which all, in 1889, a satellite school for low-income children was opened in the suburbs. In 1906, Nicholas Roerich was named Director and he created workshops for sewing and weaving, iconography, ceramics and porcelain painting. In addition, he hired well-known artists as instructors, including Ivan Bilibin, Dmitry Kardovsky, after the October Revolution, all of the schools courses were consolidated into a single course on painting and technical drawing, taught free in a building on Liteyny Avenue. Later, the course was transferred to what became known as the Tavricheskaya Art School, current photographs and a history of the Societys building @ Citywalls
14.
Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
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The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour is a cathedral in Moscow, Russia, on the northern bank of the Moskva River, a few blocks southwest of the Kremlin. With an overall height of 103 metres, it is the tallest Orthodox Christian church in the world, the current church is the second to stand on this site. The original church, built during the 19th century, took more than 40 years to build and it was destroyed in 1931 on the order of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The demolition was supposed to make way for a colossal Palace of the Soviets to house the countrys legislature, construction started in 1937 but was halted in 1941 when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union during World War II. Its steel frame was disassembled the year, and the Palace was never built. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the current church was rebuilt on the site during 1995–2000, the original church was the scene of the 1882 world premiere of the 1812 Overture composed by Tchaikovsky, which became internationally famous. It took some time for work on the cathedral to get started. The first finished architectural project, by Aleksandr Lavrentyevich Vitberg, was endorsed by the Tsar in 1817 and it was a flamboyant Neoclassical design full of Freemasonic symbolism. Construction work was begun on the Sparrow Hills, the highest point in Moscow, in the meantime Alexander I was succeeded by his brother Nicholas I. Profoundly Orthodox and patriotic, the new Tsar disliked the Neoclassicism and he commissioned his favorite architect Konstantin Thon to create a new design, taking as his model Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, Turkey. Thons Russian Revival design was approved in 1832, a new site closer to the Moscow Kremlin was chosen by the Tsar in 1837. A convent and church on the site had to be relocated, the cathedral took many decades to build, the scaffolding was not taken down until 1860. Its painting was overseen by Evgraf Sorokin, and thereafter some of the best Russian painters continued to embellish the interior for another twenty years, the cathedral was consecrated on 26 May 1883, the day before Alexander III was crowned. Although Tchaikovskys 1812 Overture was written with the completion in mind. The inner sanctum of the church was ringed by a gallery, its walls inlaid with rare sorts of marble, granite. The ground floor of the gallery was a dedicated to the Russian victory over Napoleon. The walls displayed more than 1,000 square metres of Carrara bianca marble plaques listing major commanders, regiments, the second floor of the gallery was occupied by church choirs. The giant dome of the cathedral was gilded using the new technique of electroplating, replacing the older
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Saint Isaac's Cathedral
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Saint Isaacs Cathedral or Isaakievskiy Sobor in Saint Petersburg, Russia, is the largest Russian Orthodox cathedral in the city. It is the largest orthodox basilica and the fourth largest cathedral in the world and it is dedicated to Saint Isaac of Dalmatia, a patron saint of Peter the Great, who had been born on the feast day of that saint. The church on St Isaacs Square was ordered by Tsar Alexander I, to replace a structure by Vincenzo Brenna. A specially appointed commission examined several designs, including that of the French-born architect Auguste de Montferrand, Montferrands design was criticised by some members of the commission for the dry and allegedly boring rhythm of its four identical pedimented octastyle porticos. It was also suggested that despite gigantic dimensions, the edifice would look squat, the members of the commission, which consisted of well-known Russian architects, were also particularly concerned by necessity to build a new huge building on the old unsecure foundation. The emperor, who favoured the ponderous Empire style of architecture, had to step in, the cathedral took 40 years to construct, under Montferrands direction, from 1818 to 1858. To secure the construction, the foundation was strengthened by driving 25,000 piles into the fenland of Saint Petersburg. Innovative methods were created to erect the giant columns of the portico, the construction costs of the cathedral totalled an incredible sum of 1000000 gold rubles. Under the Soviet government, the building was stripped of religious trappings, in 1931, it was turned into the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism, the dove sculpture was removed, and replaced by a Foucault pendulum. On April 12,1931, the first public demonstration of the Foucault pendulum was held to visualize Copernicus’s theory, in 1937, the museum was transformed into the museum of the Cathedral, and former collections were transferred to the Museum of the History of Religion. During World War II, the dome was painted over in gray to avoid attracting attention from enemy aircraft, on its top, in the skylight, a geodesical intersection point was placed, to determine the positions of German artillery batteries. With the fall of communism, the museum was removed and regular worship activity has resumed in the cathedral, the main body of the cathedral is used for services on feast days only. On January 10,2017 Georgy Poltavchenko, the Governor of St and it is similar to Andrea Palladios Villa La Rotonda, with a full dome on a high drum substituted for the Villas low central saucer dome. The rotunda is encircled by an accessible to tourists. 