History of the 19th - early 20th centuries. VIVOS VOCO: A.B. Davidson, "The Image of Britain in Russia in the 19th and 20th Centuries"

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The long 19th century is a historical period that lasted, according to the British Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm, who singled it out, from 1789 to 1918. Its main feature was the dominance of empires in the world. The beginning of this period is the Great... Wikipedia

Magazine cover. 1830 “Domestic Notes” Russian literary magazine of the 19th century, which had a significant influence on the movement of literary life and the development of social thought in Russia; published in St. Petersburg in 1818-1884 (with... ... Wikipedia

Family and School is a Russian pedagogical magazine published in 1871-1888. in St. Petersburg. Founded by writers Elena Apreleva and Yulian Simashko (the former dealt with literary and humanitarian materials, the latter with natural sciences).... ... Wikipedia

This term has other meanings, see Literary newspaper (meanings). Literary newspaper Type literary Editor-in-Chief A.A. Delvig, then O.M. Somov Founded January 1, 1830 Cessation of publications June 30, 1831 ... Wikipedia

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Books

• XIX century (ed. 1901), . Reprinted edition using print-on-demand technology from the original of 1901. Reproduced in the original author’s spelling of the 1901 edition (publishing house A.F. Marx Publishing).…
• XIX century. Reprinted edition using print-on-demand technology from the original of 1901. Reproduced in the original author’s spelling of the 1901 edition (publishing house “A.F. Marx Publishing”…
• History of Russian Goverment. Biography. 19th century, first half. The book contains information about the figures of Russia in the first half of the 19th century - from the beginning of the reign of Alexander I to the end of the reign of Nicholas I. Here are government officials Speransky and ...

The turn of the 19th – 20th centuries is a time of rethinking the traditions and values ​​of Russian and world culture of the 19th century. This is a time filled with religious and philosophical quests, rethinking the role of the artist’s creative activity, its genres and forms. During this period, the thinking of artists is freed from politicization, the unconscious, the irrational in man, and boundless subjectivism come to the fore. The “Silver Age” became a time of artistic discoveries and new directions. Starting from the 90s, a direction called symbolism began to take shape in literature (K.D. Balmont, D.S. Merezhkovsky, Z.N. Gippius, V.Ya. Bryusov, F.K. Sollogub, A. Bely, A.A. Blok). Revolting against critical realism, the symbolists put forward the principle of intuitive comprehension of spiritual life. Futurists proclaimed a rejection of traditions; they perceived the word not as a means, but as an independent organism, developing thanks to the activities of the poet and having no connections with reality.

Along with new trends, traditional realism continued to develop (A.P. Chekhov, A.I. Kuprin, I.A. Bunin).

Most of the major artists of the turn of the 19th – 20th centuries (V.A. Serov, M.A. Vrubel, F.A. Malyavin, M.V. Nesterov, K.A. Somov, etc.) rallied around the magazine “World of Art” ( 1889-1904). The ideological leaders of the World of Art students were S.N. Diaghilev and A.N. Benoit. Their program was the ideal of artistic synthesis, the reconciliation of all directions and genres of art for the sake of serving beauty. “The World of Art” had a huge influence on Russian painting, creating a type of lyrical landscape (A.N. Benois, K.A. Somov, E.E. Lansere), contributed to the rise of the art of engraving (A.P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva), book graphics, theatrical painting.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian avant-garde (V.V. Kandinsky, K.S. Malevich, P.N. Filonov, M.Z. Chagall) became a noticeable phenomenon of not only Russian but also world culture. One of the goals of the avant-garde was to create a new art that revealed the sphere of the impulsive and subconscious. K. S. Malevich was one of the theorists of Suprematism, who asserted (under the influence of the ideas of the German philosopher who gravitated towards German romanticism Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) and Henri Bergson (1859-1941), a French idealist philosopher, representative of intuitionism) , that at the heart of the world there is a certain excitement, “restlessness” that controls the states of nature and the artist himself. It was this “excitement” that the artist had to comprehend in his own inner world and convey through painting (without giving it any objective expression).

In Russian painting the beginning of the 20th century, the influence of impressionism is also noticeable (V. A. Serov, K. A. Korovin, I. E. Grabar).

In the pre-war decade, new associations of artists emerged: “Blue Rose” (P.V. Kuznetsov, M.S. Saryan, N.S. Goncharova, M.F. Larionov, K.S. Petrov-Vodkin), “Jack of Diamonds” (P.P. Konchalovsky, I.I. Mashkov, A.V. Lentulov, R.R. Falk), “Donkey’s Tail.” These associations included artists who were very different in their artistic style, but were influenced by symbolism and modernism, committed to experimentation in the field of color and form.

Theater did not remain aloof from the influence of symbolism. The search for a new stage art gave Russian and world culture the conventional theater of V.E. Meyerhold (Komissarzhevskaya Theatre, Alexandrinsky Theatre), Chamber Theater A.Ya. Tairov, Evgeny Vakhtangov Studio.

In music The modern era, which was influenced by late romanticism, showed attention to the inner experiences of a person, his emotions. Lyricism and sophistication were characteristic of the works of S.I. Taneyeva, A.N. Skryabina, A.K. Glazunova, S.V. Rachmaninov.

Movie in the modern era it occupies its own special place in Russian culture. The first film shows took place in 1896, and by 1914 there were already about 30 companies operating in Russia, producing more than 300 films. In the cinema of the early 20th century, psychological realism was established, close to the traditions of Russian literature (“The Queen of Spades”, “Father Sergius” by Y.P. Protazanov). The silent film stars were V.V. Kholodnaya, I.I. Mozzhukhin.

Russian artistic culture of the early 20th century was more open than ever to Western art and culture, sensitively responding to new trends in philosophy and aesthetics and at the same time opening up to European society. The “Russian Seasons” in Paris, organized by Sergei Diaghilev, played a huge role here.

Diaghilev Sergei Pavlovich (1872-1929) - Russian theater figure. In 1896 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University (at the same time he studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory under N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov). At the end of the 1890s, he was one of the founders of the “World of Art” association and editor (together with A. N. Benois) of the magazine “World of Art” of the same name (1898/99-1904). Organizer of art exhibitions (“Historical and artistic exhibition of Russian portraits” in St. Petersburg, 1905; exhibition of Russian art at the Autumn Salon in Paris, 1906;), which contributed to the promotion of Russian fine art. In his art-critical articles of the late 1890s, S.P. Diaghilev opposed academic routine, asserted the intrinsic value of the aesthetic principle in art, with polemical one-sidedness denying art the right to tendentiousness, defending the idea of ​​its independence from reality.

Since 1906, S.P. Diaghilev introduces Parisian society to the achievements of Russian artistic culture, for this he organizes an exhibition dedicated to the history of Russian art. S.P. Diaghilev also introduced Russian music to the French public, organizing concerts and opera productions with the best Russian conductors and singers.

Energetic entrepreneur, S.P. Diaghilev organized annual performances by Russian artists, which were called “Russian Seasons Abroad”: in 1907 - symphonic concerts called “Historical Russian Concerts”, in which N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, S. V. Rachmaninov, A. K. Glazunov, F. I. Shalyapin and others; Russian opera seasons opened in 1908.

