Russian painters

[Alex Him]

Apollinary Vasnetsov (VII)



Троицкая церковь на Берсеневке (1922) / The Troitskaya (Trinity) Church on the Bersenevka (1922)

It is also known as (Церковь Николая Чудотворца на Берсеневке) the Church of St. Nicholas on the Bersenevka.

Bersenevka is historical area in Moscow, occupies the western part of the island formed by the Moscow River and the drainage channel, from the north-east is limited by the street Serafimovich.

Bersenevka leads its beginning from the tsar's gardens planted at the end of the XV century opposite the Kremlin.





Дом бывшего Археологического общества на Берсеневке (1923) / The house of the former Archaeological association on the Bersenevka (1923)





Старая Москва (1896) / Old Moscow (1896)





Вьюжит. Метель. Старая Москва. (1904) / The snowstorm. Old Moscow. (1904)





Общественные бани в Москве в XVII веке (1922) / Public baths in Moscow in the XVII century (1922)





Медведчики. Старая Москва. (1911) / Medvedchiki. Old Moscow. (1911)

Medvedchiki these are the people who go with trained bears on the streets.





Скоморохи (1904) / Skomorokhs (1904)

"The skomorokhs (sing. скоморох in Russian, скоморохъ in Old East Slavic, скоморaхъ in Church Slavonic) were medieval East Slavic harlequins, i.e. actors, who could also sing, dance, play musical instruments and compose for their oral/musical and dramatic performances.

The skomorokhs appeared in Kievan Rus no later than the mid-11th century although fresco depictions of skomorokh musicians in the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev dated to the 11th century.

The Primary Chronicle data about skomorokhi concurs with the period. The monk chronicler denounced the skomorokhi as devil servants. Furthermore the Orthodox Church often railed against the skomorokhi and other elements of popular culture as being irreverent, detracting from the worship of God, or even downright diabolical. For example Theodosius of Kiev, one of the co-founders of the Caves Monastery in the eleventh century, called the skomorokhi "evils to be shunned by good Christians".

The skomorokh art reached its peak in the 15th–17th century. Their repertoire included mock songs, dramatic and satirical sketches called glumy (глумы) performed in masks and skomorokh dresses to the sounds of domra, balalaika, gudok, bagpipes or buben (a kind of tambourine). The appearance of Russian puppet theatre was directly associated with skomorokh performances.

The skomorokhs performed in the streets and city squares engaging with the spectators to draw them into their play. Usually the main character of the skomorokh performance was a fun-loving saucy muzhik (мужик) of comic simplicity. In the 16th–17th century the skomorokhs would sometimes combine their efforts and perform in a vataga (ватага, or big crowd) numbering 70 to 100 people. The skomorokhs were often persecuted by the Russian Orthodox Church and civilian authorities.

In 1648 and 1657, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich issued ukases banning the skomorokh art as blasphemous but the actors would still occasionally perform during popular celebrations. In the 18th century the skomorokh art gradually died away; passing on some of its traditions to the balagans (ru) (балаган) and rayoks (раёк)."

Text by Wikipedia.





Базар. XVII век. (1903) / A bazar. XVII century. (1903)





Городская площадь XVII века / The town square of the XVII century





Площадь перед церковью. Улица в городе. (1911) / The area in front of the church. A street in the city. (1911)

[Alex Him]

Apollinary Vasnetsov (VIII)



Старорусский город / An old Russian city





Выход боярыни (1909) / Came out the Boyarynya (1909)

Boyarynya is a wife of Boyar.





Двор удельного князя / Courtyard of appanage prince





Сад князя Жемчужного (1911) / The garden of Pearl Prince (1911)

Perhaps it is a character from the drama of Ivan Lazhechnikov "Oprichnik" (Опричник).

"Ivan Ivanovich Lazhechnikov (1792-1869) - (Russian: Ива́н Ива́нович Лаже́чников) was a Russian writer.

Lazhechnikov was born into the family of a rich merchant in Kolomna in 1792. He received a well-rounded education from private tutors at home. He served in the active army in 1813–15, which inspired his Campaign Notes of a Russian Officer.

Lazhechnikov was one of the originators of the Russian historical novel, along with Faddey Bulgarin, Mikhail Zagoskin and others. His first novel, The Last Novik (1831–33), set in the early 18th century, was very successful. His novel The House of Ice (1835) dealt with the intrigues and horrors of the court of Empress Anna. The novel was praised by the influential critic Vissarion Belinsky for its authentic portrayal of the details of the period’s social climate. The Infidel, a novel set in the time of Ivan III, was translated into English as The Heretic. He also published several historical dramas including Oprichnik (1843, published in 1859), on which the libretto of Tchaikovsky’s opera is based."

Text by Wikipedia.





Кирилло-Белозерский монастырь (1915) / The Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery (1915)

"Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery or Cyril of Beloozero (Russian: Кирилло-Белозерский монастырь), translated into English as White Lake [translation of the town name of Beloozero] St. Cyril's Monastery, used to be the largest monastery in Northern Russia. The monastery was consecrated to the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, for which cause it was sometimes referred to as the Dormition Monastery of St. Cyril. By the 20th century, the town of Kirillov had grown nearby.

The monastery was founded in 1397 on the bank of Lake Siverskoye, to the south from the town of Beloozero, in the present-day Vologda Oblast. Its founder, St. Cyril or Kirill of Beloozero, following the advice of his teacher, St. Sergius of Radonezh, first dug a cave here, then built a wooden Dormition chapel and a loghouse for other monks. Shortly before the creation of the monastery, the area fell under control of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

Being a member of the influential Velyaminov clan of boyars, Kirill relinquished the office of father superior of the greatest cloister in medieval Moscow—the Simonov monastery. His ties with the ruling elite were still close, however, as his letters to sons of Dmitri Donskoi clearly demonstrate. It seems that the Muscovite rulers regarded Kirill's monastery as an important strategic point, both for Northern trade and in their struggle with the Novgorod Republic. By 1427, when Kirill died, the prince of Belozersk-Mozhaisk (subject to the Grand Prince of Moscow) was the monastery's patron and the monastery was administratively subordinate to the Archbishop of Rostov. Under Hegumen Trifon (1434/5–1447/8), social and administrative reforms were undertaken, including the adoption of an Athonite cenobitic rule. A Byzantine-style secondary school was established at which translations of textbooks on grammar, semantics, geography, and history were used. A lasting legacy of the school were bibliographical studies, exemplified by the elder Yefrosin, and text critical studies, exemplified by Nil Sorsky (1433–1508). Nil also founded a skete on the Sora River near the monastery.

In the 16th century, the monastery was the second richest landowner in Russia, after its model, the Trinity Monastery near Moscow. Ivan the Terrible not only had his own cell in the cloister, but also planned to take monastic vows here. The cloister was also important as a political prison. Among the Muscovite politicians exiled to Kirillov were Vassian Patrikeyev, Tsar Simeon Bekbulatovich, Patriarch Nikon, and the prime minister Boris Morozov. In December 1612, the monastery was besieged by Polish-Lithuanian vagabonds, the Lisowczycy, who failed to capture it."

Text by Wikipedia.





Троице-Сергиева лавра (1908-1913) / The Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius (1908-1913)

"The Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius (Russian: Тро́ице-Се́ргиева Ла́вра) is the most important Russian monastery and the spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church. The monastery is situated in the town of Sergiyev Posad, about 70 km to the north-east from Moscow by the road leading to Yaroslavl.

The monastery was founded in 1337 by one of the most venerated Russian saints, Sergius of Radonezh, who built a wooden church in honour of the Holy Trinity on Makovets Hill. Early development of the monastic community is well documented in contemporary lives of Sergius and his disciples.

In 1355, Sergius introduced a charter which required the construction of auxiliary buildings, such as refectory, kitchen, and bakery. This charter was a model for Sergius' numerous followers who founded more than 400 cloisters all over Russia, including the celebrated Solovetsky, Kirillov, and Simonov monasteries.

St. Sergius supported Dmitri Donskoi in his struggle against the Tatars and sent two of his monks, Peresvet and Oslyabya, to participate in the Battle of Kulikovo (1380). At the outbreak of the battle, Peresvet died in a single combat against a Tatar bogatyr. The monastery was devastated by fire, when a Tatar unit raided the area in 1408.

St. Sergius was declared patron saint of the Russian state in 1422. The same year the first stone cathedral was built by a team of Serbian monks who had found refuge in the monastery after the Battle of Kosovo. The relics of St. Sergius still may be seen in this cathedral, dedicated to the Holy Trinity. The greatest icon painters of medieval Russia, Andrei Rublev and Daniil Chyorny, were summoned to decorate the cathedral with frescoes. Traditionally, Muscovite royals were baptized in this cathedral and held thanksgiving services here.

In 1476, Ivan III invited several Pskovian masters to build the church of the Holy Spirit. This graceful structure is one of the few remaining examples of a Russian church topped with a belltower. The interior contains the earliest specimens of the use of glazed tiles for decoration. In the early 16th century, Vasily III added the Nikon annex and the Serapion tent, where several of Sergius' disciples were interred.

It took 26 years to construct the six-pillared Assumption Cathedral, which was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible in 1559. The cathedral is much larger than its model and namesake in the Moscow Kremlin. The magnificent iconostasis of the 16th–18th centuries features Simon Ushakov's masterpiece, the icon of Last Supper. Interior walls were painted with violet and blue frescoes by a team of Yaroslavl masters in 1684. The vault contains burials of Boris Godunov, his family and several 20th-century patriarchs.

As the monastery grew into one of the wealthiest landowners in Russia, the woods where it had stood were cut over and a village (or posad) sprang up near the monastery walls. It gradually developed into the modern town of Sergiyev Posad. The cloister itself was a notable centre of chronicle-writing and icon painting. Just opposite the monastery walls St. Paraskeva's Convent was established, among whose buildings St. Paraskeva's Church (1547), Introduction Church (1547), and a 17th-century chapel over St. Paraskeva's well are still visible.

In 1550s, a wooden palisade surrounding the cloister was replaced with 1.5 km-long stone walls, featuring twelve towers, which helped the monastery to withstand a celebrated 16-month Polish-Lithuanian siege in 1608–1610. A shell-hole in the cathedral gates is preserved as a reminder of Wladyslaw IV's abortive siege in 1618.

By the end of the 17th century, when young Peter I twice found refuge within the monastery from his enemies, numerous buildings had been added. These include a small baroque palace of the patriarchs, noted for its luxurious interiors, and a royal palace, with its facades painted in checkerboard design. The refectory of St. Sergius, covering 510 square meters and also painted in dazzling checkerboard design, used to be the largest hall in Russia. The five-domed Church of John the Baptist's Nativity (1693–1699) was commissioned by the Stroganovs and built over one of the gates. Other 17th-century structures include the monks' cells, a hospital topped with a tented church, and a chapel built over a holy well discovered in 1644.

In 1744, Empress Elizabeth conferred on the cloister the dignity of the Lavra. The metropolitan of Moscow was henceforth also the Archimandrite of the Lavra. Elizabeth particularly favoured the Trinity and annually proceeded afoot from Moscow to the cloister. Her secret spouse Alexey Razumovsky accompanied her on such journeys and commissioned a baroque church to the Virgin of Smolensk, the last major shrine to be erected in the Lavra. Another pledge of Elizabeth's affection for the monastery is a white-and-blue baroque belltower, which, at 88 meters, was one of the tallest structures built in Russia up to that date. Its architects were Ivan Michurin and Dmitry Ukhtomsky.

Throughout the 19th century, the Lavra maintained its status as the richest Russian monastery. A seminary founded in 1742 was replaced by an ecclesiastical academy in 1814. The monastery boasted a supreme collection of manuscripts and books. Medieval collections of the Lavra sacristy attracted thousands of visitors. In Sergiyev Posad, the monastery maintained several sketes, one of which is a place of burial for the conservative philosophers Konstantin Leontiev and Vasily Rozanov.

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Soviet government closed the lavra in 1920. Its buildings were assigned to different civic institutions or declared museums. In 1930, monastery bells, including the Tsar-Bell of 65 tons, were destroyed. Pavel Florensky and his followers could hardly prevent the authorities from stealing and selling the sacristy collection but overall many valuables were lost or transferred to other collections.

In 1945, following Joseph Stalin's temporary tolerance of the church during World War II, the Lavra was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church. On April 16, 1946 divine service was renewed at the Assumption Cathedral. The lavra continued as the seat of the Moscow Patriarchate until 1983, when the patriarch was allowed to settle at the Danilov Monastery in Moscow. After that, the monastery continued as a prime centre of religious education. Important restoration works were conducted in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1993, the Trinity Lavra was inscribed on the UN World Heritage List."