24 statues stand on the roof, and another 24 on top of the rotunda, the cathedrals main dome rises 101.5 metres and is plated with pure gold. The dome is decorated with statues of angels by Josef Hermann. These angels were likely the first large sculptures produced by the novel process of electrotyping. Montferrands design of the dome is based on a supporting cast iron structure and it was the third historical instance of cast iron cupola after the Leaning Tower of Nevyansk and Mainz Cathedral
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Pushkin, Saint Petersburg
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Pushkin was founded in 1710 as an imperial residence named Tsarskoye Selo and received status of a town in 1808. The first public railways in Russia, Tsarskoye Selo Railways, were opened here in 1837, after the October Revolution, the town was renamed to Detskoye Selo. Its name was changed in 1937 to Pushkin to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. The town contains an ensemble of the 18th century Tsarskoye Selo, the town is located on the Neva Lowland, on the left bank of the river Neva. The landscape is varied and contains hills, ridges and terraces intermixed with valleys, plains, forests. Numerous springs give rise to streams and feed ponds, in the Paleozoic era, 300–400 million years ago, the area was covered by a sea. Sediments of that form a layer thicker than 200 metres on top of the Baltic Shield consisting of granite, gneiss. The modern topography was shaped by the retreat some 12,000 years ago which created the Littorina Sea. About 4,000 years ago the sea receded and formed the valley of the Neva River which has not changed much over the last 2,500 years, the climate Pushkin is temperate and wet, it is transitional between oceanic and continental. The length of the day varies from 5 hours and 51 minutes in the solstice to 18 hours and 50 minutes in the summer solstice. Summer is short and moderately warm, whereas winter is long and uneven, Air temperatures above 0 °C prevail from early April to mid-November. Winds mostly blow southward and frequently change air mass above the city, summer is dominated by westerly and northwesterly winds, and the wind direction changes to westerly and southwesterly in winter. The cloudiest months are November, December and January, and the least cloudy are May, June, there are at least 240 sunny days per year. Between May 25 and July 16, white nights are observed when the sun only briefly goes over the horizon, the area is mostly fed by surface and ground waters. Prior to the founding of the town the area was covered by coniferous forests with an admixture of broad-leaved trees. The soils were mostly podzol, combined with peat and gleysols, intensive economic activities changed the original forest landscape to agricultural land with small groves of aspen, birch, alder and willow. In the 18–19th centuries, a park area of 704 hectares has been created in. Owing to the parks and environment-friendly policies, the Pushkin area has low level of pollution
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Victor Borisov-Musatov
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Victor Elpidiforovich Borisov-Musatov, was a Russian painter, prominent for his unique Post-Impressionistic style that mixed Symbolism, pure decorative style and realism. Together with Mikhail Vrubel he is referred as the creator of Russian Symbolism style. Victor Musatov was born in Saratov, Russia and his father was a minor railway official who had been born as a serf. In his childhood he suffered an injury, which made him humpbacked for the rest of his life. In 1884 he entered Saratov real school, where his talents as an artist were discovered by his teachers Fedor Vasiliev and Konovalov. The damp climate of Saint-Petersburg was not good for Victors health and in 1893 he was forced to return to Moscow and re-enroll to the Moscow School of painting, sculpturing and architecture. The same works however were praised by his peers, who considered him to be the leader of the new art movement, in 1895 Victor once again left Moscow School of painting, sculpturing and architecture and enrolled in Fernand Cormons school in Paris. He studied there for three years, returning in summer months to Saratov and he was fascinated by the art of his French contemporaries, and especially by the paintings of the father of French Symbolism Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and by the work of Berthe Morisot. In 1898 Borisov-Musatov returned to Russia and almost immediately fell into what it is called fin de siècle nostalgia, Musatovs response was creating a half-illusory world of the 19th century nobility, their parks and country-seats. This world was based on the