Since 1909, seasons of Russian ballet began, which opened for both Russia and Europe the productions of M. Fokine (“The Firebird” and “Petrushka” by I.F. Stravinsky), in which A. Pavlova, Vrubel, T. Karsavina shone, V. Nijinsky, M. Mordkin, S. Fedorova. Diaghilev's Russian seasons actually revived the ballet theater of Western Europe. With the ballet troupe of famous dancers S.P. Diaghilev traveled to London, Rome and American cities. The performances were a triumph of Russian ballet art and contributed to the development and even revival of ballet theaters in countries that had not previously had their own ballet or had lost these traditions (USA, Latin America, etc.). Of particular note is the innovative design of ballet and opera performances made by artists A. N. Benois, L. S. Bakst, A. Ya. Golovin, N. K. Roerich, N. S. Goncharova and other artists, which is among the most outstanding examples of world theatrical and decorative art, which had a significant influence on its development in the first quarter of the 20th century. Organized by S.P. Diaghilev, the ballet troupe “Russian Ballet of S. P. Diaghilev” existed until 1929.

The Russian seasons of Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev actually revived the ballet theater of Western Europe.

Animation. The first Russian animator was Vladislav Starevich. Being a biologist by training, he decided to make an educational film with insects.

Starevich Vladislaav Aleksaandrovich (1882-1965) - an outstanding Russian and French director with Polish roots, creator of the world's first story films shot using the technique of puppet animation.

In 1912 V.A. Starevich is making a documentary about stag beetles, which shows a battle between two male stag beetles for a female. During the filming, it turned out that with the necessary lighting for filming, the males become passive. Then V.A. Starevich dissects the beetles, attaches thin wires to the legs, attaches them to the body with wax and films the scene he needs frame by frame. The film he shot in this way was the world's first stop-motion animated film.

Using the same technique, Starevich made the short film “Beautiful Lyukanida, or the War of the Longhorned Hornbills with the Horned Horns,” released in 1912, in which the beetles acted out scenes parodying plots from knightly novels. The film enjoyed wild success among Russian and foreign viewers until the mid-1920s. The stop-motion technique of puppet animation was completely unknown at that time, so many reviews expressed amazement at what incredible things can be achieved by training from insects. Soon after “Lukanida”, short animated films similar in technique “Revenge of the Cinematographer” (1912), “Dragonfly and the Ant” (1913), “Christmas among the Forest Dwellers” (1913), “Funny Scenes from Life” were released. animals" (1913), which were included in the golden fund of world cinema. In the film “The Night Before Christmas” (1913), Vladislaav Aleksaandrovich Starevich for the first time combined acting and puppet animation in one frame.

At the beginning of 2009, footage of an animated puppet film discovered by Russian film expert Viktor Bocharov was published. This shooting was made by the choreographer of the Mariinsky Theater Alexander Shiryaev. Viktor Bocharov dates it back to 1906. The film shows dolls dancing ballet against a background of motionless scenery. Shiryaev Alexander Viktorovich (1867-1941) - Russian and Soviet dancer, choreographer, teacher, creator of character dance, one of the first directors of cinema and animated films, Honored Artist of the RSFSR.

A.V. Shiryaev was born on September 10, 1867 in St. Petersburg. Grandfather A.V. Shiryaeva is the famous ballet composer Cesar Pugni, her mother is ballet dancer of the Mariinsky Theater E.K. Shiryaeva. A.V. Shiryaev began performing on stage as a child, playing in performances of the Alexandrinsky Drama Theater. In 1885 A.V. Shiryaev graduated from the St. Petersburg Imperial Theater School, where his teachers were M. I. Petipa, P. A. Gerdt, P. K. Karsavin, L. I. Ivanov. In 1886, he was accepted into the Mariinsky Theater, where he became not only a leading dancer, but also a tutor under Marius Petipa. In 1900, Alexander Viktorovich became an assistant choreographer, and in 1903 - the second choreographer of the theater.

Since 1902 A.V. Shiryaev traveled throughout Europe and Russia, where he studied and recorded folk dances.

In 1905, on May 12, Alexander Shiryaev left his service at the Mariinsky Theater. Then, from 1909 to 1917, Alexander Viktorovich Shiryaev worked as a dancer and choreographer in Berlin, Paris, Munich, Monte Carlo, Riga, Warsaw. A. V. Shiryaev performed in 32 ballets. Among his roles: Milo in “The King's Order”, fairy Carabosse in “The Sleeping Beauty”, Ivan the Fool in “The Little Humpbacked Horse”, Quasimodo in “Esmeralda”, and others.

Even before, working at the Mariinsky Theater as a choreographer, Alexander Shiryaev, together with Marius Petipa, staged such ballets as: “The Naiad and the Fisherman”, “The Harlem Tulip”, “Coppelia”, “The Pharaoh’s Daughter”, “King Candaules”, “ The Little Humpbacked Horse". One of the latest productions by A.V. Shiryaev's production of "Giselle", and his last work at the Mariinsky Theater was the production of "Paquita". During this period, for his new productions, Alexander Shiryaev used the method he developed for preparing ballets at home. He made papier-mâché dolls 20-25 cm high, all parts of the “body” of which were held on soft wire. This allowed the choreographer to give them the desired position. The dolls were dressed in matching costumes made of paper and fabric. Having placed several dolls in a row, A.V. Shiryaev gave each of them a pose that seemed to continue the pose of the previous doll. Thus, the entire row represented the dance being composed. Then, choosing the scenes that most satisfied him, he sketched out a dance diagram on a piece of paper and numbered all the steps. The result was a kind of storyboard. On one of these storyboards, A.V. Shiryaev captured Buffon’s dance with a hoop, which he composed for himself and performed in the ballet “The Nutcracker” staged by L. I. Ivanov. This number (dance) by Buffon was not preserved in subsequent editions of The Nutcracker in Russia.

From 1891 to 1909, Alexander Viktorovich Shiryaev was a professor at the St. Petersburg Imperial Theater School, where, under his leadership, a characteristic class was first opened. A. V. Shiryaev was the first in the world to create a system for training dancers in characteristic dance. Ballet artists of many generations studied with him, including: Andrei Lopukhov, Nina Anisimova, Alexander Bocharov, Mikhail Fokin, Fyodor Lopukhov, Alexander Monakhov, Alexander Chekrygin, Pyotr Gusev, Galina Ulanova, Galina Isaeva, Yuri Grigorovich and many others. In 1939, Alexander Viktorovich Shiryaev, together with A. I. Bocharov and A. V. Lopukhov, wrote the textbook “Fundamentals of Character Dance.” He is also the author of the book “St. Petersburg Ballet. From the memoirs of an artist of the Mariinsky Theater,” which was prepared for publication at the Leningrad branch of the WTO in the spring of 1941, but was never published. A photocopy of the book is kept in the National Library of St. Petersburg.

It should be noted that the pedagogical work of A.V. Shiryaev also continued as a tutor in the school that he opened in London. Almost all the graduates of this school subsequently formed the troupe of Anna Pavlova.

While on one of his trips abroad to England, Alexander Shiryaev purchased a 17.5 mm Biokam film camera. He undertook his first filming experiments in the summer in Ukraine, where he traveled with his family. At the beginning of the theater season of 1904-1905, A.V. Shiryaev turned to the Directorate of Imperial Theaters with a request to allow him to photograph the theater ballerinas free of charge. However, he was not only refused, but even forbidden to engage in such filming. Among the cinematic experiments of A.V. Shiryaev's works include documentaries, dances and miniature plays, stunt comic filming, and pixilation filming.