Text by Wikipedia.





Валдайский монастырь (1901) / The Valdai monastery (1901)

"Valday Iversky Monastery (Russian: Валдайский Иверский монастырь) is a Russian Orthodox monastery founded by Patriarch Nikon in 1653. The monastery is located on an island in Lake Valdayskoye in Valdaysky District of Novgorod Oblast, Russia, close to the town of Valday. In the 17th century, the Valday Iversky Monastery was one of the most influential monasteries in Russia and a significant cultural center.

The monastery derives its name from the Iviron Monastery on Mount Athos. In the Valday Iversky Monastery, a copy of the icon of Theotocos Iverskaya was kept until the 1920s, when it disappeared. The name of the Iveron Monastery, in its turn, originates from Iberia, an ancient Georgian kingdom.

Nikon was elected Patriarch in 1652, and in 1653, he asked Tsar Alexey I permission to found a monastery in Valday. By the autumn of 1653, two wooden churches were in use. Nikon also ordered to transfer the relic of Saint Iosif of Borovichi to the monastery, which was done in February, 1654. In the same year, all lands around Lake Valdayskoye, including the selos of Valday, Borovichi, and Vyshny Volochyok, were declared the property of the monastery. The monastery became one of the biggest landowners in Russia.
In 1655, all monks from the former Orsha Kutein Monastery, located in the area of the present-day Belarus, moved to the Valday Iversky Monastery. One monk, Dionisy, was appointed a hegumen. This move was related to a difficult situation of the Orthodox Church in Poland.

In the second half of the 17th century, the monastery became a center of culture and education. In particular, the monastery started to print books, the second such institution in Russia after the Moscow Print Yard. Production of porcelain tiles, the first one in Russia, started in the monastery. In 1656, the first stone church was completed. Nikon, as well as a number of metropolitans, personally attended the sanctification. For this occasion, a copy of the icon of Theotocos Iverskaya was made and placed in the monastery. Simultaneously, Nikon issued a prohibition to make further copies of the icon.

In 1666, Nikon was deposed, and all monasteries he supervised, including the Iversky monastery, were abolished. However, already in 1668 the monastery was re-established, and the former monks, including the hegumen, Filofey, returned.

In the 18th century, the monastery slowly declined. Between 1712 and 1730, it was subordinated to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, located in Saint Petersburg. Much of the treasure kept in the Valday Iversky Monastery was transferred to the Lavra. An attempt to revive the former importance of the monastery was made in the 1850s. After the October Revolution, the monastery was first transformed into a labour cooperative in 1919, and in 1927, it was abolished. The monastery buildings housed a museum, a workshop, a hospital, a retirement home, and a recreation facility. The icon of the Theotocos Iverskaya disappeared in 1927 and was never recovered.

In 1991, the monastery was reopened. In the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Valday, a copy of the icon of the Theotocos Iverskaya, dating from 1854, survived. This copy was transferred to the monastery and remains there."

Text by Wikipedia.





Торг в Нижнем Новгороде (1908-1913) / Trading in Nizhny Novgorod (1908-1913)

"Nizhny Novgorod (Russian: Ни́жний Но́вгород), colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with a population of 1,250,619, the fifth-largest city in Russia and the administrative center of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast and Volga Federal District. From 1932 to 1990, it was known as Gorky (Горький), after the writer Maxim Gorky, who was born there. The city is an important economic, transportation and cultural center in Russia and the vast Volga-Vyatka economic region, and is the main center of river tourism in Russia. In the historical part of the city there area a large number of universities, theaters, museums and churches. Nizhny Novgorod is located about 400 km east of Moscow, where the Oka empties into the Volga.

The city was founded in 1221 by Prince Yuri II of Vladimir. In 1612 Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky organized a big army for the liberation of Moscow from the Poles. In 1817 Nizhny Novgorod become a great trade center of the Russian Empire. In 1896 at a fair, an All-Russia Exhibition was organized.

During the Soviet period, the city turned into an important industrial center. In particular, the Gorky Automobile Plant was constructed in this period. During the Second World war Gorky became the biggest provider of military equipment to the front. Due to this, the Luftwaffe constantly bombed the city from the air. The majority of the German bombs fell in the area of the Gorky Automobile Plant. Although almost all the production sites of plant were completely destroyed, the citizens of Gorky reconstructed the factory after 100 days.

After the war, Gorky became a "closed city" and remained one until after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1990. At that time the city was renamed back to Nizhny Novgorod.

The Kremlin - the main center of the city - contains the main government agencies of the city and the Volga Federal District."

Text by Wikipedia.





Гремячая башня. Псков. (1908) / Gremyachaya tower. Pskov. (1908)

Gremyachaya Tower was built in 1525.

"Pskov (Russian: Псков) is a city and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast located about 20 kilometers (12 mi) east from the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River.

Pskov is one of the oldest cities in Russia. Its earliest mention comes in 903, which records that Igor of Kiev married a local lady, St. Olga.

The first prince of Pskov was Vladimir the Great's youngest son Sudislav. Once imprisoned by his brother Yaroslav, he was not released until the latter's death several decades later. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the town adhered politically to the Novgorod Republic. In 1241, it was taken by the Teutonic Knights, but Alexander Nevsky recaptured it several months later.

In order to secure their independence from the knights, the Pskovians elected a Lithuanian prince, named Daumantas, a Roman Catholic converted to Orthodox faith and known in Russia as Dovmont, as their military leader and prince in 1266. Having fortified the town, Daumantas routed the Teutonic Knights at Rakvere and overran much of Estonia. His remains and sword are preserved in the local kremlin, and the core of the citadel, erected by him, still bears the name of "Dovmont's town".

By the 14th century, the town functioned as the capital of a de facto sovereign republic. Its most powerful force was the merchants who brought the town into the Hanseatic League. Pskov's independence was formally recognized by Novgorod in 1348. Several years later, the veche promulgated a law code (called the Pskov Charter), which was one of the principal sources of the all-Russian law code issued in 1497.

For Russia, the Pskov Republic was a bridge towards Europe; for Europe, it was a western outpost of Russia. The importance of the city made it the subject of numerous sieges throughout its history. The Pskov Krom (or Kremlin) withstood twenty-six sieges in the 15th century alone. At one point, five stone walls ringed it, making the city practically impregnable. A local school of icon-painting flourished, and the local masons were considered the best in Russia. Many peculiar features of Russian architecture were first introduced in Pskov.

Finally, in 1510, the city fell to Muscovite forces. The deportation of noble families to Moscow is a subject of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Pskovityanka (1872). As the second largest city of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, Pskov still attracted enemy armies. Most famously, it withstood a prolonged siege by a 50,000-strong Polish army during the final stage of the Livonian War (1581–1582). The king of Poland Stephen Báthory undertook some thirty-one attacks to storm the city, which was defended mainly by civilians. Even after one of the city walls was broken, the Pskovians managed to fill the gap and repel the attack. "It's amazing how the city reminds me of Paris", wrote one of the Frenchmen present at Báthory's siege. http://vnnforum.com/showpost.php?p=2020578&postcount=30

Peter the Great's conquest of Estonia and Latvia during the Great Northern War in the early 18th century spelled the end of Pskov's traditional role as a vital border fortress and a key to Russia's interior. As a consequence, the city's importance and well-being declined dramatically, although it has served as a seat of separate Pskov Governorate since 1777.

During World War I, Pskov became the center of much activity behind the lines. It was at a railroad siding in Pskov, aboard the imperial train, that Tsar Nicholas II signed the manifesto announcing his abdication in March 1917, and after the Russo-German Brest-Litovsk Peace Conference (December 22, 1917 – March 3, 1918), the Imperial German Army invaded the area. Pskov was also occupied by the Estonian army between 25 May 1919 and 28 August 1919 during the Estonian War of Independence when Bułak-Bałachowicz became the military administrator of Pskov.

Under Soviet government, large parts of the city were rebuilt, many ancient buildings, particularly churches, were demolished to give space for new constructions. During World War II, the medieval citadel provided little protection against modern artillery of Wehrmacht, and Pskov suffered substantial damage during the German occupation from July 9, 1941 until July 23, 1944. A huge portion of the population died during the war, and Pskov has since struggled to regain its traditional position as a major industrial and cultural center of Western Russia."

Text by Wikipedia.





Варяжские корабли в Великом Новгороде (1902) / The Varangian ships in Veliky Novgorod (1902)

"Veliky Novgorod (Russian: Вели́кий Но́вгород), also known as Novgorod the Great, or Novgorod Veliky, or just Novgorod, is one of the most important historic cities in Russia, which serves as the administrative center of Novgorod Oblast. The city lies along the Volkhov River just downstream from its outflow from Lake Ilmen. UNESCO recognized Novgorod as a World Heritage Site in 1992.

At its peak during the 14th century, the city was the capital of the Novgorod Republic and one of Europe's largest cities.

The Sofia First Chronicle makes initial mention of it in 859, while the Novgorod First Chronicle first mentions it in 862, when it was purportedly already a major Baltics to Byzantium station on the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks. The Charter of Veliky Novgorod recognizes 859 as the year when the city was first mentioned.

Archaeological excavations in the middle to late 20th century, however, have found cultural layers dating back only to the late 10th century, the time of the Christianization of Rus' and a century after it was allegedly founded, suggesting that the chronicle entries mentioning Novgorod in the 850s or 860s are later interpolations. Archaeological dating is fairly easy and accurate to within 15–25 years, as the streets were paved with wood, and most of the houses made of wood, allowing tree ring dating.

The Varangian name of the city Holmgård/Holmgard (Holmgarðr or Holmgarðir) is mentioned in Norse Sagas as existing at a yet earlier stage, but in this case historical facts are difficult to untangle from legend. Originally, Holmgård referred only to the stronghold southeast of the present-day city, Rurikovo Gorodische (named in comparatively modern times after the Varangian chieftain Rurik, who supposedly made it his "capital" around 860). Archeological data suggests that the Gorodishche, the residence of the Knyaz (prince), dates from the mid-9th century, whereas the town itself dates only from the end of the 10th century; hence the name Novgorod, "new city", from Old Church Slavonic Новъ and Городъ (Nov and Gorod), although German and Scandinavian historiography suggests the Old Norse term Nýgarðr, or the Old High German term Naugard. First mention of this Nordic or Germanic etymology to the name of the city of Novgorod (and that of other cities within the territory of the then Kievan Rus') occurs in the 10th-century policy manual De Administrando Imperio by Byzantine emperor Constantine VII.

Slightly predating the chronology of the legend of Rurik (which dates the first Norse arrival in the region around 858–860), an earlier record for the Scandinavian settlement of the region is found in the Annales Bertiniani (written up until 882) where a Rus' delegation is mentioned as having visited Constantinople in 838 and, intending to return to the Rus' Khaganate via the Baltic Sea, were questioned by Frankish Emperor Louis the Pious at Ingelheim am Rhein, where they said that although their origin was Swedish, they had settled in Northern Rus' under a leader who they designated as chacanus (the Latin form of Khagan, a title they had likely borrowed from contact with the Avars).

In 882, Rurik's successor, Oleg of Novgorod, conquered Kiev and founded the state of Kievan Rus'. Novgorod's size as well as its political, economic, and cultural influence made it the second most important city in Kievan Rus'. According to a custom, the elder son and heir of the ruling Kievan monarch was sent to rule Novgorod even as a minor. When the ruling monarch had no such son, Novgorod was governed by posadniks, such as the legendary Gostomysl, Dobrynya, Konstantin, and Ostromir.

Of all their princes, Novgorodians most cherished the memory of Yaroslav the Wise, who sat as Prince of Novgorod from 1010 to 1019, while his father, Vladimir the Great, was a prince in Kiev. Yaroslav promulgated the first written code of laws (later incorporated into Russkaya Pravda) among the Eastern Slavs and is said to have granted the city a number of freedoms or privileges, which they often referred to in later centuries as precedents in their relations with other princes. His son, Vladimir, sponsored construction of the great St. Sophia Cathedral, more accurately translated as the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom, which stands to this day.

In Norse sagas the city is mentioned as the capital of Gardariki. Four Viking kings—Olaf I of Norway, Olaf II of Norway, Magnus I of Norway, and Harald Hardrada—sought refuge in Novgorod from enemies at home. No more than a few decades after the 1030 death and subsequent canonization of Olaf II of Norway, the city's community had erected in his memory Saint Olaf's Church in Novgorod.

