* Russia *
A Taste of
Russia in Some
Pictures and a few words
Whilst you glance at this page
Please play this music extract -
as loud as you can.............
'a most wonderful noise indeed'
* Click on the link below to listen to
the extract.*
1. Bless the Lord, O My Soul, Op. 31 No. 2 - 6-28
Sergei Rachmaninov 1873 -1943
(sometimes the source of this link is not
working,
please try again in the future if not working now)
A Palekh lacquered miniature painting from the book
Dedicated
to the world's first Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin
http://www.gctc.ru/eng/index.html
The Bolshoy Theatre, Moscow
Home to probably the most famous Ballet in the world
The Bolshoy
Theatre, Moscow
Feodor Chaliapin in
Modest Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov
and a Lomonosov Porcelain Figurine of him.
Chaliapin was probably the most famous of all Russia's Opera
singers and was an International star.
Originally sculptured in 1922 by Yakov A. Trupiansky for
the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory
Originally The Imperial Porcelain Factory and
after the Revolution in 1917,
it became The State Porcelain Factory and then in
1925 it was named Lomonosov
and is the largest and most famous of all Russia's
Porcelain Factory's,
it is placed close to the banks of the River Neva in St.
Petersburg
Lomonosov
Porcelain Manufactory
Feodor
Chaliapin as Boris Godunov
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky 1839-1881
The greatest national object of worship:
The miracle-working 'Kazan Icon'
of the Mother of God.
This is kept in the Vladimir Cathedral ( The Kazan Cathedral
),
on St. Petersburg's most famous street Nevsky Prospect.
The icon is decorated with 4 pounds of 84-Carat gold,
1432 Diamonds of 96 carat,
1665 diamonds, 638 rubies, 155 emeralds, 7
sapphires and 1400 pearls.
The original Icon was stolen over 100 years ago and several copies
were made to replace it. The Pope announced on 25 August 2004 that
one copy , which was bought by a group of Roman Catholics was going
to be returned to Russia as a good will gesture betwen the two Churches.
Painting of Empress Marie Feodorovna. Painted by V. Makovskij
1912.
Princess Dagmar of Denmark married Alexander III of Russia .
Her sister Alexandra married The Prince of
Wales ,
Queen Victoria's eldest son who became Edward VII of Britain -
so,
very uniquely, two Royal Danish Princesses / sisters both became
Empresses.
The coffin in Roskilde Cathedral, Danmark of Her
Imperial Majesty,
The Dowager Empress Marie Fedorovna of Russia / Princess Dagmar of Danmark
She lived in her adopted country, Russia for about 60 years.
After her son - Nicholas II and his family were murdered
in 1917, The Dowager Empress
Maria escaped in 1919 and returned via a British Warship (HMS Marlborough)
from the Crimea to her
native Denmark where she
lived with her sister at Hvidøvre
Hus at Klampenborg, just North of Copenhagen.
(now owned by the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk as a conference /
training centre)
She died on 13 October 1928. Her wishes to be buried alongside her husband and son have recently been
fulfilled
and she hasl travel from Roskilde Cathedral, where
most of the Danish Royal Families
are buried, and has now been re-united ( departed on 23 September 2006
and on Thursday 28 September 2006 laid to rest in St Peter & Paul
Fortress ) with the
other members of Russia's Royal families including Peter The Great, Catherine The Great,
her husband Alexander lll, and her son, the Last Tsar, Nicholas
ll and his Family at The
Peter & Paul Fortress in
St.Petersburg which celebrated it's 300 anniversary in 2003 .
Princess
Dagmar-Empress Marie Feodorovna 1847-1928
The Romanov Family
The Descendents of The Romanovs
Romanov
Fund For Russia and Family
Peter Carl Faberge 1846-1920
( This is proof that a picture is certainly worth a thousand words ! )
The Coronation Egg presented to Alexandra by Nicholas II dated
1897 with a
miniature copy of the coach used in the Coronation in 1896.The other egg is The
Lilies of the Valley Egg presented to
Dowager Empress Maria Fjodorovona in 1898
Carl Faberge
1846-1920
An interesting link to
'
THE STATE HERMITAGE MUSEUM ' , St. Petersburg
Perhaps the most famous of all the world's museums
The
Hermitage Museum
Russia, the country that can inspire greatness, passion, creative and magnificent skills, especially in the arts.
The Composers : Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Shostakovich, Mussorgsky, Rachmanninov
The writers & poets: Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Chekov, Pasternak, Tolstoy, Anna Akmatova
The Opera and Ballet : Diaghilev, Nijinsky, Pavlova, Karsakivina, Chaliapin
The Artists : Repin, Shishkin, Kandinsky, Serov, Levitan, Surikov.