Left service at the Mariinsky Theater A.V. Shiryaev, from 1906 to 1909 there are a lot does animation using puppetry, drawing, and combined techniques. A.V. Shiryaev set up a filming pavilion in the room and on a mini-stage in a special box that imitated several tiers of theater scenes with electric lighting from the inside, he created animated ballet films. The main goal of A.V. Shiryaev was not the creation of new art, but an attempt to reproduce human movement, to recreate choreography. To film the ballet Pierrot and Columbine, A.V. Shiryaev made more than seven and a half thousand drawings. In the animated puppet ballet “Harlequin's Joke,” the variations and adagios are shot so accurately that the variations of past ballets can be reconstructed from the film.

Shiryaev returned to Russia in 1918. From 1918 to 1941 A.V. Shiryaev was a professor at the Leningrad Choreographic School. Alexander Viktorovich Shiryaev stood at the origins of the national branch of the Leningrad Choreographic School, in particular, he trained the main personnel of the Bashkir ballet.

In the 19th century there were many wonderful preachers who were outstanding personalities. The pastors of this century did not simply preach sermons of an exegetical, dogmatic and moral nature, giving good advice and instructions to the believers. They looked at preaching as a force that captured and morally regulated the entire structure of social, state, personal and home life. Preachers, using vivid, convincing and at the same time everyday life situations as examples, showed the shortcomings of society and thereby tried to correct people and teach them to live like Christians, to live with God.

Outstanding preachers of the 19th century include such church figures as St. Philaret of Moscow - an ascetic of piety, a genius, a giant of thought and word; Archbishop Innocent of Kherson, who left behind more than 500 sermons; Yakov Kuzmich Amfitheatrov - teacher of Church literature, who left behind 17 conversations, distinguished by sincerity, simplicity, and church-biblical spirit; Archbishop Filaret of Chernigov - dogmatic theologian, historian and archaeologist, who left behind several collections of short sermons addressed to the hearts and feelings of listeners; Archbishop Eusebius of Mogilev; Archpriest Rodion Putyatin, an outstanding preacher and literature teacher, left behind more than 300 short teachings. Contemporaries compared his sermons to the lessons and instructions of a father to children, warmed with warm feeling and love; Bishop John of Smolensk left behind a number of sermons of a journalistic nature, distinguished by simplicity, sincere love, and touchingness; Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow is a famous Russian theologian and church historian, who left behind more than 200 sermons; Archpriest Alexy Belotsvetov left a series of short sermons, filled with liveliness and warm feeling; Archpriest Vasily Nordov; Archbishop Demetrius of Kherson is a talented, zealous preacher, who left a complete collection of his sermons in 5 volumes; Saint Theophan the Recluse and many, many others.

Prominent preachers in the pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary periods.

Archpriest Valentin Amfitheatrov (1836-1908)

Valentin Nikolaevich Amfiteatrov was born in the village of Vysokoye, Oryol province. He came from a hereditary priestly family.

In 1860, after graduating from the seminary, Valentin Amfitheatrov was ordained to the rank of priest and appointed parish rector at the Kaluga Annunciation Church. Then he was transferred to the rector of the church of the Polivanov Teachers' Seminary. In 1874, Archpriest Valentin was appointed rector of the Church of Constantine and Helena, not far from the Spassky Gate of the Kremlin.

The last decades of the 19th century were a time of spiritual decline. Many Moscow churches were mostly empty, but the churches where Archpriest Valentin carried out his pastoral service were always crowded - people came to the outstanding preacher and confessor from all over Moscow. People flocked to the temple to pray, open their souls to the priest and listen to edifying sermons. “Father Valentin, with his artistically apt language and caressing voice, spoke to these people crowding towards him, giving advice from his heart and mind...” Amphitheater V., archpriest. Sermons. - M.: Orthodox St. Tikhon's Theological Institute, 1995. C.4. - contemporary Evgeniy Poselyanin writes about Archpriest Valentin. Towards the end of his life, Father Valentin lost his sight, but the forced seclusion changed little in the difficult life of the shepherd. Being blind, the priest continued to dictate his sermons on the record.

On June 20, 1908, Father Valentin peacefully departed to the Lord. He was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery. After the death of Archpriest Valentin Amfitheatrov, collections of his sermons were published: “Spiritual Discourses Delivered at the Moscow Archangel Cathedral in 1896-1902” (1909), “Great Lent. Spiritual Teachings" (1910), "Sunday Gospels. Collection of Sermons" (1910) and others. But most of the books did not see the light of day - the manuscripts burned in the fire of the Ochakovsky house in 1970.

The sermons of Archpriest Valentin Amfitheatrov are distinguished by their brevity, simplicity, and accessibility to understanding. The topics of the sermons are varied. His collection contains sermons of an exegetical, dogmatic, moralizing and theological nature. When revealing a particular topic, the preacher borrows historical examples from the Bible and the lives of saints, and also cites cases from everyday life. His teachings are filled with sincerity and warmth.

Teaching about Valentina Amfitheatrova about the Kingdom of God

“Seek first the kingdom of God.” You heard these words from the Gospel read today during the liturgy, and they belong to our Lord Jesus Christ. The Savior said that people care about food, clothing, and other various objects of existence, but meanwhile, what is most important and necessary, they do not even think about, they do not care about the Kingdom of God. But what is the Kingdom of God and how do we seek it?

You probably haven't thought about it. The Evangelist John the Theologian, for his love and devotion to God, was condemned to exile on the island of Patmos, and there he understood what the Kingdom of God is, and he left us a book from which we can learn what the Kingdom of God is. To better understand this, imagine that the Kingdom of God is a city in which God and the people live. In this city they neither mourn nor murmur, and if they cry, then the Lord Himself wipes the tears from their eyes; there are no cries, no lamentations, no despair in it; the people are all calm, all joyful, all bright, all clean, since there cannot be any impurity there; in this city there is neither sun nor stars, and yet everything is light, everything shines, everything is radiant, because in it is the presence of God Himself; in it there are people of all ranks, of all ages, of all generations, in it there are elders, and youths, and babies, there are no vicious feelings, no lustful desires, there is no gender, neither male nor female.

So, we see that the Kingdom of God is a place where, it seems, only a person should strive, and yet a person does not look for it, and it flies away from him, just as a light cloud floats above and disappears into the sky. radiant skies.

But how can one get into the Kingdom of God and who gets there? Remember my words well: according to the testimony of the holy fathers, there can be everyone and no one in the Kingdom of God; This is a city where you cannot enter through all the gates, and only One Savior showed us the way into it, gave us the keys to it. Whoever follows Christ, who follows His path, will also enter the Kingdom of God. And each of you knows how to follow Christ. The Savior Himself said: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Just as He was sick and suffered, so should we, just as He was all-merciful, so we should not be greedy, but be merciful, and then we will enter the Kingdom of God. But what are they doing there, in the Kingdom of God? There is eternal bliss. This is such a bright place where angels praise the Lord, where cherubic delight is constantly heard, where there is no illness or death; this is such happiness that there is nothing higher; It’s difficult to get there, but whoever gets there will always be there.

So, the Lord Himself showed us the way to the Kingdom of God; if we follow Him, then we will be heirs of the Kingdom of God, He Himself said: “If anyone, even an angel from heaven, preaches to you other than what I preach, then do not listen, because this is a temptation, a temptation.” . So, only then will we find the Kingdom of God when we are with Christ. And what it means to be with Christ and in Christ - we can see this in all those who are often worthy of receiving the Holy Mysteries. So, let us pray that we may find the Kingdom of God, since all those who are worthy to get there are truly blessed.