The town of Visby in Gotland functioned as the leading trading center in the Baltic before the Hansa League. At Novgorod in 1080, Visby merchants established a trading post which they named Gutagard (also known as Gotenhof). Later, in the first half of the 13th century, merchants from northern Germany also established their own trading station in Novgorod, known as Peterhof. At about the same time, in 1229, German merchants at Novgorod were granted certain privileges, which made their position more secure.

In 1136, the Novgorodians dismissed their prince Vsevolod Mstislavich. The year is seen as the traditional beginning of the Novgorod Republic. The city was able to invite and dismiss a number of princes over the next two centuries, but the princely office was never abolished and powerful princes, such as Alexander Nevsky, could assert their will in the city regardless of what Novgorodians' said. The city state controlled most of Europe's northeast, from lands east of today's Estonia to the Ural Mountains, making it one of the largest states in medieval Europe, although much of the territory north and east of Lakes Ladoga and Onega was sparsely populated and never organized politically.

One of the most important local figures in Novgorod was the posadnik, or mayor, an official elected by the public assembly (called the Veche) from among the city's boyarstvo, or aristocracy. The tysyatsky, or "thousandman", originally the head of the town militia but later a commercial and judicial official, was also elected by the Veche. Another important local official was the Archbishop of Novgorod who shared power with the boyars. Archbishops were elected by the Veche or by the drawing of lots, and after their election, were sent to the metropolitan for consecration.

While a basic outline of the various officials and the Veche can be drawn up, the city-state's exact political constitution remains unknown. The boyars and the archbishop ruled the city together, although where one official's power ended and another's began is uncertain. The prince, although his power was reduced from around the middle of the 12th century, was represented by his namestnik, or lieutenant, and still played important roles as a military commander, legislator and jurist. The exact composition of the Veche, too, is uncertain, with some historians, such as Vasily Klyuchevsky, claiming it was democratic in nature, while later scholars, such as Marxists Valentin Ianin and Aleksandr Khoroshev, see it as a "sham democracy" controlled by the ruling elite.

In the 13th century, Novgorod, while not a member of the Hanseatic League, was the easternmost kontor, or entrepôt, of the league, being the source of enormous quantities of luxury (sable, ermine, fox, marmot) and non-luxury furs (squirrel pelts).

Throughout the Middle Ages, the city thrived culturally. A large number of birch bark letters have been unearthed in excavations, perhaps suggesting widespread literacy, although this is uncertain (some scholars suggest that a clerical or scribal elite wrote them on behalf of a largely illiterate populace). It was in Novgorod that the Novgorod Codex, the oldest Slavic book written north of Macedonia, and the oldest inscription in a Finnic language (Birch bark letter no. 292) were unearthed. Some of the most ancient Russian chronicles (Novgorod First Chronicle) were written in the scriptorium of the archbishops who also promoted iconography and patronized church construction.

The Novgorod merchant Sadko became a popular hero of Russian folklore.

Novgorod was never conquered by the Mongols during the Mongol invasion of Rus. The Mongol army turned back about 200 kilometers (120 mi) from the city, not because of the city's strength, but probably because the Mongol commanders did not want to get bogged down in the marshlands surrounding the city. However, the grand princes of Moscow, who acted as tax collectors for the khans of the Golden Horde, did collect tribute in Novgorod, most notably Yury Danilovich and his brother, Ivan Kalita.

In 1259, Hordes tax-collectors and census-takers arrived in the city, leading to political disturbances and forcing Alexander Nevsky to punish a number of town officials (he cut off their noses) for defying him as Grand Prince of Vladimir (soon to be the khan's tax-collector in Russia) and his Mongol overlords. In the 14th century, raids by Novgorod pirates, or ushkuiniki, sowed fear as far as Kazan and Astrakhan, assisting Novgorod in wars with the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

During the era of Old Rus' State, Novgorod was a trade hub at the northern end of both the Volga trade route and the "route from the Varangians to the Greeks" along the Dnieper river system. A vast array of goods were transported along these routes and exchanged with local Novgorod merchants and other traders. The farmers of Gotland retained the Saint Olof trading house well into the 12th century. Later German merchantmen also established tradinghouses in Novgorod. Scandinavian royalty would intermarry with Russian princes and princesses.

After the great schism, Novgorod struggled from the beginning of the 13th century against Swedish, Danish, and German crusaders. During the Swedish-Novgorodian Wars, the Swedes invaded lands where some of the population had earlier paid tribute to Novgorod. The Germans had been trying to conquer the Baltic region since the late 12th century. Novgorod went to war 26 times with Sweden and 11 times with the Livonian Brothers of the Sword. The German knights, along with Danish and Swedish feudal lords, launched a series of uncoordinated attacks in 1240–1242. Novgorodian sources mention that a Swedish army was defeated in the Battle of the Neva in 1240. The Baltic German campaigns ended in failure after the Battle on the Ice in 1242. http://vnnforum.com/showpost.php?p=1978987&postcount=13

After the foundation of the castle of Viborg in 1293 the Swedes gained a foothold in Karelia. On August 12, 1323, Sweden and Novgorod signed the Treaty of Nöteborg, regulating their border for the first time.

The city's downfall occurred partially as a result of its inability to feed its large population, making it dependent on the Vladimir-Suzdal region for grain. The main cities in the area, Moscow and Tver, used this dependence to gain control over Novgorod. Eventually Ivan III forcibly annexed the city to the Grand Duchy of Moscow in 1478. The Veche was dissolved and a significant part of Novgorod's population was either killed or deported. The Hanseatic League kontor was closed in 1494 and the goods stored there were seized by Muscovite forces.

At the time of annexation, Novgorod became the third largest city under Muscovy and remained so until the famine of the 1560s and the Massacre of Novgorod in 1570. In the Massacre, Ivan the Terrible sacked the city, slaughtered thousands of its inhabitants, and deported the city's merchant elite and nobility to Moscow, Yaroslavl and elsewhere. The last decade of the 16th century was a comparatively favorable period for the city as Boris Godunov restored trade privileges and raised the status of Novgorod bishop. The German trading post was reestablished in 1603.

During the Time of Troubles, Novgorodians submitted to Swedish troops led by Jacob De la Gardie in the summer of 1611. The city was restituted to Muscovy, a brief six years later, by the Treaty of Stolbovo and only regained a measure of its former prosperity towards the end of the century, when such ambitious buildings as the Cathedral of the Sign and the Vyazhischi Monastery were constructed. The most famous of Muscovite patriarchs, Nikon, was active in Novgorod between 1648 and 1652. The Novgorod Land became one of the Old Believers' strongholds after the Schism.

In 1727, Novgorod was made the administrative center of Novgorod Governorate of the Russian Empire, which was detached from Saint Petersburg Governorate (see Administrative divisions of Russia in 1727–1728). This administrative division existed until 1927. Between 1927 and 1944, the city was a part of Leningrad Oblast, and then became the administrative center of the newly formed Novgorod Oblast.

On August 15, 1941, during World War II, the city was occupied by the German Army. Its historic monuments were systematically annihilated. The Red Army liberated the city on January 19, 1944. Out of 2,536 stone buildings, fewer than forty remained standing. After the war, thanks to plans laid down by Alexey Shchusev, the central part was gradually restored. In 1992, the chief monuments of the city and the surrounding area were declared to be World Heritage Sites, Historic Monuments of Novgorod and Surroundings. In 1999, the city was officially renamed Veliky Novgorod (literally, Great Novgorod), thus partly reverting to its medieval title "Lord Novgorod the Great". This reduced the temptation to confuse Veliky Novgorod with Nizhny Novgorod, a larger city the other side of Moscow which, between 1932 and 1990, had been renamed Gorky, in honor of Maxim Gorky."

Text by Wikipedia.

[Alex Him]

Apollinary Vasnetsov (IX)



Площадь в осажденном Китеже (1906) / The square in the besieged Kitezh (1906)

"Kitezh (Russian: Ки́теж) is a mythical city beneath the waters of Lake Svetloyar in the Voskresensky District of the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast in central Russia. Reference to Kitezh appears for the first time in "Kitezh Chronicle", an anonymous book from the late 18th century, believed to have originated among the Old Believers.

Legend has it that Georgy II, Grand Prince of Vladimir in the early 13th century, first built the town of Maly Kitezh (Little Kitezh) on the Volga River (today's Krasny Kholm). It is sometimes erroneously identified with Gorodets, which was actually founded some 30 years before Georgy's birth in 1189. Later on, the prince crossed the rivers of Uzola, Sanda, and Kerzhenets, and found a beautiful spot on the shores of Lake Svetloyar, where he decided to build the town of Bolshoy Kitezh (Big Kitezh). According to folk etymology, the name of the town came from the royal residence of Kideksha (near Suzdal), ransacked by the Mongols in 1237, while Max Vasmer labels the place-name as "obscure".

After having conquered some of the Russian lands, Batu Khan heard of Kitezh and ordered his army to advance towards it. The Mongols soon captured Maly Kitezh, forcing Georgy to retreat into the woods towards Bolshoy Kitezh. One of the prisoners told the Mongols about some secret paths to Lake Svetloyar. The army of the Golden Horde followed Georgy and soon reached the walls of the town. To the surprise of the Mongols, the town had no fortifications whatsoever. Its citizens didn't even intend to defend themselves and were engaged in fervent praying, asking God for their salvation. On seeing this, the Mongols rushed to the attack, but then stopped. Suddenly, they saw countless fountains of water bursting from under the ground all around them. The attackers fell back and watched the town submerge into the lake. The last thing they saw was a glaring dome of a cathedral with a cross on top of it. Soon only waves remained.

This legend gave birth to numerous incredible rumors, which have survived to this day. It is said that only those who are pure in their heart and soul will find their way to Kitezh (the road to the lake is still called "Батыева тропа", or the Path of Batu). It is also said that in calm weather one can sometimes hear the sound of chiming bells and people singing from under the waters of Lake Svetloyar. Some people say that the most pious individuals may actually see the lights of religious processions (called "крестный ход") and even buildings on the bottom of the lake. For this reason Lake Svetloyar is sometimes called the "Russian Atlantis"."

Text by Wikipedia.





Озеро Светлояр (1906) / Lake Svetloyar (1906)





Ротонда Миловида. Статуя Зимы. Найденовский парк. Москва. (1920-ые) / Milovid rotunda. Statue of Winter. The Naydenovsky park. Moscow. (the 1920s)

Naydenovsky park was the park around the manor house of the same name in Moscow next to the Garden Ring.

"Milovid" is a ground in the form of the gazebo, designed for viewing the picturesque panoramas.





Флигель в Найденовском парке (1920-ые) / A wing in the Naydenovsky park (the 1920s)





Беседка на кургане. Бывший Найденовский парк. Москва. (1920-ые) / A gazebo on the hill. The former Naydenovsky park. Moscow. (the 1920s)





Абрамцевские дали (1880-ые) / Space around the Abramtsevo (the 1880s)

"Abramtsevo (Russian: Абра́мцево) is an estate located north of Moscow, in the proximity of Khotkovo, that became a center for the Slavophile movement and artistic activity in the 19th century. The estate is located in the village of the same name, in Sergiyevo-Posadsky District of Moscow Oblast.

Originally owned by author Sergei Aksakov, other writers and artists — such as Nikolai Gogol — at first came there as his guests. Under Aksakov, visitors to the estate discussed ways of ridding Russian art of Western influences to revive a purely national style. In 1870, eleven years after Aksakov's death, it was purchased by Savva Mamontov, a wealthy industrialist and patron of the arts.
Under Mamontov, Russian themes and folk art flourished there. During the 1870s and 1880s, Abramtsevo hosted a colony of artists who sought to recapture the quality and spirit of medieval Russian art in the manner parallel to the Arts and Crafts movement in Great Britain. Several workshops were set up there to produce handmade furniture, ceramic tiles, and silks imbued with traditional Russian imagery and themes.
Working together in a cooperative spirit, the artists Vasily Polenov and Viktor Vasnetsov designed a plain but picturesque church, with murals painted by Polenov, Vasnetsov and his brother, a gilded iconostasis by Ilya Repin and Mikhail Nesterov, and folklore-inspired sculptures by Viktor Hartmann and Mark Antokolsky. Towards the turn of the 20th century, drama and opera on Russian folklore themes (e.g., Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden) were produced in Abramtsevo by the likes of Konstantin Stanislavsky, with sets contributed by Vasnetsov, Mikhail Vrubel, and other distinguished artists."

Text by Wikipedia.


