* Russia * 

A Taste of Russia in Some 
Pictures and a few words

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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 1873-1938

Feodor Chaliapin as Boris Godunov

Modest Mussorgsky 


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.

The Kazan Icon

 


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

List of Palekh artists 

The village of Palekh

 


Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
'What brilliant noises he created' 

A
n 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



Ilya  Repin 1844-1930

 

 



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)

Prokudin-Gorsky Collection

Prokudin-Gorskii Images

 

 

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)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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