estate of princes Prozorvky-Galitzines Zubrilovka. Borisov-Musatov also abandoned oil paintings for the mixed tempera and watercolor, the most famous painting of that time is The Pool,1902. The painting depicts two most important women in his life, his sister, Yelena Musatova and his bride, the people are woven into the landscape of an old park with a pond. Another famous painting is The Phantoms,1903 depicting ghosts on the steps of an old country manor. The painting was praised by the contemporary Symbolist poets Valery Bryusov, the last finished painting of Borisov-Musatov was Requiem. Devoted to the memory of Nadezhda Staniukovich, a friend of the artist. Borisov-Musatov died on October 26, O. S.1905 of an attack and is buried on a bank of Oka River near Tarusa. On his tomb there is a sculpture of a boy by Musatovs follower Alexander Matveyev
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Dmitry Kardovsky
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Dmitry Kardovsky was a Russian artist, illustrator and stage designer. He was born near Pereslavl-Zalessky in the Yaroslavl province, after studying law at Moscow University, he then studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg from 1892, under Pavel Chistyakov and Ilya Repin. Kardovsky moved to Munich in 1896 with Igor Grabar and studied at the studio of Anton Ažbe. He returned to St Petersburg in 1900 and received his diploma from the Academy in 1902 and he was appointed as professor of the Academy in 1907. Kardovsky explored various styles, including Impressionism and Jugendstil, but was concerned with faithful representation than formal experiment. From 1902, he was prolific as an illustrator, and worked mainly on the Russian literary classics by Chekhov, Gogol, Lermontov. He also dabbled with political caricature, providing illustrations for the radical journals Zhupel, in 1934 Isaak Brodsky, a disciple of Ilya Repin was appointed director of the National Academy of Arts and the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Brodsky invited D. Kardovsky among the most distinguished painters and pedagogues to teach at the Academy, the system of master’s workshops was restored at the Department of Painting. Students were assigned to one of the workshops after they completed their second-year courses, professor D. Kardovsky had their own workshops. He was an admirer of Mikhail Vrubel, whose posthumous exhibition he organized in 1912, Kardovsky died in Pereslavl-Zalessky in 1943. Dmitry was married to painter Olga Della-Vos-Kardovskaya The Socialist Realist artist Serafima Ryangina trained under Kardovsky at the St Petersburg Academy of Arts between 1912–18 and 1921-23, saint Petersburg, NP-Print,2007, ISBN 5-901724-21-6, ISBN 978-5-901724-21-7
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Kosta Khetagurov
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Konstantin Khetagkati was a national poet of the Ossetian people who is generally regarded as the founder of Ossetian literature. He was also a painter and a notable public benefactor. He is often known by the Russian version of his name and he studied at the Stavropol Gymnasium from 1871 to 1881, and entered the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts in 1881, but had to abandon his studies due to financial constraint in 1885. Back in his native Ossetia, he became a prominent poet, whose poems composed in Ossetic quickly spread throughout Ossetian towns and he also published a number of poems, stories and articles in the Russian-language newspapers Severny Kavkaz, and Kazbek. His paintings also gained in popularity, one of them depicting Saint Nino. Due to his criticism of the Imperial Russian government he was exiled from his motherland from 1891 to 1896. The last exile significantly shattered the poets health and deprived him of the ability to continue his creative, Khetagurov died shortly afterwards in Karachay in 1906. On October 15,1859, came a birth that was propitious in the story of Ossetia. That birth was of Kosta Khetagurov, a man who was not yet a man, the birthing occurred in a small mountain village which is known as Nar. Nar is at the end of a road now, it is a small but known city. Tibsli is in the Alagir gorge of North Ossetia, the town of Nar is close to the Georgian-Russian border, a fact to which importance shall come later. Quickly, Kosta was recognized as a drawing prodigy, the attention of many and all was raised by this fact, and Kosta had very high expectations set for him. These years were difficult for Kosta but helped his development strongly and it cam time for Kosta to enter a new school. Due to his recognitions as a gestating artist, Kosta was selected to attend a distant and more prestigious school and this school was one of great color, and was in a region of Russian significance, the later place where Mikhail Gorbachev cut his teeth. Kostas remarkable facility with brush and pen was apprehended and remarked upon by the Russian drawing master Smirnov and it was now that a crossroads arose. Kosta had a disagreement with father Khetagurov about the direction of his future efforts, the father was convinced that the proper life for Kosta was that of a soldier. As a result, the father informed Kosta of the many patriotic benefits, Kosta, however, rebutted this argument strongly that he was not interested in fighting opportunities. There was some back and forth on this matter, eventually, Kosta won out, though it is not known whether this was done by reconciling or by scorning father Khetagurov
