Opening Projects in 19th c. Russian Literature
(from Orlando Figes’ cultural history of Russia, Natasha’s Dance (2002))


The Transportation of the Thunder-stone in the Presence of Catherine II;
Engraving by I. F. Schley of the drawing by Yury Felten, 1770

Chapter 1.  European Russia

1.      Founding of St. Petersburg
2.
      ‘Fountain House’ and the Sheremetev family
3.
      Praskovya Sheremeteva and the Serf Artist



Argunov, Portrait of Praskovya Sheremeteva (1802)
see Praskovya Sheremeteva and the Serf Artist 
from  Figes, Natasha's Dance (2002)

Chapter 1.  European Russia

4.   The Russian Split Personality
5.   The Superfluous Man
6.   The Grand Tour
7.   Impact of the French Revolution


F.-B.Rastrelli, The Winter Palace (1732 rebuilt after fire in 1837

Chapter 2: Children of 1812

1. The Decembrists: Birth of the Intelligentsia/ Liberal Russian Nationalism
2. The Decembrist Revolt
3. Exile to Siberia


Chapter 2: Children of 1812

4.    The Vogue for Russian Identity
6.    Competing Myths of Russian History



Roerich, Guests from Overseas (1901)

Chapter 3 Moscow! Moscow!

1.       Moscow
2.    St. Petersburg


St Basil’s in Red Square completed in 1560
commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan


Falconet's  Bronze Horseman (1788), see St. Petersburg from Figes; Statue of Peter the Great (1788) by Falconet; (painting by Vasily Ivanovich Surikov) (illustration) (dramatic photo)



Chapter 3 Moscow! Moscow!

3.       Moscow: A city of gourmands and massive banquets
4.
       ‘Neo-Russian’ style in crafts, architecture and music
5.
       The Debate over Russian Identity in the Arts


The  Great Gate of Kiev for  Pictures at an Exhibition  (1874) for an exhibition by Mussorgsky's friend Viktor Gartman ; ‘Promenade (in mode russico)'; ‘Baba Yaga’ ; the glorious ‘Kiev Gate’ In 1862 Stasov helped Mussorsky establish the Free Music School School which became the stronghold of the so-called ‘Mighty Five’, the kuchka, who pioneered the Russian musical style. see Stasov’s troika:  Repin, Musorgsky and the sculptor Antokolsky from Orlando Figes, Natasha's Dance (2002


Chapter 4 The Peasant Marriage

1. the ‘going to the people’ movement
2. Stasov’s troika:  Repin, Musorgsky and the sculptor Antokolsky


Repin, Barge Haulers on the Volga (1870) Stasov,  'Repin's Painting 'The Volga Barge- Haulers'  (Letter to the Editor of 'St Petersburg Gazette')' (1873)

Chapter 4 The Peasant Marriage

4. Noble vs. Peasant Marriage
5. Bleaker Views of the Peasants after 1900


KramskoyThe Peasant Ignatii Pirogo (1874)

Chapter 4 The Peasant Marriage
6. the World of Art movement and the Ballet Russes
7. Stravinsky, The Peasant Wedding


Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring The Joffrey Ballet (See also "Sergei Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes , 1909-1929: When Art Danced with Music" National Gallery (2013) (excellent film: 28 minutes)

Chapter 5 In Search of the Russian Soul

1. 19th c. religious revivalism: the Old Believers
2. Nikolai Gogol and Dead Souls
3. Belinsky’s Retort: Russians are pagans


Hermits at a monastery in northern Russia. Those standing have taken the vows of the schema (skhima), the strictest monastic rules in the Orthodox Church. Their habits show the instruments  of the martyrdom of Christ and a text in Church Slavonic from Luke 9:24

Chapter 5 In Search of the Russian Soul

4. Dostoevsky’s Socialism: Father Zosima’s Russian Church
5. Tolstoy vs. Chekhov on Faith and Death


Chapter 6 Descendants of Genghis Kahn

1. Kandinsky and the Mongol Tradition
2. The Mongol Inheritance (despite the Eurocentric national myth)
3. Orientalism and the Conquest of Siberia
4. Russian Orientalism: Lermontov, Balakirev, Stasov, Rimsky-Korsakov


Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade (1888)

Chapter 6 Descendants of Genghis Kahn

5. Chekhov’s Report from Sakhalin; his Travel Writing: The Russian Landscape
6. Manifest Destiny, Russian Style
7. Kandinsky: Scythian Shamanism and the Symbolists