Teaching on Wealth

“So it will be with everyone who grows rich in himself and not in God.” These words of the Savior applied to that unfortunate rich man who did not understand the meaning of his life, he was only thinking about how to enjoy himself, he kept collecting and increasing his treasures, and suddenly he hears a voice: “Fool, this night they will take your soul, to whom will be left what you have collected?” Yes, this was a man who grew rich in himself, and not in God. How can we now find out how we act, whether we are growing richer in ourselves or in God?

Having revealed the teachings of the holy fathers, I find an explanation for this. Ephraim the Syrian explains what it means to grow rich in yourself. By the grace of God, we see a rich, noble, intelligent, contented man who succeeds in everything, he succeeds, and life sends its smile to him, but his soul is a sum of habits that even the grace of God cannot destroy, and yet it is that's what he needs most. But he lives for himself alone, lives for his own pleasure, his heart has narrowed, he is alien to all those who suffer, to all those in need, alien even to workers, and if he encounters them, then only as labor force, with a thing that is necessary him to satisfy his own pleasures. And then, amidst the pleasures, suddenly in his soul he hears two voices that each of us will hear in due time. One voice is the voice calling us. Consciousness appears: how did you spend your life? And they answer him: he spent it crazy. And so he died, died with thunder, but after him only stories and anecdotes about him remained. Yes, wealth is sent by the Lord as a sign of special mercy, and therefore whoever uses it alone does not love the Lord.

Let us now take the teachings of another teacher of the Church and see what it means to become rich in God. All people can become rich in God, not only those who live in palaces, but also those who live in slums, in abysses; These are those who, as John Chrysostom says, having two clothes, give the other to the poor, having talents, sharing with others, having strength, helping with them. Everything they have is considered a gift sent by the Lord out of love, for which they must also repay with love; they think about the unfortunate, about those imprisoned and try to help them, to relieve them; These are those who will not say that they asked to be done for them, but who themselves worked, labored themselves, without accepting services from others.

And for them the hour will come when they too will hear the voice of conscience, but they will hear something else: “Good, faithful servant, you have been faithful in small things, I will put you over big things, enter into the joy of your Lord.” It is to him, who considered himself insignificant and unworthy, that they suddenly say: “Enter into the joy of your Lord.” For him, dawn, bliss, and paradise appeared, but for the sinner, sorrow, bitterness, and hell appeared. So, my brothers, with all my heart I wish you that in the last hour you will hear a voice: “Enter into the joy of your Lord.”

Metropolitan Macarius (Nevsky) (1835-1926)

Metropolitan Macarius (Nevsky) is an outstanding hierarch and preacher of the Russian Orthodox Church. Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow and Kolomna (in the world - Mikhail Andreevich Parvitsky) was born in the village of Shapkino, Vladimir province, into a family of simple but pious parents. In 1855, after graduating from the seminary, Mikhail Andreevich, according to his wishes, was assigned to serve in the Altai spiritual mission as an ordinary employee. Here, together with other missionaries, he teaches at a catechist school, goes on long missionary trips, goes door to door preaching, and cares for the poor and sick.

On March 16, 1861, he took monastic vows with the name Macarius. Soon he was ordained a hierodeacon, and then a hieromonk. From that time on, his independent missionary service began. For the success of preaching among non-believers, Hieromonk Macarius studied the Altai language and translated liturgical books.

In 1883, Abbot Macarius became the head of the Altai mission with the elevation to the rank of Bishop of Biysk.

During his 36 years of missionary service, Bishop Macarius gained all-Russian fame. In 1891 he was appointed Archbishop of Tomsk. For his successful missionary work in educating foreigners, Archbishop Macarius in 1912 received the title of Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna and was appointed holy archimandrite of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra.

Once in Moscow, Vladyka encountered a different flock. The capital's clergy and people did not like his simple teaching, his strictly ecclesiastical patriarchal direction. People who had fallen away from faith and good morality began to consider him a backward, uninteresting bishop. Many had a desire to free themselves from their metropolitan. The newspapers published articles in which the honest name of the Bishop was desecrated. But, despite the reproaches and denunciations, Metropolitan Macarius continued to carry out his archpastoral obedience.

After the revolution of 1917, Vladyka Macarius, under the threat of rotting in the Peter and Paul Fortress if he persisted, was asked to resign. He was deprived of the right to reside in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and sent to the Nikolo-Ugreshsky Monastery.

The preaching side of the archpastoral activity of the Bishop deserves special words. He did not receive higher theological education and did not leave behind theological works. But the breadth of his preaching activity puts him in the history of the Russian Church on a par with such outstanding preachers as St. Philaret (Drozdov) and Righteous John of Kronstadt.

The firm conviction of Vladyka Macarius was that the shepherd must be ready “at all times to bring from the treasury of his soul consolation for some, instruction for others, encouragement for others, and relief for others.” Macarius (Nevsky), Metropolitan. Selected words, speeches, conversations, teachings (1884-1913). - M.: Publishing house "Father's House", 1996. P. 13.. Considering preaching a special gift and himself fully possessing it, nevertheless, in parting words to newly ordained priests, he spoke about the hard work and skill that is required for successful church preaching: “The flock first of all wants to see the pastor as a teacher... He must be teaching wherever he appears as a shepherd, and when they come to him as a shepherd... Teaching of this kind is not easy, it requires a lot of and lengthy preparation. It is not safe for an inexperienced preacher to speak in a church meeting without prior preparation.” Macarius (Nevsky), Metropolitan. Decree. Op. S. 13...

The Bishop himself, in his sermons, denouncing the moral laxity of his contemporaries, spoke out against everything that undermined the “stronghold of the Church of God” - against the authorities holding entertainment events during Lent to tempt believers, against immodest fashion, free behavior. During the days of the revolution of 1917, when fires and accompanying pogroms broke out in the country, Vladyka Macarius in a cassock and hood went out to the raging crowd and persuaded everyone to stop the outrages.

The sermons, teachings, and words that make up the preaching heritage of Bishop Macarius are distinguished by amazing power, and its source is hidden within the preacher himself. The Bishop always spoke only about what he himself did, and fulfilled what he himself spoke about. The defense of the purity and inviolability of church teaching is the general content of the sermons of Bishop Macarius. Most sermons are devoted to the interpretation of Holy Scripture, liturgical exposition, or responses to contemporary events.

I urge you to act worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

We consider it our pastoral duty to warn the faithful sons of the Holy Church to refrain from attending entertainment shows scheduled for the eve of Sundays and holidays, as well as during the Holy Pentecost. This is one of those sins for which punishment is sent to the people from God. This is a sin against the commandment to honor the Sabbath as a day of rest. For this sin, the Lord sends His wrath on the people.

Thus the Lord once spoke to Israel through the prophet: I will pour out My wrath on them (on the children of Israel) because they did not keep My commandments and violated My Sabbaths (Ezek. 20:21). What the Sabbath was for Israel, as a day of rest, so is Sunday and a holiday for a Christian. They should be used primarily for the service of God - the creation of godly deeds and generally for pious activities. No one sane would call visiting the theater and houses of entertainment in general a godly activity, a pious activity corresponding to the holiness of a Sunday or holiday. The cathedral rules at one time decided that it was appropriate to ask Christian kings and that the performance of shameful games on Sunday and other holy days of the Christian faith should be prohibited (Carth. sob. pr. 72).