The Sports: Olga Korbut, Nellie Kim, Valerie Borzov, Sergei Bubka,
The Porcelain and Ceramic Factories : Lomonosov, Gzhel, Konakova, Verbilki
The Black Laquered miniature paintings from : Palekh, Fedoskino, Mystoria, Kholui,
The Samovars from Tula, The Enamels from Rostov, Khokloma traditional items of wood
All the other traditional handcrafts, lace, treen items,
filigree silver, amber and semi precious jewellery
This is a very rich and talented country.
What a shame that it is also a land that has
suffered so much,
that has seen many tyrants
with a history of suffering, of great
poverty, of the gulags and mass evictions, The Purges, the wars,
the sieges, the strange and
the weird of revolution and murder, The Tzars, Rasputin, Lenin, Stalin,
Communisim, KGB, Mafia, and with such a waste to ordinary people. Perhaps that
is partly
the fascination with this great Country and it's mixture of peoples.
The Talent to do good and the talent to do bad.
I am proud to say, that I have visited Moscow
........
something that Napoloen and Hitler both failed to do.
But
then I went in peace, to explore and learn and to trade ideas and thoughts,
I am
glad that the Communist period is at an end - but it saddens me to see how
I still
feel like this is 'James Bond Country', that law and order, that basic common
sense
still has not developed enough. But now at the start of a new millenium,
Russia is slowly
coming back in from the cold, It is learning about Democracy - but it will take some time
to catch up, even several generations. in the meantime let us concentrate on the
better things.
'From Russia With Love'
Paul H Wilson - 2004
Fedoskino Laquered box - St Basil's Cathedral, The
Kremlin and
Red Square in Moscow.
some interesting links connected with Palekh Art:
Art of Palekh
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
'What brilliant noises he created'
An interesting link to :
Peter
Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Peter
IlyichTchaikovsky 1840-1893
Maya Dumchenko Dancing in 'Symhony In C', Marinsky Theatre,
St Petersburg, 1996
The Marinsky Theatre , St. Petersburg
Home to the famous Marinsky (formerly The Kirov) Ballet
The Marinsky Theatre
The Mussorgsky State Acedemic Opera and
Ballet Theatre
(Formerly the Leningrad Maly Theatre)
based at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in
Ploshchad Iskusstv
(Opposite the Russian Museum)
The St.
Petersburg Mussorgsky State Acedmic Opera and Ballet
Portrait of The Composer Nikolai A. Rimsky-Korsakov
Painted by Ilya E. Repin in 1893
Oil on Canvas 125 x 89.5
Russian Museum : Inventory number Zh-4013
Rimsky-Korsakov 1844-1908
The Kremlin - Moscow
Home to The President of Russia, a Museum and much more
The Kremlin , Moscow
A Typical Picture by Ivan Bilibin - 1899
Alexander Pushkin 1799-1837
The link below is only in Russian of 'Moyka
12', Pushkin's home
however it is still interesting to glance at.
Pushkin Museum, St
Petersburg
The Smolny Convent Cathedral by Rastrelli in St. Petersburg.
After a brief period as a Convent The Smolny became a school
for daughters of the nobility
Ilya Repin 1844-1930
The State Russian Museum
This is the worlds largest museum dedicated to
Russian Art
The
Russian Museum , St Petersburg
What have :
M. Lomonosov, B.Sheremetyev, I. Starov, A. Voronikhin,
M. Glinka, M. Mussorgsgsky, P. Tchaikovsky, A. Borodin,
F. Doystoyevsky , E. Korchagina-Alexandrovskaya
and many others have in common ?
They are all buried in the grounds of the this Monastery.
The Alexander Nevsky Lavra was built in 1710
and is one of the most important group of buidings of early St.
Petersburg
Alexander
Nevsky Lavra - St Petersburg
'The Delegates From The Villages Visiting Lenin'.
This is a very good copy
The original was painted by V.A Serov - 1950.
And is in The Tretyakov Art Gallery Museum, Moscow.
The State Tretyakov Museum, Moscow
The National Museum of Russian Fine Art
The Tretyakov Museum,
Moscow
The Russian Parliament
The
Russian Duma
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev
President
Gorbachev
An Icon of The Archangel Gabriel and The Apostle Paul
Novgorod School - First half of the 15th Century
Tretiakov Gallery : Inventory number 20521 and 20520
Limewood board, gesso on linen, egg tempera.
The Empire That Was Russia:
The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record
The Empire That Was Russia The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record Recreated (A Library of Congress Exhibition)
Wandering Camera
A fantastic Series of Photographic
Albums of St. Petersburg , Russia
A link to Peter Sobolev's homepages
who is a fan of digital photography and has created more than 300 albums
with thousands of photographs of the streets and sights in and around St.
Petersburg.
A most fascinating and interesting project and worth a few minutes to view
occasionally.
http://www.enlight.ru/camera/
(NOTE: If this link does
not work properly, then try looking on the main page of : www.enlight.ru
And then click on бродячая
камера - Wandering Camera)