Museum - http://www.abramtsevo.net/eng/





Лесная тропинка. Абрамцево. (1885) / An trod in forest. The Abramtsevo. (1885)





Осинки. Абрамцево. (1886) / The aspens. The Abramtsevo. (1886)





Аллея в Абрамцеве (1917) / An alley in the Abramtsevo (1917)





За варкой варенья (1892) / During cooking of the jam (1892)

[Alex Him]

Apollinary Vasnetsov (X)



Пруд. Демьяново. Близ Клина. (1917) / A pond. The Demyanovo. Near Klin. (1917)

Demyanovo was the manor house.

"Klin (Russian: Клин) is a town and the administrative center of Klinsky District in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located 85 kilometers (53 mi) northwest of Moscow.

It has been known since 1317. In 1482, it was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Moscow with the rest of the Principality of Tver. Town status was granted in 1781.

Among several churches, the most noteworthy are the 16th-century church of the Dormition cloister and the baroque Resurrection cathedral (1712)."

Text by Wikipedia.





Царский пруд. Демьяново. (1903-1917) / The Tsar's pond. The Demyanovo. (1903-1917)





На погосте. Демьяново. (1917) / On the churchyard. The Demyanovo. (1917)





В тени лип. Демьяново. (1907) / In the shadow of the linden trees. The Demyanovo. (1907)





Скит (1901) / A cell (1901)





Старый дом / An old house





Развалины дома (1900-ые) / The ruins of the house (the 1900s)





Покинутая усадьба (1901) / An abandoned homestead (1901)





Рыбаки (1886-1887) / The fishermen (1886-1887)





Шум старого парка (1926) / The noise of the old park (1926)

[Alex Him]

Apollinary Vasnetsov (XI)



Днепр перед бурей (1888) / The Dnieper River before the storm (1888)

"The Dnieper River (also known as: Dnepr, Dnyapro or Dnipro) is one of the major rivers of Europe (fourth by length), rising near Smolensk, Russia and flowing through Russia, Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine and Belarus and the fourth longest river in Europe. The total length ranges between 2,145 km (1,333 mi) and 2,201 km (1,368 mi) with a drainage basin of 504,000 square kilometres (195,000 sq mi). The river is noted for its dams and hydroelectric stations. The Dnieper is an important navigable waterway for the economy of Ukraine and is connected via the Dnieper–Bug Canal to other waterways in Europe.

In antiquity, the river was known to the Greeks as the Borysthenes and was part of the Amber Road. Arheimar, a capital of the Goths, was located on the Dnieper, according to the Hervarar saga."

Text by Wikipedia.





Ахтырка (1880) / The Okhtyrka (1880)

"Okhtyrka (Ukrainian: Охтирка; also known by its Russian variant Akhtyrka Russian: Ахтырка) is a small city in Ukraine, a raion (district) centre within Sumy Oblast (region) since 1975. Okhtyrka is a town of Hussar and Cossack Fame. It was also once a regional seat of Sloboda Ukraine and the Ukrainian SSR. Since the discovery of oil and gas in 1961 Okhtyrka has become an "oil capital of Ukraine". It is home to Okhtyrka air base, historical and religious places of interest.

Okhtyrka was first established by former Polish citizens who had moved to the Right-bank Ukraine, Sloboda Ukraine and formed an outpost. The town was founded on the site of an ancient settlement of Severia principality that was destroyed during the Mongol invasion. The first written mention of Okhtyrka dates to 1641. In 1647, according to the act of demarcation of borders, Okhtyrka was ceded to Russia from Poland. When Poles vacated the town they destroyed the fortress but it was rebuilt by Orthodox peasants and Cossacks who decided to stay and be with new arrivals seeking the tax free life promised by Russia. Sloboda Ukraine territory at this time was heavily populated (both spontaneous and planned) on one hand by refugees, the Ukrainians from the territory formerly under the control of Poland, and on the other by musketeers and Cossacks. It was important for Russia to have an outpost established in this area, so it supported the settlers by removing tax collections for the time being. Okhtyrka's outpost served to strengthen the Belgorod defense line skirting the southern border of the Russian state in the middle of the 17th century. Being bolstered in this prominent position during the 17th and 18th centuries, Okhtyrka rose to such heights that it rivaled Kharkiv itself.

In 1655–1658 the Okhtyrka Cossack Regiment was formed and it lasted until 1765, when by order of Catherine II, all of Cossack regiments had been dismantled. In 1709 the territory of the Cossack regiment became the scene of fierce fighting with the Swedes. More than a hundred years the Cossack regiment fought against the invasion of the Tatars, and the troops shared not only the bitterness of defeat but the majestic glory of victories over the Turks, Tartars, the Swedes. Later, Okhtyrka's Cossack regiment reformed into the Hussars. Bravery was always of the best qualities of fighters from Okhtyrka.

Okhtyrka, like all of Sloboda Ukraine, had a chaotic structure of buildings. The central core of the city was represented by the fortress, which occupied a dominant place in the strategic sense. The buildings ran around, fitting into the terrain without any order.

Okhtyrka's fort was sitting on a shore of a small Okhtyrka river, where it makes a loop, forming a natural protection. The fortress was surrounded by numerous lakes, complicating approaches to it.

The fortress had the shape of an irregular quadrilateral, and occupied a territory of the present city center, from the river to the area, where there is now "Intercession Cathedral" (outside the castle). It was surrounded by a wooden fence with five stone and fifteen wooden towers and two bastions. The fortress gates had drawbridges. Around the castle there was a moat that was dug and earth mound with caponier at the corners. The water filled moat gave the island fortress a situational advantage, strengthening its defense capacity.

In the early 18th century warriors from Okhtyrka regiment took an active part in the Great Northern War recapturing the Swedish and Russian lands bordering the Baltic Sea. On December 26, 1707 Peter the First himself came to the city to personally verify the readiness of the garrison and hold a council of war. The Russian Tsar knew and appreciated soldiers from Okhtyrka, who have shown courage and perseverance during combat tours.

An important role in the fight against Napoleon's troops during the War of 1812 was played by Okhtyrka Hussars. They participated in the battles of Smolensk, Vyazma, Borodino. For services in battle the regiment was honored to open the parade of victors at the entry of Allied troops in Paris. In this regiment served, as one of the leaders of the partisan movement during the War in 1812 the Russian poet Dmitry Davydov, Russian composer AA Alyabyev. In 1823, the regiment was commanded by a future Decembrist A. Muravyev and Mikhail Lermontov - Russian poet.

Many people fought and died in WW-I and a lot more in WW-II defending the motherland. The fights around Okhtyrka were fearsome and resulted in having the common grave of Soviet soldiers in the area. The site is known to everyone in the city."

Text by Wikipedia.





Ахтырка. Вид усадьбы. (1894) / The Okhtyrka. View of the manor house. (1894)





Чаша моря (1924-1925) / A chalice of the Sea (1924-1925)





Крым (1890) / The Crimea (1890)





Крымский вид (1893) / View of the Crimea (1893)





Крымский пейзаж (1890) / A Crimean landscape (1890)





Крым. Байдарские ворота. (1890) / The Crimea. The Baydar gate.

"The Baydar Gate (elevation 503 metres or 1,650 feet) is a mountain pass in the Crimean Mountains connecting the Baidar Valley with the Black Sea coast. It is enclosed by Mount Chelebi (657 m) and Mount Ckhu-Bair (705 m). The old Yalta-Sevastopol highway, dating from the 1830s and seldom used today, passes through here. When the highway was completed in 1848, the so-called Propylaea were built of local limestone to commemorate the event. This Neoclassical gate offers scenic views, including that of the picturesque Foros Church set atop a 400-metre cliff overlooking the sea coast."

Text by Wikipedia.





Вид из Ласточкиного гнезда. Крым. (1924) / View from the Swallow's Nest. The Crimea. (1924)

"The Swallow's Nest (Russian: Ласточкино гнездo, Lastochkino gnezdo) is a decorative castle located at Gaspra, a small spa town between Yalta and Alupka, in Crimea. It was built between 1911 and 1912, on top of the 40-metre (130 ft) high Aurora Cliff, in a Neo-Gothic design by the Russian architect Leonid Sherwood for the Baltic German oil millionaire Baron von Steingel
The castle overlooks the Cape of Ai-Todor on the Black Sea coast and is located near the remains of the Roman castrum of Charax. The Swallow's Nest is one of the most popular visitor attractions in Crimea, having become the symbol of Crimea's southern coastline."

Text by Wikipedia.





Новый Симеиз. Сумерки. (1906) / The Novy Simeiz. The dusk. (1906)

"Simeiz (Russian: Симеи́з, Crimean Tatar: Simeiz) is a resort town, an urban-type settlement in Yalta Municipality in the Crimea. Its name is of Greek origin (σημαία 'flag' + -εις, a plural suffix). The town is located by the southern slopes of the main range of Crimean Mountains at the base of Mount Koshka, 18 kilometers (11 mi) west from Yalta.

There are prehistoric dolmens and fortifications nearby; in the Middle Ages the area was under the control of the Byzantine Empire, which built a fortified monastery in the vicinity (and may have given the town its name). As the Byzantine power weakened, the area fell under the control of Genoa, which in its turn gave way to the Ottoman Empire; under the Ottomans the village was ruled from Mangup. By 1778, with the departure of the Christian population, the village was depopulated.

In 1828 Simeiz came into the ownership of Ivan Akimovich Maltsov, who planted grapevines and fruit orchards; at the start of the 20th century his descendants created a resort, Novy Simeiz, which quickly became one of the most prestigious resorts in the Crimea. This period saw the construction of a park and a number of villas which remain to this day. In 1912 Nicholas II visited with his family. After the October Revolution, Simeiz was nationalized and public sanatoriums were created, mainly specializing in tuberculosis. In 1927 Simeiz was visited by around 10,000 people."

Text by Wikipedia.

[Alex Him]

Apollinary Vasnetsov (XII)



Церковь Цминда Самеба. Кавказ. (1895) / The Church of Cminda Sameba (Holy Trinity). The Caucasus. (1895)

This was a Georgian church.





Красные скалы в Кисловодске (1895) / The red cliffs in Kislovodsk (1895)

"Kislovodsk (Russian: Кислово́дск, lit. sour waters) is a spa city in Stavropol Krai, Russia, in the North Caucasus region of Russia which is located between the Black and Caspian Seas.

In 1803 Tsar Alexander I of Russia ordered the construction of the military station which became Kislovodsk. The site took its name from the many mineral springs around the city. The settlement gained town status in 1903.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Kislovodsk as a fashionable spa attracted many musicians, artists, and members of the Russian aristocracy. Several of the events in Mikhail Lermontov's 1840 novel A Hero of Our Time take place in Kislovodsk."

Text by Wikipedia.





Кама (1895) / The Kama river (1895)

"The Kama (Russian: Ка́ма) is a major river in Russia, the longest left tributary of the Volga and the largest one in discharge; it is larger than the Volga before junction.

It starts in the Udmurt Republic, near Kuliga, flowing northwest for 200 kilometres (120 mi), turning northeast near Loyno for another 200 kilometres, then turning south and west in Perm Krai, flowing again through the Udmurt Republic and then through the Republic of Tatarstan, where it meets the Volga.

The Kama is 1,805 kilometres (1,122 mi) long.

Before the advent of the railroads, the Kama was connected by important portages with the basins of the Northern Dvina and the Pechora. In the early 19th century, Northern Ekaterininsky Canal connected the upper Kama with the Vychegda River (a tributary of the Northern Dvina), but was mostly abandoned after just a few years due to low use."

Text by Wikipedia.





Вид из окна столовой. Рябово. (1919) / The view from the dining room window. The Ryabovo. (1919)

Ryabovo (Russian: Рябово) is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia.





Яшкин дом (1880-1886) / Yashkin dom (1880-1886)

"Yashkin dom" was the name of cottage near Abramtsevo manor.





Оренбургские степи (1893) / The Orenburg steppe (1893)

"Orenburg (Russian: Оренбург) is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast (region), Russia, lies on the River Ural, 1,478 kilometers (918 mi) southeast of Moscow. Because of its geographical location (in the boundary of Europe and Asia), Orenburg is very close to the border with Kazakhstan."

Text by Wikipedia.





Уральский пейзаж (1890-1891) / An Urals landscape (1890-1891)

"The Urals (Russian: Ура́л) are a geographical region located around the Ural Mountains, between the East European and West Siberian plains. It extends approximately from north to south, from the Arctic Ocean to the bend of Ural River near Orsk city. The boundary between Europe and Asia runs along the eastern side of the Ural Mountains. Ural mostly lies within Russia but also includes a part of northwestern Kazakhstan. This is a historical, not an official entity, with the boundaries overlapping its western Volga and eastern Siberia neighbor regions. At points in time, parts of the Urals were considered a gateway to Siberia, if not Siberia itself, or were combined with the Volga administrative divisions. At present time, there are two official namesake entities, the Ural Federal District and the Ural economic region. While the latter follows the historical boundaries, the former is a political product; the District omits Western Urals and includes Western Siberia instead.