We assume that there may be an objection to this, that these rules have long been almost never enforced. What? It does not follow from this that they have lost their binding force: what was previously a sin remains so to this day. God's threat to Israel for violating the statutes and the Sabbath was not in vain: he was punished by seventy years of captivity and dispersion among the nations. - And we, will we escape punishment when we act almost worse than Israel, so that for our sake the Name of God is slandered among the nations of the earth? And now is not the time to have fun, when so many menacing clouds hang over our land, bursting with destruction of property, unrest and other disasters. Thunder rumbles, but we don’t even cross ourselves. The wrath of God strikes us with war, civil strife, crop failures, the danger of approaching diseases as consequences of malnutrition, but we say: nothing, this is an accident, not God’s wrath, and we do not want to turn to God with prayer, repentance and confession of sins. Was it not from that time that failures, disasters and general unrest began to visit us, when we almost forced the authorities to give us permission to desecrate fasts and holidays by opening theatrical shows and other sinful entertainments on these days with a clear violation of the sanctity of the holiday, which had not happened before. Have we really hardened our hearts so much that the most terrible disasters do not touch us, do not evoke tears and sighs of repentance in us, but plunge us deeper and deeper into the depths of sin, arousing in us enmity against each other, ready to erupt in bloodshed? Isn’t this the height of our foolishness when, after all this, we decide to indulge in fun and anger God by violating His commandment to honor the days of the Lord?

Good Christians, obey the voice of God, listen to the voice of your Mother - the Church, repent, honor the days of the Lord, stop your sinful amusements during these days, close the houses of public entertainment and theatrical performances in order to turn away the righteous wrath of God from us. If this does not depend on you, then do what is in your power: do not attend the theater on holidays and holidays, do not allow your children there; Convince your parents and friends of this, and the Lord will show His mercy to you and save you from the coming wrath. - There is no blessing of God on those who neglect the commandment of God, on those who disobey the voice of the Church and the voice of the shepherds

Let's come to our senses! Let's repent! (abbreviated)

Orthodox Russian people!

Our country is in turmoil; all its foundations are shaking, the Orthodoxy of the faith, the autocracy of the Tsar and the Russian people are in danger from the discord that has gripped our country and has begun to corrode the religious, social and state life of our fatherland. Discord produces division; from division comes weakening, and weakening leads to destruction. The Orthodox Church is in danger from the division of the once united Orthodox Russian people into many heretical sects and schismatic opinions. All these sects and sects, disagreeing with each other in religious beliefs and customs, agree on only one thing - enmity towards the Holy Orthodox Church.

And the Russian country, as a state, is in danger, on the one hand, from the desire of its outskirts to isolate itself, on the other, from the unrest occurring within it and the division of the people into parties. These parties, which have almost nothing in common with each other, are also united in only one thing - in hostility to the Orthodox faith, to the autocracy of the tsarist power and to the indivisible unity of the Russian people as the dominant tribe. And where there is enmity, there is mutual destruction. Where there is enmity, there is division, and where there is division, there is the beginning of enslavement and destruction: every kingdom divided against itself will be desolate (Luke 11:17). All these sects, these rumors talk about the kingdom of God, talk about life in heaven; and they act as if their members want to fill hell with themselves or prepare inhabitants for it, for in the Kingdom of God there are no divisions; in heaven there is no such enmity as exists between sects and factions and which they all harbor towards the Orthodox Church. Parties hostile to Orthodoxy and seeking to destroy the existing state system seduce the people with promises of enriching them: they incite them to robbery and arson. For their criminal purposes, they obtain funds by robbery and other methods disapproved by either the law, or conscience, and even more so by the Gospel; in ways that are only permitted among gangs of robbers.

The imaginary populists promise to bring peace to the country, but they create unrest in it, depriving the people of the calm life that they previously enjoyed. They promise the establishment of order, but they introduce disorder, creating obstacles for the divinely established authorities to carry out their duties that ensure order.

They have brought the country into such a state that it is in danger from anarchy...

So what should we do?

Let us turn to God with prayers and repentance, as our ancestors prayed and repented during hard times. For our sins, the Lord sent us such a misfortune.

We have retreated from God, violated His commandments: we have neglected the statutes of His Holy Church, and now what the wisdom of the people has spoken is being fulfilled over us: that land cannot stand where they begin to break the statutes.

Come to your senses, Russian people, stand up to protect the foundations of the earth, as their ancestors defended them in the old days.

Unite, Russian people, around the Holy Church, under the leadership of her good shepherds, in obedience to the church statutes. Rally around the Tsar's throne, under the leadership of the Tsar's faithful servants, in obedience to the divinely established authority.

The salvation of our country is in the Holy Church: she can give peace to her children if they listen to her voices; she will protect them with her prayer, she will protect them with her statutes.

Let us return to the Church, which we began to forget and abandon. We will steadily gather in our churches, and dignitaries and ordinary people, cultivators and landowners, merchants and artisans - we will all steadily be present at divine services, Sundays and holidays; Let's stop our fun, sanctify the days of holidays, leaving the attendance of entertainment shows at this time to those of other faiths and those who have renounced God.

We will observe the fasts established by the Church, we will admonish and denounce violators of the statutes of the Church, as the perpetrators of the wrath of God befalling the Russian land. Let us raise children in the fear of God, in piety, in reverence for elders, in love for the Holy Church. Let us avoid divisions and strife in church and society. Let us unite around our Sovereign Orthodox Tsar, as he recently called upon all loyal true sons of the Russian land to do so. Let us stand in defense of the power supplied by the Sovereign...

Let the Russian people, farmers and workers, repent of excessive drunkenness, debauchery, disobedience to the shepherds of the Church, and disobedience to the divinely established authority. Let us impose a voluntary fast on ourselves, let us humble ourselves like the Ninevites, and let us beg the Merciful for forgiveness, as the church hymn teaches: we have sinned, we have sinned, we have acted untruthfully before You: we have been less observant, we have not kept as Thou hast commanded us. But do not betray us to the end, Fathers, God.

Save, Lord, Your people and bless Your heritage

Priest Archpriest John Vostorgov (1867-1917)

An outstanding missionary and ardent preacher, John Vostorgov, was born in the village of Kavkazskaya, Kuban region, into the family of a priest.

In 1887, he graduated from the Stavropol Seminary, was appointed an overseer at the Stavropol Theological School, and then joined the teaching staff. Two years later, on the Feast of the Origin of the Honest Gifts of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, he was ordained a deacon, and on the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord he became a priest.

In 1892, the young priest received a new appointment and became a teacher of law at the Stavropol men's gymnasium, followed by an appointment to the Caucasus - to Elizavetpol, Tiflis.

In Tiflis, thanks to the work of Father John, eight church schools arose, in which the priest conducted classes and conversations. The editorial and publishing activities of Ioann Vostorgov began in the Caucasus: he became the editor of the magazine. Here he was elevated to the rank of archpriest. He participates in the work of patriotic monarchist organizations.

In 1906, by decree of the Holy Synod, Father John was appointed to the position of preacher-missionary of the Moscow diocese. From then on, Father John visited different dioceses, served in churches everywhere, preached the Word of God and organized missionary work. Since 1909, on behalf of Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich, he has been studying the state of church life in Siberia and the Far East. After returning from his trips, Father John organized courses to train priests for distant dioceses.

In 1913, Archpriest John Vostorgov was appointed rector of the Intercession Cathedral on the Moat in Moscow. If earlier the cathedral was empty, there were almost no pilgrims here, then “under Father John, thanks to his service and constant missionary preaching, the number of pilgrims increased, so that the cathedral took first place among other churches in terms of the number of candles sold” Chernova T.M. Faithful Witness: About the life and feat of Archpriest John Vostorgov // Sunday School. - 2005. - August. (No. 31-32). - P. 3.. Father John was elected chairman of the Moscow Deanery Council, a member of the Moscow Spiritual Censorship Committee, was secretary of the Orthodox Missionary Society, and took an active part in patriotic monarchist organizations. He considered patriotic organizations a force capable of strengthening the monarchy and resisting the destruction of the state and Holy Orthodoxy.

At a missionary congress in 1908, Father John was elected chairman of the Department for Combating Socialism, Atheism and Anti-Church Literature.

During the years of the revolution of 1917, when discontent, indignation and strife intensified everywhere, Father John called on his flock to peace.

In May 1917, Father John was removed from his position as superintendent of church schools and stripped of his title as an official missionary preacher. He was soon arrested and sentenced to capital punishment by the investigative commission of the Revolutionary Tribunal.

Archpriest John Vostorgov was an outstanding shepherd of the Orthodox Church, possessing exceptional talent as a preacher and missionary, spiritual writer and seer of the future. Sermons and teachings, widely known in pre-revolutionary Russia, covered many issues of church, state and public life. The accusatory sermons against sectarianism and the teachings of socialists had a particularly strong impact. Archpriest John's sermons are distinguished by their persuasiveness, warmth, simplicity and artlessness. His sermons are reminiscent of inspired poems that are close and understandable in our time, as if written and spoken yesterday by T.M. Chernova. Witness to versions: About the life and feat of Archpriest John Vostorgov // Sunday School. - 2005. - September. (No. 33-34). - P. 2.. The sermons of Archpriest John Vostorgov were published in such periodicals as: “Church Gazette”, “Bell”, “Missionary Review”, “Voice of Truth”, “Moscow Church Gazette”, “Bulletin of the Georgian Exarchate”, “Caucasus” ", "Churchfulness", "Russian Earth" and others. During the lifetime of Archpriest John, a complete collection of his sermons was published in five volumes. This includes sermons preached from 1889 to 1912. The main idea of ​​all sermons is to show that the state and national idea in Russia is in unity with the ideas of Orthodoxy.

Modern Hypocrisy (Abridged)

The Savior on Saturday healed a suffering woman who had a dry hand; He restored the unfortunate woman’s health and the opportunity to earn food for herself and her loved ones through honest work, and to be a useful and active member of society. But the envy and malice of the Pharisees found here also a reason to accuse the Wonderworker. The Pharisees, not daring to deny or condemn the very act of beneficence, found that it was not done when it was possible and necessary, precisely on Saturday, on the day on which, according to the teaching of the Pharisees, one should abstain from any deed, even from the act of beneficence. to one's neighbor.

The Savior here, in the synagogue, where the miracle of healing took place, denounced the leader of the synagogue for such reasoning and called him a hypocrite...

The sin of hypocrisy is terrible! It takes root in a person gradually and firmly, it firmly seizes power over the person’s soul and, most importantly, quickly becomes an inconspicuous, constant companion of all thoughts and feelings, all attitudes towards people and events in life, so that even the sinner himself no longer notices his insincerity and his hypocritical assessment of everything around him. The Savior compares this sin with leaven in dough: when the bread has risen and baked, it is difficult to find this leaven in it, and yet it undoubtedly is in it... Beware, the Savior says to His disciples, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. .. (Matt. 6, 16, 11; Mark 8, 15; Luke 12, 1).

Hypocrisy can cover a person’s entire life, but it is most shameful, most dangerous and terrible when it invades the religious area. And it must be said that the time we are living through is especially rich in precisely this kind of hypocrisy. Let's give examples.

The enemies of the homeland need to weaken or completely destroy the meaning of the oath; They don’t like the fact that the sons of their homeland, prompted by the oath, remain faithful to their duty of service and are ready to die for the Tsar and the fatherland; The enemies of the fatherland want his sons to turn into traitors and traitors. And now speeches are heard that the oath is prohibited by Jesus Christ in the Gospel, while we know well from the same Gospel that Jesus Christ at the trial in the Sanhedrin, when the high priest conjured Him by the living God and thereby swore an oath, He Himself took an oath. But who and why speak against the oath? Believers? By a feeling of love and reverence for the Gospel? No, this is said by those who do not even need faith, those who remake the Gospel at their own discretion. This is what hypocrites say.

It is necessary for the enemies of the motherland, criminals against the law, to get rid of the heavy punishments that they deservedly deserved for their terrible atrocities. And so they shout that punishments are prohibited by the law of God, that they are contrary to the commandments of God. They do not want to know that in the personal relations of one person to another, it is certainly forbidden for a Christian to arbitrarily impose punishment on his neighbor, but the legal authority, about which the apostle says that it does not bear the sword in vain, is granted this right. But who speaks against punishment? People who truly honor the Gospel and the commandments of God. People who themselves abhor arbitrariness? No, this is said by those who themselves often rape endlessly, kill from around the corner, who, when robbing money from artel workers, treasurers, and shops, do not spare dozens of innocent people. By allowing themselves everything, they deny the right of the legitimate authorities to punish villains for their continuous atrocities. This is the most vile and disgusting hypocrisy...

So, beware, Christian, of listening to the hypocritical speeches of false talkers and their references to the Gospel. They do not need the power and glory of the Gospel, they only need their own criminal gain.

There cannot be two truths and two truths: one for oneself and the other for one’s neighbors. Evil is always evil, and you need to be much stricter and more demanding of yourself, of your actions, of your behavior than of the actions of other people. If anyone does otherwise, he is a hypocrite.

Directness, sincerity and, most of all, obedience to the Church of God - this is what will give us the strength and opportunity to rid ourselves of the temptations and deception of hypocrisy and not to fall into the dangerous sin of hypocrisy, which the Savior denounces so threateningly in the Holy Gospel. Amen.

Venerable Martyr Archimandrite Kronid Lyubimov (1859-1937)

Archimandrite Kronid (Lyubimov), abbot of the Holy Trinity Lavra, was born in the village of Levkievo, Volokolamsk district, Moscow province. In Holy Baptism he was named Constantine. His parents were distinguished by their piety and deep Orthodox faith.

In 1888, Constantine was tonsured a monk with the name Kronid. The following year he was ordained to the rank of hierodeacon, and then to the rank of hieromonk. In 1904, Hieromonk Kronid became inspector of the diocesan school of icon painting and a member of its council. And a year later, by decree of Metropolitan Vladimir of Moscow and Kolomna, he was appointed economist of the St. Petersburg Trinity Metochion, and then abbot.

In 1915, Father Kronid, for his diligent work for the good of the Church of Christ, was appointed vicar of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra.

In 1917, the archimandrite participated in the work of the Local Council, of which he was a member.

In the terrible years of the Revolution of 1917, Archimandrite Kronid, together with the Lavra monks, fully shared the tragedy of Russia and the Russian Church. In Soviet times, church valuables were confiscated within the walls of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, places of entertainment were established in its holy churches, and it survived the destruction of its glorious bells. After the monastery was closed, in a private apartment, Father Kronid continued to care for the brethren of the monastery, performing monastic tonsures, and sent priests who had returned from exile to serve in parishes.