The historical center of the Urals is Cherdyn, nowadays it is the small town in Perm Krai. Perm was an administrative center of the gubernia with the same name by 1797. The most territory of historical and modern Ural was included in Perm gubernia. The administrative center of Urals was moved to Sverdlovsk (nowadays Yekaterinburg) after Revolution and Civil war. Nowadays Ural economic region does not have an administrative and informal capital, whereas Yekaterinburg is administrative center of the Ural Federal District."

Text by Wikipedia.





Уральский пейзаж (1930) / An Urals landscape (1930)





Озеро в горной Башкирии. Урал. (1895) / A lake in the mountains of Bashkiria. The Urals. (1895)

"The Republic of Bashkortostan (Russian: Респу́блика Башкортоста́н), also known as Bashkiria (Russian: Башки́рия) is a federal subject of Russia (a republic). It is located between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains. Its capital is the city of Ufa.

The state has strong economic and cultural ties with its western neighbor the Republic of Tatarstan."

Text by Wikipedia.





Ночь. Урал. / Night. The Urals.

[Alex Him]

Apollinary Vasnetsov (XIII)



Баллада. Урал. (1897) / A ballad. The Urals. (1897)





Горное озеро. Урал. (1892) / A mountain lake. The Urals. (1892)





Лес на горе Благодать. Средний Урал. (1890-ые) / The forest on the Blagodat (Grace) Mountain. The Middle Urals. (the 1890s)

"Kushva (Russian: Кушва) is a town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located in the Ural Mountains near Yekaterinburg.

Originally a mining settlement founded in 1735 at the Blagodat Mountain to explore its iron ore deposits, it was granted town status in 1926 and was then renamed from Kushvinsky Zavod (Кушвинский Завод) to Kushva."

Text by Wikipedia.





Гора Благодать (1890) / The Blagodat Mountain (1890)





Тайга на Урале. Синяя гора. (1891) / The taiga in the Urals. The Blue Mountain. (1891)





Сибирь (1894) / The Siberia (1894)

"Siberia (Russian: Сиби́рь) is an extensive geographical region, and by the broadest definition is also known as North Asia. Siberia has been historically part of Russia since the 17th century.

The territory of Siberia extends eastwards from the Ural Mountains to the watershed between the Pacific and Arctic drainage basins. Siberia stretches southwards from the Arctic Ocean to the hills of north-central Kazakhstan and to the national borders of Mongolia and China. With an area of 13.1 million square kilometres, Siberia accounts for 77% of Russia's land area, but it is home to just 40 million people – 27% of the country's population. This is equivalent to an average population density of about 3 inhabitants per square kilometre (approximately equal to that of Australia), making Siberia one of the most sparsely populated regions on Earth."

Text by Wikipedia.





Северный край (1899) / The Northern territory (1899)





Северный пейзаж (1902) / A Northern landscape (1902)





Берег залива. Териоки. Финляндия. (1881) / The coast of the bay. The Terijoki. Finland. (1881)

"Zelenogorsk (Russian: Зеленого́рск; before 1948 Terijoki, a name still used in Finnish and Swedish), is a municipal town in Kurortny District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, located in part of the Karelian Isthmus on the shore of the Gulf of Finland."

Text by Wikipedia.





Юнгфрау. Венген. (1912) / The Jungfrau. The Wengen. (1912)

"The Wengen Jungfrau is a summit of the Bernese Alps, north of the Jungfrau on the border between the Swiss cantons of Bern and Valais."

Text by Wikipedia.

[Alex Him]

Apollinary Vasnetsov (XIV)



Весенняя тишь (1890) / Spring silence (1890)





Летний день (1880-ые) / A summer day (the 1880s)





Летний день / A summer day





Летний пейзаж (1902) / A summer landscape (1902)





Осенняя ветка (1910-ые) / An autumn branch (the 1910s)





Осень (1910-ые) / Autumn (the 1910s)





Лиственницы (1905) / The larches (1905)





Кипарисы (1906) / The cypresses (1906)





Тополь (1887) / A poplar (1887)





Элегия (1893) / Elegy (1893)

[Alex Him]

Apollinary Vasnetsov (XV)



Избушка в лесу / A peasant's house in the forest

http://vnnforum.com/showpost.php?p=2065087&postcount=94





Волнующаяся нива (1892) / A swaying of the field with the spikelets of bread (1892)





Горный пейзаж (1895) / A mountain landscape (1895)





Озеро (1902) / A lake (1902)





Полдень (1910-ые) / Noon (the 1910s)





Облака (1880-ые) / The clouds (the 1880s)





Облака. Этюд. (1880-1890-ые) / The clouds. Etude. (the 1880s-1890s)





Облака. Этюд. (1880-1890-ые) / The clouds. Etude. (the 1880s-1890s)

[Alex Him]

Viktor Vasnetsov



Portrait of Viktor Vasnetsov (1882)
by Ilya Repin

http://vnnforum.com/showpost.php?p=2010714&postcount=16





Portrait of Viktor Vasnetsov (1925)
by Mikhail Nesterov

http://vnnforum.com/showpost.php?p=2001407&postcount=2






Автопортрет (1868) / Self-portrait (1868)





Автопортрет (1873) / Self-portrait (1873)





Автопортрет (1913) / Self-portrait (1913)








"May 15, 1848 - July 23, 1926

Among the historical painters of the turn of the nineteenth century, Viktor Vasnetsov is probably best noted for his depth of feeling and power of style.

A painter, draftsman and graphic artist, Vasnetsov played a primary role in the development of Russian art from the realist traditions of the Wanderers to Art Nouveau. He is considered a key figure in the revivalist movement in Russian art.

Born in the village of Lopiyal in Viatka Province, Vasnetsov was destined to become a priest like his grandfather and father before him.

His father was a well-educated and philosophically-inclined man interested in natural science, astronomy and painting. His grandfather was an icon painter. Viktor had two brothers; one of whom became a fellow painter while the other became a school teacher.

At the age of ten, Viktor began studying at a seminary, spending summers with his family in the rich merchant village of Ryabovo. During his seminary years he worked for a local icon shopkeeper. He also helped the exiled Polish artist, Andriolli, to execute frescoes for Vyatka’s Aleksandr Nevsky Cathedral.

After graduating from the seminary, Viktor decided to give up his theological career and moved to St. Petersburg to attend the Imperial Academy of the Arts. He auctioned his paintings “Woman Harvester” and “Milkmaid” (both 1867) in order to raise the money required for the trip to the city.

Three years later, the Peredvizhniki (the Wanderers) movement of realist artists rebelled against Academism. Vasnetsov befriended their leader, Ivan Kramskoy, referring to him as his teacher. He also became very close to his fellow student, Ilya Repin, another prominent Russian artist.

Ironically, Vasnetsov, who is intricately associated with historical and mythological paintings, initially avoided these subjects at all costs.

In the early 1870s he executed many engravings depicting contemporary life. Two of these (“Provincial Bookseller,” 1870 and “A Bottle of Vodka,” 1872) earned him a bronze medal at the World Fair in London in 1874. Around that time, he started producing genre paintings in oil. Such pieces as “Peasant Singers” and “Moving House” were warmly welcomed by democratic circles of Russian society.

In 1876 Repin invited Vasnetsov to join the Wanderers colony in Paris. While living in France Viktor studied classical and contemporary painting. It was also during this time that he began to discover what would become his primary source of inspiration - Russian mythology and its legends, ballads, and fairytales. The 'folklore outlook' was still very much alive in the northern Russian village where he grew up and Vasnetsov found that his very soul was steeped in the poetry of Russian epic literature. Not only was he one of the first artists to turn to folklore for inspiration, but he also one of the first to study it in terms of method and technique. Thus he became the founder of a new style in Russian painting.

In Paris, Vasnetsov starting work on his first fairytale subjects, “Ivan-Tsarevich Riding a Grey Wolf” and “The Friend.” He was also the model for Sadko in Repin’s celebrated painting “Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom.” The large canvas, “Fairground Booths in Paris,” 1876-77 is also a product of Vasnetsov’s Paris period.

In 1877 Vasnetsov returned to Moscow. "When I came to Moscow, I felt I had come home," he wrote.

At that time his imaginary characters were 'little men' portrayed in the spirit of the time when the Wanderers (Peredvizhniki) movement was at its prime. This period is best exemplified by such paintings as “From Lodging to Lodging,” 1876 and “The Preference,” 1879, a moralizing canvas done in the spirit of William Hogarth. Both of the works were based on the tradition of genre painting derived from Dutch painting, and both were warmly received by the public.

The last decades of the 19th century witnessed a powerful upsurge of public interest in Russia's ancient past, brought about by the Old Russian Revival. Vasnetsov became one of the founding figures of this artistic movement.

In the late 1870s Vasnetsov concentrated on illustrating Russian fairytales and tall-tales. During this period, he executed some of his best known pieces such as “Alyonushka”, “Knight at the Crossroads.” The works, however, were not appreciated at the time they appeared. Even such prominent connoisseurs as Pavel Tretyakov refused to buy them. The popularity of Vasnetsov’s paintings would spread in the 1880s, when he turned to religious subjects and executed a number of icons for the Abramtsevo Estate of his patron, Savva Mamontov.

From 1884-1889 Vasnetsov was commissioned to paint frescoes in St. Vladimir’s Cathedral in Kiev. It was challenging work.

Vasnetsov jumped at this offer as it gave him the opportunity to create an integral ensemble comparable to those done by ancient fresco-painters. Work on the decoration of the cathedral took over 10 years, during which time Vasnetsov executed nearly 400 sketches and studies. The murals he and his assistants painted covered almost two thousand square meters. In fulfilling this assignment, Vasnetsov relied on his favorite range of motifs and characters, painting the walls with the images of Princes Vladimir, Alexander Nevsky and Andrey Bogoliubsky, Princess Olga, the chronicler Nestor, and other outstanding figures from Russian history.

The influential art critic Vladimir Stasov called the frescoes “a sacrilegious play on the religious feelings of the Russian people.” Another popular critic, Dmitry Filosofov, referred to them as “the first bridge over the 200-year-old gulf separating different classes of Russian society.”

While living in Kiev, Vasnetsov made friends with Mikhail Vrubel, who was also involved in the Cathedral decoration. While they worked together, Vasnetsov taught the younger artist a great deal. It was in Kiev that Vasnetsov finally finished “Ivan Tsarevich Riding a Grey Wolf” and started his most famous painting, “The Bogatyrs.”

In keeping with the general tendencies in the development of Russian art at the end of the 19th century, an important role is played in Vasnetsov's works by landscape elements, “moods” which unite people and nature, akin to folklore “parallelism” of imagery.

“Ivan Tsarevich Riding a Grey Wolf,” 1889, depicts a scene from a popular Russian fairytale. The magical plot has been reflected in numerous literary works and musical pieces. The landscape background was derived from studies made in Abramtsevo. The landscape is very important. Forces of evil surround Ivan Tsarevich and Helen the Fair. The impassable wall of the wood rises in front of them. The artist's imagination has transformed an ordinary wood near Moscow into a fantastic, mysterious wilderness.

In 1885 the painter traveled to Italy. That same year he worked on stage designs and costumes for Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Snow Maiden.” Later on Vasnetsov collaborated with his brother, Apollinary, on the theatrical design of another Rimsky-Korsakov premiere, “Sadko” in 1897.

In the 1910s Vasnetsov was commissioned to design a new uniform for the Russian military and produced the so-called “bogatyrka” military cap.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Vasnetsov actively worked in different fields. At the turn of the century he elaborated his hallmark “fairytale” style of Russian Revivalist architecture. His first acclaimed design was a church in Abramtsevo in 1882, executed jointly with Vasily Polenov. In 1894 he designed his own mansion. The house built to his project in 1894 in Moscow was turned into the Vasnetsov House Museum in 1953. The picturesque wooden house that Vasnetsov lived in has some beautiful wooden furniture and tiled stoves downstairs as well as several of Vasnetsov's paintings of fairytale characters such as Sleeping Beauty and Baba Yaga in the studio upstairs. Unlike many house-museums where the furniture has been brought in to approximate the requisite era, everything here is original, from the 19th century benches to the huge canvases in the wooden attic. Vasnetsov's paintings here are at least as good as the ones in the Tretyakov Gallery, the facade of which Vasnetsov designed in 1906.

After many years of living in different places, Vasnetsov finally felt at home in this house with his wife Aleksandra Ryazantseva and their five children.

Even prior to the Russian Revolution, Vasnetsov became active as a regent of the Tretyakov Gallery. He allocated significant money to the State Historical Museum, so that a large part of the museum’s collection was acquired with his money. After the October Revolution he advocated the relocation of religious paintings, notably those by Aleksandr Ivanov, from churches to the Tretyakov.

Vasnetsov was also a brilliant portrait painter and book illustrator. His paintings greatly influenced the development of modernism and symbolism in Russian painting and poetry.

In scope and monumentality Vasnetsov’s works are incomparable; his great artistic merit and profound conception have become the pride of Russian national culture.

“A true work of art expresses everything about people,” Vasnetsov believed. “It conveys the past, the present and perhaps the future.”

http://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-...tor-vasnetsov/





Иван Петров, крестьянин Владимирской губернии. Этюд для фигуры Ильи Муромца в картине "Богатыри". (1883) / Ivan Petrov, a peasant from Vladimir province. Study for Ilya Muromets figure in the picture 'The Bogatyrs' (1883)





Царь Иван Васильевич Грозный (1897) / Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible (1897)

http://vnnforum.com/showpost.php?p=2...&postcount=197
http://vnnforum.com/showpost.php?p=2010714&postcount=16





Иван Грозный (эскиз) - (1884) / Ivan the Terrible (sketch) - (1884)





Иван-Царевич на Сером Волке (1889) / Ivan Tsarevich Riding the Grey Wolf (1889)

Tsarevich is a son of the Tsar.





Гамаюн - птица вещая (1897) / Gamayun, The prophetic bird (1897)

"Gamayun is a prophetic bird of Russian folklore. It is a symbol of wisdom and knowledge and lives on an island in the east, close to paradise. Like the Sirin and the Alkonost, the Gamayun is normally depicted as a large bird with a woman's head."

Text by Wikipedia.





Сирин и Алконост. Песнь радости и печали. (1896) / Sirin and Alkonost. Song of joy and sorrow. (1896)

"Sirin is a mythological creature of Russian legends, with the head and chest of a beautiful woman and the body of a bird (usually an owl). According to myth, the Sirins lived "in Indian lands" near Eden or around the Euphrates River.

These half-women half-birds are directly based on the Greek myths and later folklore about sirens. They were usually portrayed wearing a crown or with a nimbus. Sirins sang beautiful songs to the saints, foretelling future joys. For mortals, however, the birds were dangerous. Men who heard them would forget everything on earth, follow them, and ultimately die. People would attempt to save themselves from Sirins by shooting cannons, ringing bells and making other loud noises to scare the bird off. Later (17-18th century), the image of Sirins changed and they started to symbolize world harmony (as they live near paradise). People in those times believed only really happy people could hear a Sirin, while only very few could see one because she is as fast and difficult to catch as human happiness. She symbolizes eternal joy and heavenly happiness.

The legend of Sirin might have been introduced to Kievan Rus by Persian merchants in the 8th-9th century. In the cities of Chersonesos and Kiev they are often found on pottery, golden pendants, even on the borders of Gospel books of tenth-twelfth centuries. Pomors often depicted Sirins on the illustrations in the Book of Genesis as birds sitting in paradise trees.

Sometimes Sirins are seen as a metaphor for God's word going into the soul of a man. Sometimes they are seen as a metaphor of heretics tempting the weak."

"The Alkonost is, according to Russian mythos and folklore, a creature with the body of a bird but the head of a beautiful woman. It makes sounds that are amazingly beautiful, and those who hear these sounds forget everything they know and want nothing more ever again. She lives in the underworld with her counterpart the sirin. The alkonost lays her eggs on a beach and then rolls them into the sea. When the alkonost's eggs hatch, a thunderstorm sets in and the sea becomes so rough that it becomes impossible to traverse. The name of the alkonost came from a Greek demigoddess whose name was Alcyone. In Greek mythology, Alcyone was transformed by the gods into a kingfisher."

Texts by Wikipedia.





Воины Апокалипсиса (1887) / Warriors of the Apocalypse (1887)

[Alex Him]

Viktor Vasnetsov (II)



Витязь на распутье (1882) / A knight at the Crossroads (1882)





Богатыри (1881-1898) / The Bogatyrs (1881-1898)

Dobrynya Nikitich, Ilya Muromets and Alyosha Popovich.
http://vnnforum.com/showpost.php?p=2054291&postcount=76
Cartoon - http://vnnforum.com/showpost.php?p=1948718&postcount=31





Бой Добрыни Никитича с семиглавым Змеем Горынычем (1918) / Fight the Dobrynya Nikitich with the seven-headed Zmey Gorynych (1918)

"In Slavic mythology, the word “zmey” (Bulgarian and Russian: змей, Macedonian: змеj) and its cognates zmiy (Polish: żmij, Ukrainian: змій) and zmaj (Serbian and Bosnian: змај, Croatian, Slovene: zmaj), are used to describe a dragon. These words are masculine forms of the Slavic word for "snake", which are normally feminine (like Russian zmeya).
In Romania, there is a similar figure, derived from the Slavic dragon and named zmeu. In Polish and Belarusian folklore, as well as in the other Slavic folklore, a dragon is also called smok (смок), cmok (цмок).
Although quite similar to other European dragons, Slavic dragons have their peculiarities.

In Russia and Ukraine, a particular dragon-like creature, Zmey Gorynych (Russian: “Змей Горыныч” or Ukrainian: “Змій Горинич”), has three heads, is green, walks on two back paws, has small front paws, and spits fire. According to one bylina, Zmey Gorynych was the dragon killed by Dobrynya Nikitich.

Some Russian dragons (such as Tugarin Zmeyevich) symbolize the Mongols and other steppe peoples. Accordingly, St George (symbolizing Christianity) killing the Dragon (symbolizing Satan) is represented on the coat of arms of Moscow.
Some Russian dragons have heads that grow back if every single head isn't cut off or the headless neck isn't covered immediately in ash or burnt."

Text by Wikipedia.





Богатырский скок (1914) / A bogatyr's horse leap (1914)





Богатырь / A bogatyr





Богатыри на конях (1896) / The mounted bogatyrs (1896)





Битва Ивана-царевича с трехглавым Змеем (1912) / Fight Ivan Tsarevich with the three-headed Zmey (1912)





Баба Яга (1917) / Baba Yaga (1917)

Music - http://vnnforum.com/showpost.php?p=2009430&postcount=25
and 14- IX. The Hut on Fowl's Legs - http://vnnforum.com/showpost.php?p=1960139&postcount=1

"In Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga is a supernatural being (or one of a trio of sisters of the same name) who appears as a deformed and/or ferocious-looking woman. Baba Yaga flies around in a mortar, wields a pestle, and dwells deep in the forest in a hut usually described as standing on chicken legs (or sometimes a single chicken leg). Baba Yaga may help or hinder those that encounter or seek her out. She sometimes plays a maternal role, and also has associations with forest wildlife. According to Vladimir Propp's folktale morphology, Baba Yaga commonly appears as either a donor or villain, or may be altogether ambiguous.

In the narratives in which Baba Yaga appears, she displays a variety of typical attributes: a turning, chicken-legged hut; a mortar, pestle, and sometimes a mop or a broom. Baba Yaga frequently bears the epithet "bony leg" (Баба-Яга Костяная Нога, Baba Iaga Kostianaia Noga), and when inside of her dwelling, she may be found stretched out over the stove, reaching from one corner of the hut to another. Baba Yaga may sense and mention the "Russian scent" (русский дух, russky dukh) of those that visit her. Her nose may stick into the ceiling. Particular emphasis may be placed by some narrators on the repulsiveness of her nose or other body parts."

Text by Wikipedia.





Алёнушка (1881) / Alyonushka (1881)

Cartoon - http://vnnforum.com/showpost.php?p=1990331&postcount=62





Алёнушка (Этюд) - (1881) / Alyonushka (The study) - (1881)

[Fred Streed]

Very nice art, Alex Him. Keep them coming. The "history Lessons" help put things in perspective. Good stuff.

[Alex Him]

Originally Posted by Fred Streed

Very nice art, Alex Him. Keep them coming. The "history Lessons" help put things in perspective. Good stuff.

Thank you, Fred, for such your appreciation of my work.
As far as depends on me, I will try to continue to do this work.

[Alex Him]

Viktor Vasnetsov (III)



Кощей Бессмертный (1917-1926) / Kashchei the Deathless (1917-1926)

"In Slavic folklore, Koschei (Russian: Коще́й, also Kashchei or Kashchey) is an archetypal male antagonist, described mainly as abducting the hero's wife. In Vitali Vitaliev's book Granny Yaga he is described as tall and although in excellent health, extremely, almost inhumanly, thin. The author then explains that Koshchei—in the old Krivichi dialect—means "skeleton". In book illustrations, cartoons and cinema he has been most frequently represented as a very old and ugly-looking man. Koschei is also known as Koschei the Immortal or Koschei the Deathless (Russian: Коще́й Бессме́ртный), as well as Tsar Koschei.

Koschei cannot be killed by conventional means targeting his body. His soul (or death) is hidden separate from his body inside a needle, which is in an egg, which is in a duck, which is in a hare, which is in an iron chest (sometimes the chest is crystal and/or gold), which is buried under a green oak tree, which is on the island of Buyan in the ocean. As long as his soul is safe, he cannot die. If the chest is dug up and opened, the hare will bolt away; if it is killed, the duck will emerge and try to fly off. Anyone possessing the egg has Koschei in their power. He begins to weaken, becomes sick, and immediately loses the use of his magic. If the egg is tossed about, he likewise is flung around against his will. If the needle is broken, Koschei will die."

Text by Wikipedia.


Image of Koshchey the Deathless in the fairy tale - https://russian-crafts.com/tales/maria_morevna.html

And by the way The Tale of Ivan Tsarevich, the Firebird, and the Gray Wolf - http://stpetersburg-guide.com/folk/swolf.shtml or - http://www.artrusse.ca/fairytales/firebird.htm





Ковёр-самолёт (1880) / The Flying carpet (1880)

The Firebird sits in the cage.

Ballet "The Firebird" - http://vnnforum.com/showpost.php?p=2018379&postcount=27





Ковёр-самолет (1919-1926) / The Flying carpet (1919-1926)





Три царевны подземного царства (1881) / The three Tsarevnas of the Underground Kingdom (1881)

The painting was intended for office of the industrial company and, therefore, one of the Tsarevnas of fairy tale has been replaced by Tsarevna of Coal.





Три царевны подземного царства (1884) / The three Tsarevnas of the Underground Kingdom (1884)

One of the variants of this fairy tale - http://www.oldrussia.net/copper.html






Царевна-Лягушка (1901-1918) / The Frog Tsarevna (1901-1918)


The Frog Princess - http://www.artrusse.ca/fairytales/frog-princess.htm





Царевна-Несмеяна (1914-1926) / The Unsmiling Tsarevna (1914-1926)

"The Princess Who Never Smiled or The Unsmiling Tsarevna is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki.

There was once a princess who never smiled or laughed. Her father promised that whoever made her smile could marry her, and many tried, but none succeeded.

Across the town, an honest worker worked hard for his master. At the end of the year, the master put a sack of money before him and told him to take as much as he wanted. To avoid sinning by taking too much, he took only one coin, and when he went to drink from a well, he dropped the coin and lost it. The next year, the same thing happened to him. The third year, the worker took the same amount of coin as before, but when he drank from the well, he did not lose his coin, and the other two coins floated up to him. He decided to see the world. A mouse asked him for alms; he gave him a coin. Then he did the same for a beetle and a catfish.

He came to the castle and saw princess Euna looking at him. This astounded him, and he fell in the mud. The mouse, the beetle, and the catfish came to his aid, and at their antics, the princess laughed. She pointed him out as the man, and when he was brought into the castle, he had been turned into a handsome man. The honest worker, now a handsome man, married princess Euna."

Text by Wikipedia.