In 1937, after a lengthy trial, Archimandrite Kronid, along with other monks, was charged with banditry and counter-revolutionary activities. On the day of the celebration in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God “The Sign,” Father Kronid was shot at the NKVD training ground in the Yuzhnoye Butovo forest park near Moscow. Kronid (Lyubimov), the martyr. Conversations, sermons, stories. - Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, 2004. P. 23..

In 2000, at the Council of Bishops, Archimandrite Kronid (Lyubimov) of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra was canonized as the holy new martyrs and confessors of the Russian twentieth century.

Father Kronid, imbued with love for his neighbors, considered it his priestly duty to address those praying with words of edification. His conversations and sermons, which were based on the Holy Scripture, its interpretation by the holy fathers, their creations, and the lives of ascetics of piety, made a deep impression on his listeners. Father Kronid wrote down his sermons, edifying stories and miraculous cases of God's help in a special notebook. A small part of his teachings was published in “Trinity Places”, published in the Lavra Printing House. Father Kronid wanted to publish a whole collection of sermons, but the historical catastrophe that erupted in Russia did not allow the author to carry out this plan.

Father Kronid based his sermons on the Gospel and the Holy Fathers. His teachings were distinguished by simplicity of presentation and cordiality, which is important when a preacher addresses listeners. He was convinced that preaching was an integral part of pastoral ministry. “He could be compared to a loving father talking with his children. As a wise old man, skilled in spiritual life, he shared his spiritual experience of monastic work” Ibid. P. 23., - contemporaries write about Archimandrite Kronida.

Father Kronid achieved particular persuasiveness in his presentation of Christian truths thanks to his own experience of a pious life. His highly spiritual life, no less than his preaching, taught people faith and piety. In his sermons, Father Kronid paid special attention to the inner side of a person’s life, his heart, his sinful habits.

Sermon on slander and slander (abbreviated)

It is not in vain that Christ, our Savior, warns us: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth” - and indicates the reason why you should not collect: where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matthew 6:19,21). As if he were saying that if the devil, through earthly treasures, catches you by the heart with his nets, then it will be difficult for you to free yourself from these nets: it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God (Matthew 19:24). And wealth is so easily joined by godless pride, which has been cast down from heaven even to hell. Is it not because Satan became proud that he saw himself more than all creatures enriched with spiritual riches, and therefore said: “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God... I will be like the Most High” (Is. 14:13-14). Just as poverty humbles a husband (Prov. 10:4), so wealth, collected through unrighteousness, exalts him. “Do not be surprised,” says Blessed Jerome, “that the proud one exalts himself above everyone else; this is because pride was born in Heaven, but with its parent it was cast down to hell.” And if we lead an angelic life, but do not drive pride out of our hearts, then we will be cast into the very bottom of hell...

Many, and perhaps all of us, are called pious only in name, but in reality we are wicked: we harbor anger at each other, we boast of the Orthodox faith and trust in this faith, but we have no good deeds; Moreover, we don’t even know what good deeds are... What is this if not just superstition? These are the snares with which the devil ensnares us, like a roaring lion that goes about seeking someone to devour... (1 Pet. 5:8). Listen to what Saint Chrysostom says: “If someone lives in the right faith, but does not stop doing evil, even the right faith will not save him from eternal torment.” We can pursue our brother and drive him from place to place, like children chasing a head of water, but through this we ourselves will not receive the Kingdom of Heaven. We can slander him, hurting him with our tongue, like a two-edged sword, but the Lord will cut off the necks of sinners by beheading [sending] torments.

So terrible is the sin of slander and slander against one’s brother. Truly, every slanderer commits spiritual murder. True, slander and slander cannot denigrate us in the eyes of God, and this is the only consolation for those who have fallen under slander; but it often happens that cowardice suppresses the slandered and casts him into the abyss of eternal destruction.

This is what happened in the convent of St. Pachomius. A lay tailor, having crossed the Nile River, on the banks of which there was a monastery, was looking for a job. One of the younger virgins, leaving the monastery for some reason, happened to meet him (the place was deserted) and told him: “We have our own tailors. Another sister saw this meeting and after some time, having quarreled with that sister, she slandered her in front of the sisters about that meeting. Some who did not wish harm to their sister joined the slanderer. This woman, unable to bear the shame of having been subjected to such slander when sin had never even crossed her mind, out of sadness secretly threw herself into the river and drowned herself. The slanderer could not bear this either: having come to her senses, she saw that out of malice she had slandered and ruined her, and she herself died from despair. When the presbyter came to the monastery, the sisters told him about what had happened. And he forbade commemoration of the criminals, and excommunicated others who knew the matter and did not persuade the slanderer, but still believed her words, from communion for seven years.

So harmful are the consequences of slander and slander! Guard yourself, my friends, from slander and slander, fear this sin, lest the devil, through this sin, steal our soul and make the path of earthly life vain and detrimental to eternal life. Christ our Savior, seeing how the devil was catching the human world with various nets, took pity on people and sent His apostles from catching fish to catching human souls...

We are verbal fish; Let us not, brethren, run from the net of Christ, that is, from the teaching of the Church of Christ, so as not to complain about ourselves later on the day of blessed reward to each according to his deeds, as it is said: everyone will either be glorified or ashamed by his own deeds.

Let us cast the net of our reasoning even further - into the depths of our conscience. Alas! Our nets are being broken through by a multitude of vermin, there is no number of them, vipers small and great - our sins, which gnaw and will gnaw at our hearts for all eternity, if we do not repent, if we do not wash them away with tears, if we do not reward our brother for the offense, inflicted on him, if we do not return what was stolen by untruth, if we do not heal the wounds of our conscience with the holy communion of the blood of Christ...

Oh, how strong are these snares of the devil! How tight it is! How cunning are his machinations that only the cross of Christ can cut them apart! A greedy, selfish man dares to steal even from the holy throne and at the same time calms himself: “After all, I will repent of everything, find myself some deaf or sick old confessor and confess to him... Is this repentance?.. This is how we ourselves We weave nets for ourselves with which the devil ensnares us. It’s about ourselves that we have to complain. Just as fishermen catch dumb fish after muddying the water, so the devil catches us in the nets of this vain world, only we ourselves help him, darkening within ourselves the light of reason, the light of the fear of God.

Christ our Savior, “who are wise fishermen of phenomena”! Deliver us from the snares of the devil - from the snares of this world, from our own snares that we weave for ourselves when we say that I have a wife, children, friends; You have to take care of them so that you don’t feel ashamed in front of others, but where can you get what? I don’t want to work, I’m ashamed to ask... Oh, how often we try to deceive our conscience with such reasoning and ourselves, like a foolish bird, like a dumb fish, fall into the devil’s net!.. Oh, if we listened to the word of Christ the Savior, then we would not would fall into these networks! And He says: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you!” (Matt. 6:33). Amen.

Hieromartyr Thaddeus (Uspensky) (1872-1937)

Hieromartyr Thaddeus (in the world Ivan Vasilyevich Uspensky) was born in the village of Naruksovo, Lukoyanovsky district, Nizhny Novgorod province, into the family of a priest.

In 1892, after graduating from the Nizhny Novgorod Seminary, Ivan Vasilyevich entered the Moscow Theological Academy. Here he became close and subsequently became friends with the Rector of the Academy, Archimandrite Anthony Khrapovitsky.

After graduating from the Moscow Theological Academy with a candidate's degree in theology, Ivan Vasilyevich was retained as a professorial fellow.