Царевна у окна (Царевна Несмеяна) - (1920) / The Tsarevna at the window (The Unsmiling Tsarevna) - (1920)





Спящая царевна (1900-1926) / The sleeping Tsarevna (1900-1926)





Иван-царевич и лебедь / Ivan Tsarevich and the Swan

[Alex Him]

Viktor Vasnetsov (IV)



Бой скифов со славянами (1881) / Battle of the Scythians with the Slavs (1881)

"The Scythians (from Greek Σκύθης, Σκύθοι), also known as Scyth, Saka, Sakae, Sacae, Sai, Iskuzai, or Askuzai, were a large group of Iranian Eurasian nomads who were mentioned by the literate peoples surrounding them as inhabiting large areas in the central Eurasian steppes from about the 9th century BC until about the 1st century BC. The Scythian languages belonged to the Eastern branch of the Iranian languages. The "classical Scythians" known to ancient Greek historians were located in the northern Black Sea and fore-Caucasus region. Other Scythian groups documented by Assyrian, Achaemenid and Chinese sources show that they also existed in Central Asia, where they were referred to as the Iskuzai/Askuzai, Saka (Old Persian: Sakā; New Persian: ساکا; Greek: Σάκαι; Armenian: սկյութները; Latin: Sacae, Sanskrit: शक Śaka), and Sai (Chinese: 塞; Old Chinese: *sˤək), respectively. Although ancient Persian sources also used Saka to refer to the Western Scythians of the northern Black Sea, modern scholars usually use the term Saka to refer to Iranian-speaking tribes who inhabited the Eastern Steppe and the Tarim Basin.

The relationships between the peoples living in these widely separated regions remains unclear. The term "Scythian" is used by modern scholars in an archaeological context for finds perceived to display attributes of the "Scytho-Siberian" culture, usually without implying an ethnic or linguistic connotation. The term Scythic may also be used in a similar way, "to describe a special phase that followed the widespread diffusion of mounted nomadism, characterized by the presence of special weapons, horse gear, and animal art in the form of metal plaques". Their westernmost territories during the Iron Age were known to classical Greek sources as Scythia.

The Scythians were among the earliest peoples to master mounted warfare. In the 8th century BC they possibly raided Zhou China. Soon after they expanded westwards and dislodged the Cimmerians from power on the Pontic Steppe. At their peak, Scythians came to dominate the entire steppe zone, stretching from the Carpathian Mountains in the west to central China (Ordos culture) and the south Siberia (Tagar culture) in the east, creating what has been referred to as the first Central Asian nomadic empire.

Based in what is modern-day Ukraine, Southern European Russia, and Crimea, the western Scythians were ruled by a wealthy class known as the Royal Scyths. The Scythians established and controlled a vast trade network connecting Greece, Persia, India and China, perhaps contributing to the contemporary flourishing of those civilizations. Settled metalworkers made portable decorative objects for the Scythians. These objects survive mainly in metal, forming a distinctive Scythian art. In the 7th century BC the Scythians crossed the Caucasus and frequently raided the Middle East along with the Cimmerians, playing an important role in the political developments of the region. Around 650–630 BC, Scythians briefly dominated the Medes of the western Iranian Plateau, stretching their power all the way to the borders of Egypt. After losing control over Media the Scythians continued intervening in Middle Eastern affairs, playing a leading role in the destruction of the Assyrian Empire in the Sack of Nineveh in 612 BC. The Scythians subsequently engaged in frequent conflicts with the Achaemenid Empire. The western Scythians suffered a major defeat against Macedonia in the 4th century BC, and were subsequently gradually conquered by the Sarmatians, a related Iranian people from Central Asia. The Eastern Scythians of the Asian Steppe (Saka) were attacked by the Yuezhi, Wusun and Xiongnu in the 2nd century BC, prompting many of them to migrate into South Asia, where they became known as Indo-Scythians. At some point, perhaps as late as the 3rd century AD after the demise of the Han dynasty and the Xiongnu, Eastern Scythians crossed the Pamir Mountains and settled in the western Tarim Basin, where the Scythian Khotanese and Tumshuqese languages are attested in Brahmi scripture from the 10th and 11th centuries AD.

Scythians kept herds of horses, cattle, and sheep, lived in tent-covered wagons, and fought with bows and arrows on horseback. They developed a rich culture characterized by opulent tombs, fine metalwork, and a brilliant art style."

Text by Wikipedia.





После побоища Игоря Святославича с половцами (1880) / After the Battle of Igor Svyatoslavich with the Polovtsians (1880)

http://vnnforum.com/showpost.php?p=2055499&postcount=81

"The Cumans (also Kipchaks and Polovtsi) were a Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman-Kipchak confederation. After the Mongol invasion (1237), many sought asylum in Hungary, as many Cumans had settled in Hungary and Bulgaria before the invasion.

Related to the Pecheneg, they inhabited a shifting area north of the Black Sea and along the Volga River known as Cumania, where the Cuman-Kipchaks meddled in the politics of the Caucasus and the Khwarezm Empire. The Cumans were fierce and formidable nomadic warriors of the Eurasian steppe who exerted an enduring impact on the medieval Balkans. They were numerous, culturally sophisticated and militarily powerful.

Many eventually settled to the west of the Black Sea, influencing the politics of Kievan Rus', the Galicia–Volhynia Principality, the Golden Horde Khanate, the Second Bulgarian Empire, Kingdom of Serbia, the Kingdom of Hungary, Moldavia, the Kingdom of Georgia, the Byzantine Empire, the Empire of Nicaea, the Latin Empire and Wallachia, with Cuman immigrants being integrated into each country's elite. The Cumans also had a pre-eminent role in the Fourth Crusade and in the creation of the Second Bulgarian Empire. Cuman and Kipchak tribes joined politically to create the Cuman-Kipchak confederation.

The Cuman language is attested in some medieval documents and is the best-known of the early Turkic languages. The Codex Cumanicus was a linguistic manual that was written to help Catholic missionaries communicate with the Cuman people.

The basic instrument of Cuman political success was military force, which dominated each of the warring Balkan factions. Groups of the Cumans settled and mingled with the local population in regions of the Balkans, and Cuman settlers founded three successive Bulgarian dynasties (Asenids, Terterids, and Shishmanids) and the Wallachian dynasty (Basarabids); however, in the cases of the Basarab and Asenid dynasties, medieval documents refer to them as Vlach (Romanian) dynasties."

Text by Wikipedia.





Баян (1910) / Bayan (1910)

"Boyan is the name of a bard who was mentioned in the Rus' epic The Lay of Igor's Campaign as being active at the court of Yaroslav the Wise. He is apostrophized as Volos's grandson in the opening lines of The Lay (probably a reference to Veles as the patron of musicians). Historians have been unable to determine whether Boyan was his proper name (as Nikolai Karamzin and Fyodor Buslayev postulated) or all skalds of Rus were called boyans (Alexander Vostokov).

Although The Lay is the only authentic source mentioning Boyan, his name became exceedingly popular with later generations. He is mentioned in the Zadonshchina and Pushkin's Ruslan and Ludmila. The folklorist Alexander Afanasyev considered Boyan a precursor of Ukrainian kobzars. Soviet scholars tended to associate him with the House of Chernihiv, assuming that he started his career at the court of Mstislav of Tmutarakan. Boris Rybakov supported this theory and linked his name to a graffito on the wall of Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev which mentions a purchase of "Boyan's land" by "Vsevolod's wife".

Text by Wikipedia.





Гусляры (1899) / Guslars (1899)

"Gusli (Russian: гу́сли) is the oldest Russian multi-string plucked instrument. Its exact history is unknown. It may have derived from a Byzantine form of the Greek kythare, which in turn derived from the ancient lyre. It has its relatives throughout the world: kantele in Finland, kannel in Estonia, kanklės, or kokle in Lithuania and Latvia. Furthermore, the kanun has been found in Arabic countries, and the autoharp, in the United States. It is also related to such ancient instruments as Chinese gu zheng, which has a thousand-year history, and its Japanese relative koto.

The Gusli is one of the oldest musical instruments that have played an important role in the Russian music culture. The Greek historians Theophylact Simocatta and Theophan were the first to mention the gusli. During the war at the end of the 6th century, the Greeks took Slavonic prisoners and found a musical instrument named the Gusli. This corresponds to what the Arabic authors Al-Masudi and Ibn-Dasta mentioned in the 10th century.

Vertkov states that the first mentions of the Gusli date back to 591 AD to a treatise by the Greek historian Theophylact Simocatta which describes the instrument being used by Slavs from the area of the later Kievan Rus' kingdom.

The gusli are thought to have been the instrument used by the legendary Boyan (a singer of tales) described in the Lay of Igor's campaign.

The instruments were used by the wandering Skomorokh musicians and entertainers. Preserved instruments discovered by archaeologists in various digs have between five and nine strings with one example having twelve strings."

Text by Wikipedia.





Варяги (1909) / Varangians (1909)

"The Varangians (Old Norse: Væringjar; Greek: Βάραγγοι Varangoi, Βαριάγοι Variagoi) was the name given by Greeks and East Slavs to Vikings, who between the 9th and 11th centuries ruled the medieval state of Kievan Rus' and formed the Byzantine Varangian Guard. According to the 12th century Kievan Primary Chronicle, a group of Varangians known as the Rus' settled in Novgorod in 862 under the leadership of Rurik. Before Rurik, the Rus' might have ruled an earlier hypothetical polity. Rurik's relative Oleg conquered Kiev in 882 and established the state of Kievan Rus', which was later ruled by Rurik's descendants.

Engaging in trade, piracy, and mercenary activities, Varangians roamed the river systems and portages of Gardariki, as the areas north of the Black Sea were known in the Norse sagas. They controlled the Volga trade route (Route from the Varangians to the Arabs), connecting the Baltic to the Caspian Sea, and the Dnieper trade route (Route from the Varangians to the Greeks) leading to the Black Sea and Constantinople. Those were the critically important trade links at that time, connecting Medieval Europe with wealthy and developed Arab Caliphates and the Byzantine Empire; Most of the silver coinage in the West came from the East via those routes. Attracted by the riches of Constantinople, the Varangian Rus' initiated a number of Rus'-Byzantine Wars, some of which resulted in advantageous trade treaties. At least from the early 10th century many Varangians served as mercenaries in the Byzantine Army, constituting the elite Varangian Guard (the personal bodyguards of Byzantine Emperors). Eventually most of them, both in Byzantium and in Eastern Europe, were converted from paganism to Orthodox Christianity, culminating in the Christianization of Kievan Rus' in 988. Coinciding with the general decline of the Viking Age, the influx of Scandinavians to Rus' stopped, and Varangians were gradually assimilated by East Slavs by the late 11th century. They left few traces of any permanent influence on Russia."

Text by Wikipedia.





Встреча Олега с волхвом. Иллюстрация к книге Песнь о вещем Олеге. (1899) / The meeting Oleg with sorcerer. Illustration for the book The Song of Wise Oleg. (1899)

The Song of Wise Oleg - http://library.liverus.com/index.php?mi=3&smi=1
http://poetrynook.com/poem/lay-wise-ol%E2%94%9C%C2%AEg

by A. S. Pushkin - http://vnnforum.com/showpost.php?p=2011356&postcount=21





Прощание Олега с конем. Иллюстрация к книге Песнь о вещем Олеге. (1899) / Farewell of Oleg's with his horse. Illustration for the book The Song of Wise Oleg. (1899)





Олег у костей коня. Иллюстрация к книге Песнь о вещем Олеге. (1899) / Oleg at the bones of his horse. Illustration for the book The Song of Wise Oleg. (1899)





Тризна по Олегу. Иллюстрация к книге Песнь о вещем Олеге. (1899) / Funeral Feast for Oleg. Illustration for the book The Song of Wise Oleg. (1899)





Единоборство Пересвета с Челубеем (1914) / A single combat of Peresvet against Chelubei (1914)

http://vnnforum.com/showpost.php?p=2055499&postcount=81

"Alexander Peresvet, also spelled Peresviet (Russian: Александр Пересвет), was a Russian Orthodox Christian monk who fought in a single combat with the Tatar champion Temir-murza (known in most Russian sources as Chelubey or Cheli-bey) at the opening of the Battle of Kulikovo (8 September 1380), where they killed each other.

He is believed to have hailed from the Bryansk area and took the monastic habit at the Rostov Monastery of Saints Boris and Gleb. Later he moved to the Monastery of Pereslavl-Zalessky under the service of Dmitri Donskoi. He later moved to the Trinity Abbey where he became a follower of Sergius of Radonezh. Alexander and his friend Rodion Oslyabya joined Russian troops approaching to fight against Mamai invasion.

The battle of Kulikovo was opened by single combat between the two champions. The Russian champion was Alexander Peresvet. The Horde champion was Temir-murza. The champions killed each other in the first run, though according to a Russian legend, Peresvet did not fall from the saddle, while Temir-murza did.

Peresvet's body, together with that of his brother-in-arms Oslyabya, were brought to Moscow, where they lie buried at the 15th-century Theotokos Church in Simonovo."

Text by Wikipedia.

[Alex Him]

Viktor Vasnetsov (V)



Портрет Михаила Васильевича Васнецова, отца художника (1870) / Portrait of Mikhail Vasnetsov the artist's father (1870)

(1823 - 1870)





Портрет Александры Владимировны Васнецовой, жены художника (1878) / Portrait of Alexandra Vasnetsova the artist's wife (1878)

Nee Ryazantseva (Рязанцева).





Портрет Марии Ивановны Рязанцевой, тёщи художника. Этюд. / Portrait of Maria Ryazantseva the artist's mother-in-law. Etude.





Портрет Татьяны Викторовны Васнецовой, дочери художника (1897) / Portrait of Tatiana Vasnetsova the artist's daughter (1897)

(1879-1961)





Портрет Татьяны Викторовны Васнецовой (1901) / Portrait of Tatiana Vasnetsova (1901)





Портрет Бориса Васнецова, сына художника (1889) / Portrait of Boris Vasnetsov the artist's son (1889)

(1880—1919)





Портрет Михаила Васнецова, сына художника (1892) / Portrait of Mikhail Vasnetsov the artist's son (1892)

(1884—1972)





Портрет Владимира Васнецова, сына художника (1899) / Portrait of Vladimir Vasnetsov the artist's son (1899)

(1889—1953)





Портрет художника Архипа Куинджи (1869) / Portrait of the Artist Arkhip Kuinji (1869)

http://vnnforum.com/showpost.php?p=2012884&postcount=24





Портрет художника Михаила Нестерова (1926) / Portrait of the Artist Mikhail Nesterov (1926)

http://vnnforum.com/showpost.php?p=2001407&postcount=2

[Alex Him]

Viktor Vasnetsov (VI)



The paintings of Viktor Vasnetsov in the Vladimir Cathedral in Kiev.





Бог Отец / The God - Father





Господь Вседержитель / The Lord Almighty





Бог Слово / The God - Word





Иисус Христос / Jesus Christ (main altar)





Евхаристия / Eucharist





Бог - Сын (Крестная смерть) / The God - Son (crucifix)





Богородица / Our lady





Богородица / Our lady





Мария Магдалина / Mary Magdalene

"Mary Magdalene is a figure in Christianity who, according to the Bible, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers. She is said to have witnessed Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. Within the four Gospels she is named at least 12 times, more than most of the apostles.

The Gospel of Luke says seven demons had gone out of her,[Lk. 8:2] and the longer ending of Mark says Jesus had cast seven demons out of her.[Mk. 16:9] She is most prominent in the narrative of the crucifixion of Jesus, at which she was present. She was also present two days later, immediately following the sabbath, when, according to all four canonical Gospels,[Matthew 28:1–8] [Mark 16:9–10] [Luke 24:10] [John 20:18] she was, either alone or as a member of a group of women, the first to testify to the resurrection of Jesus. John 20 and Mark 16:9 specifically name her as the first person to see Jesus after his resurrection.

Mary Magdalene is considered to be a saint by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran churches—with a feast day of July 22. Other Protestant churches honor her as a heroine of the faith. The Eastern Orthodox churches also commemorate her on the Sunday of the Myrrhbearers, the Orthodox equivalent of one of the Western Three Marys traditions. During the Middle Ages, Mary Magdalene was regarded in Western Christianity as a repentant prostitute or promiscuous woman, accusations not found in any of the four canonical gospels."

Text by Wikipedia.





Страшный суд / Judgement Day

[Alex Him]

Viktor Vasnetsov (VII)



The paintings of Viktor Vasnetsov in the Vladimir Cathedral in Kiev.





Евангелист Иоанн / Saint John the Evangelist





Евангелист Матфей / Saint Matthew the Evangelist





Евангелист Лука / Saint Luke the Evangelist





Евангелист Марк / Saint Mark the Evangelist





Крещение Святого Владимира / Baptism of Prince Vladimir

"Vladimir Sviatoslavich the Great (Old East Slavic: Володимѣръ Свѧтославичь, Volodiměrъ Svętoslavičь, Old Norse as Valdamarr Sveinaldsson, Ukrainian: Володимир, Volodymyr, Russian: Влади́мир, Vladimir, Belarusian: Уладзiмiр, Uladzimir; c. 958 – 15 July 1015, Berestove) was a prince of Novgorod, grand prince of Kiev, and ruler of Kievan Rus' from 980 to 1015.

Vladimir's father was prince Sviatoslav of the Rurik dynasty. After the death of his father in 972, Vladimir, who was then prince of Novgorod, was forced to flee to Scandinavia in 976 after his brother Yaropolk had murdered his other brother Oleg and conquered Rus'. In Sweden, with the help from his relative Ladejarl Håkon Sigurdsson, ruler of Norway, he assembled a Varangian army and reconquered Novgorod from Yaropolk. By 980 Vladimir had consolidated the Kievan realm from modern-day Belarus, Russia and Ukraine to the Baltic Sea and had solidified the frontiers against incursions of Bulgarian, Baltic, and Eastern nomads. Originally a follower of Slavic paganism, Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988 and Christianized the Kievan Rus'."

The text was taken from Wikipedia





Крещение Киевской Руси / The Baptism of Kievan Rus'





Святой Владимир / St. Vladimir (main altar)





Княгиня Ольга / Princess Olga (main altar)


http://vnnforum.com/showpost.php?p=2001418&postcount=3





Нестор летописец / The Chronicler Nestor

"Saint Nestor the Chronicler (c. 1056 – c. 1114, in Kiev, modern-day Ukraine) was the reputed author of the Primary Chronicle, (the earliest East Slavic chronicle), Life of the Venerable Theodosius of the Kiev Caves, Life of the Holy Passion Bearers, Boris and Gleb, and of the so-called Reading.

Nestor was a monk of the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev from 1073. The only other detail of his life that is reliably known is that he was commissioned with two other monks to find the relics of St. Theodosius of Kiev, a mission which he fulfilled successfully. It is also speculated that he supported the reigning prince Svyatopolk II and his pro-Scandinavian party and disliked Greek influence in Kiev.

His chronicle begins with the Deluge, as those of most Christian chroniclers of the time did. The compiler appears to have been acquainted with the Byzantine historians; he makes use especially of John Malalas and George Hamartolus. He also had in all probability other Slavonic language chronicles to compile from, which have since been lost. Many legends are mixed up with Nestor's Chronicle; the style is occasionally so poetical that perhaps he incorporated bylinas which are now lost.

As an eyewitness, Nestor could only have described the reigns of Vsevolod I and Svyatopolk II (1078–1112), but he could have gathered many details from older inhabitants. Two such possibilities are Giurata Rogovich of Novgorod, who could have provided him with information concerning the north of Rus', the Pechora River, and other places, as well as Yan Vyshatich, a nobleman who died in 1106 at the age of ninety. Many of the ethnological details given by Nestor of the various tribes of the Slavs are of the highest value.

The current theory about Nestor is that the Chronicle is a patchwork of many fragments of chronicles, and that the name of Nestor was attached to it because he wrote the greater part or perhaps because he put the fragments together. The name of the hegumen Sylvester is affixed to several of the manuscripts as the author.

Historian Sergey Solovyov remarked that Nestor cannot be called the earliest Russian chronicler, but he is the first writer who took a national point of view in his history, the others being merely local writers. The language of his work, as shown in the earliest manuscripts just mentioned, is Palaeo-Slavonic with many Russisms.

St Nestor died around the year 1114 and was buried in the Near Caves. He has been glorified (canonized) as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church. The body of the ancient chronicler may be seen among the relics preserved in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. His feast day is celebrated on October 27. He is also commemorated in common with other saints of the Kiev Caves Laura on September 28 (Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of the Kiev Caves) and on the Second Sunday of Great Lent."

The text was taken from Wikipedia





Князь Михаил Черниговский / Prince Mikhail of Chernigov

"Saint Michael of Chernigov or Mikhail Vsevolodovich (c. 1185 – Saray, 20 September 1246) was a Rus' prince (a member of the Rurik dynasty). He was grand prince of Kiev (1236–1240, 1240, 1241–1243); and he was also prince of Pereyaslavl (1206), of Novgorod-Seversk (1219–1226), of Chernigov (1223–1235, 1242–1246), of Novgorod (1225–1226, 1229–1230), and of Halych (1235–1236).

Archaeological evidence reveals that Chernihiv towns enjoyed an unprecedented degree of prosperity during his period which suggests that promoting trade was a priority for him. Commercial interests, in part, also motivated him to seize control of Halych and Kiev because they were channels through which goods from the Rhine valley and Hungary passed to Chernihiv (Ukraine). He also negotiated commercial treaties and political alliances with the Poles and the Hungarians.

He alleviated the tax burden of the Novgorodians and granted their boyars greater political freedom from the prince. He was the last autonomous senior prince of Kiev, where he was deposed not by a more powerful prince but by the invincible Mongols.

On the eve of Mongol invasion, he was one of the most powerful princes in Rus’. He has been accused of ineffective leadership because he failed to unite the princes of Rus’ against the invaders; in his defense it must be pointed out that this was an impossible task.

Mikhail was the first prince of the Olgovichi (the dynasty of Chernigov) to become a martyr according to the commonly understood meaning of the word: he underwent the penalty of death for persistence in his Christian faith. He and his boyar Fedor (Theodore) were tortured and beheaded by the Tatars."

The text was taken from Wikipedia









Virtual tour in the Vladimir Cathedral in Kiev - http://www.vlsobor.com/tour.php?lang_en

[Alex Him]

Viktor Vasnetsov (VIII)



Жница (1867) / The reaper (1867)





Нищие певцы (1873) / Beggar singers (1873)




Чаепитие в трактире (1874) / They drinking tea in a tavern (1874)





Книжная лавочка (1876) / At a Bookseller (1876)





С квартиры на квартиру (1876) / Moving House (1876)





Балаганы в окрестностях Парижа (1876-1877) / Festival in a Paris Suburb (1876-1877)





Акробаты (На празднике в окрестностях Парижа) - (1877) / Acrobats (On a holiday near Paris) - (1877)





Военная телеграмма (1878) / News from the Front (1878)





Известие о взятии Карса (1878) / News about the capture of Kars (1878)

"Трактиръ"="Tavern"


"The Battle of Kars was a decisive Russian victory over the Ottoman Empire during the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878).

In June 1877, Russian forces attempted a siege of Kars but were driven off by an Ottoman army at the Battle of Kizil-Tepe. In November the Russian commander in the Caucasus, Grand Duke Michael, demanded the surrender of Kars but was refused. The Grand Duke sent a force under Mikhail Loris-Melikov and Ivan Lazarev to take the city by storm. From 9 October onwards, Lazarev led a 28,000 Russian army during the Battle of Kars. Among these 28,000 soldiers, the majority were Armenian volunteers who signed up to join the army of Lazarev. On November 17, Loris-Melikov attacked and succeeded in capturing the eastern fortifications and cutting off the garrison under Hussein Hami Pasha. Hussein Pasha attempted to cut his way out, but he and only a few others succeeded. Of the original 25,000 Turkish army, 7,000 died and 18,000 surrendered to Lazarev and were taken prisoner. The Treaty of San Stefano officially gave Kars to Russia and it remained in Russian possession until the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk after World War I."

The text was taken from Wikipedia.





За водой (1880) / For water (1880)

[Alex Him]

Viktor Vasnetsov (IX)



Преферанс (1879) / A Game of Preference (1879)





Снегурочка (1899) / Snow Maiden (1899)





Портрет Натальи Анатольевны Мамонтовой (этюд) - (1883) / Portrait of Natalia Anatolevna Mamontova (etude) - (1883)

Mamontovs were a famous merchant family.





Портрет Татьяны Анатольевны Мамонтовой (1884) / Portrait of Tatyana Anatolevna Mamontova (1884)





Портрет Веры Саввишны Мамонтовой (1884) / Portrait of Vera Savvishna Mamontova (1884)





Портрет Веры Саввишны Мамонтовой (1896) / Portrait of Vera Savvishna Mamontova (1896)





Портрет Елизаветы Григорьевны Мамонтовой (1885) / Portrait of Elizaveta Grigoryevna Mamontova (1885)





Портрет В. Н. Гошкевича (1887) / Portrait of V. N. Goshkevich (1887)

He was the founder of the Historical and Archaeological Museum in Kherson.





Портрет Елены Адриановны Праховой (1894) / Portrait of Elena Adrianovna Prahova (1894)


She (1871—1948) was a candidate for the bride of the artist Mikhail Nesterov.





Портрет Ольги Васильевны Полетаевой (1912) / Portrait of Olga Vasilievna Poletaeva (1912)

She was the wife of Mikhail Viktorovich Vasnetsov.