In 1898 he was tonsured a monk with the name Thaddeus. In the same year, he was ordained to the rank of hierodeacon, and then hieromonk, and appointed teacher of logic, psychology, philosophy and didactics at the Smolensk Theological Seminary. A year later, Hieromonk Thaddeus was transferred to the position of inspector of the Minsk Theological Seminary and appointed teacher of the Holy Scriptures in the 5th grade.

In 1902, Hieromonk Thaddeus was elevated to the rank of archimandrite and appointed to the post of inspector of the Ufa Theological Seminary. A few months later, Archimandrite Thaddeus was appointed to the position of Rector of the Olonets Theological Seminary. Now his responsibilities included teaching and managing the seminary, as well as editing the Olonets Diocesan Gazette, in which he published materials from the local diocesan chronicle.

In 1908, in the city of Vladimir-Volynsk, the Nativity of Christ Monastery took place the consecration of Archimandrite Thaddeus as Bishop of Vladimir-Volynsk.

In September 1916, Bishop Thaddeus was transferred to the Vladikavkaz See due to the illness of Bishop Antonin (Granovsky) of Vladikavkaz. Bishop Thaddeus's stay in Vladikavkaz made an indelible impression on his flock. Bishop Thaddeus tirelessly taught them the meaning of the Christian calling and how one can be saved through the Orthodox faith.

In 1917, after the destruction of Russian statehood, Volyn was occupied either by the Germans, or by the Poles, or by the Petliurites. In 1919, Archbishop Evlogy (Georgievsky) left the diocese and went abroad, and Bishop Thaddeus became the ruling bishop of the Volyn diocese. Plunged into all the horrors of occupation, civil strife and destruction, he spiritually nourished and supported his flock of thousands. For the population of Zhitomir, his sermons were a great consolation.

In 1921, during the destruction of the rebel movement in Volyn, he was arrested by security officers. After a lengthy trial, Vladyka was sent to the disposal of Patriarch Tikhon with the right to reside in Western Siberia.

Patriarch Tikhon elevated Bishop Thaddeus to the rank of archbishop and blessed him to go to Astrakhan, appointing him to the Astrakhan See. But the GPU on Bolshaya Lubyanka forbade him to leave Moscow until his case arrived from Kharkov.

In 1922, Archbishop Thaddeus was arrested and accused of distributing messages illegally published by Metropolitan Agathangel and of being hostile to Soviet power. From Moscow he was transferred to prison in Vladimir.

In 1928, Vladyka was appointed to Tver, where he carried out his archpastoral obedience until his martyrdom.

In 1937, Archbishop Thaddeus was arrested by the NKVD and accused of organizing counter-revolutionary activities. The ruler was drowned in a pit of sewage.

On the day of the feast of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God, the remains of the great Russian saint Archbishop Thaddeus were found, and in 1997 the Council of Bishops canonized the Hieromartyr Thaddeus.

Hieromartyr Thaddeus (Uspensky) devoted an important place to preaching in his archpastoral service. The archbishop spoke teachings at every liturgy, from the depths of his soul he wore out that patristic spirit of the saints and prayer books that lived in him, his every word was filled with it. He prepared for sermons in advance and very carefully. He usually wrote them on a small piece of paper, and since his handwriting was beady small, the entire text fit on such a piece of paper. During the sermon, Vladyka occasionally looked into it. Every Wednesday he read an akathist to the holy noble prince Mikhail of Tver and conducted conversations with Thaddeus (Uspensky), the holy martyr. Creations. Book 1. Sermons. - Tver: From Bulat, 2002. P. 16. His sermons are distinguished by sincerity, edification and simplicity. For twenty years Vladyka was constantly persecuted, and then tortured. But all his sermons during these years of persecution, exile and prison were filled with special spiritual joy.

Word from Bishop Thaddeus for Easter

From the words of St. John Chrysostom read on Easter and from the inspired hymns compiled by St. John of Damascus in the canon for Easter, you see, brethren, to what celebration and meal the Holy Church now calls her children - she calls everyone to enjoy the “feast of faith,” that is, the victorious triumph of “death.” mortification and hellish destruction”, invites everyone to drink “new beer”, drinking spiritual joy, having risen from the tomb of Christ, to begin a meal at which we offer the Lamb slain for the sins of the world, Christ (and we know that in various places Christians begin to this meal on the very day of Easter in order to aggravate the triumph of this holiday for yourself).

So, do not rush, brother, to leave this joyful meal as soon as possible in order to turn to earthly carnal joys and pleasures, least of all now, when an abundant spiritual meal is offered; It is proper to “do good things that are dying,” that is, to take a lot of care of it, to give your whole heart to the joy and joys of earth. Meanwhile, unfortunately, we see that many Christians on this day hasten to leave spiritual joy in honor of the risen Lord and turn to earthly pleasures: they do not want to defend even the most important divine service - the liturgy - on the greatest of Christian holidays. What? Is it really, brother, that you fasted for this purpose - if you only fasted - and curbed your passions during the fast, so that after the last one you could give them even greater freedom? Is it really for this reason that you were led into the joy of the resurrection, so that on holy days you could devote yourself most of all to carnal, sometimes very coarse, pleasures? Yesterday you sang together with the Holy Church: “Let all human flesh be silent, and let it stand with fear and trembling, and let it think of nothing earthly within itself” - has now really come the time for the flesh to cry out and be silent to the spirit, to think only about earthly things? During the days of Holy Week, the Holy Church, through the Gospel and other readings or hymns, depicted before your mind’s eye the sufferings of Christ: beatings, striking the cheeks, spitting, the crown of thorns, the crucifixion on the Cross, etc., which was committed by Christ to mortify your passions - now Or, when you sing: “Yesterday I was buried in You, Christ (that is, I died for the passions), I am buried today,” the time has come to revive the passions and die again in spirit, unless you remembered the passions of Christ with an indifferent coldness of heart, or, if a little starting off, then immediately forgetting again? After all, if with sincere love for the Divine Sufferer, as if “buried in Christ,” you listened to the Gospel stories, readings and church hymns during the days of Holy Week, thereby perceiving into yourself the rich treasures of the incorruptible spiritual life of Christ, then your spirit could not to contain within oneself the outbursts of spiritual delight on the day of resurrection, just as the tomb of Christ could not contain the Source of life. Don’t you already want to seal your heart for these impulses, just as the Jews sealed the coffin, thinking to hide the Life of everyone in it? Instead of coming to life in spirit on this day, when Life has shone forth from the very tomb, don’t you want to make your heart a tomb, filled with the corruption of carnal passions that kill the life of the spirit?

So, brethren, let us listen to the touching call of the risen Christ, which He addresses to us through the word of the prophet, which we heard yesterday: “Be patient with Me, says the Lord, on the day of My resurrection” (Zeph. 3:8) - if the infirmities of the flesh suppress impulses too much high spiritual joy and prevent us from glorifying the risen Christ with the zeal of love, then at least we will tolerate Him on the day of resurrection, and if we cannot all the days, then at least until that time, as long as the Holy Church continues to glorify Him! We strive to be with Him as long as possible, to “hold Him,” as the Emmaus travelers did, whose hearts burned from a sweet conversation with the Lord who appeared to them along the way (Luke 24:29-32); Let us at least for a while reject those earthly pleasures, especially the coarse, carnal ones, which drive out from the heart the sweet feeling of love for Christ and the desire to continually be with Him! Amen.

Bishop Gregory (Lebedev) (1878-1937)

Bishop Gregory (Alexander Alekseevich Lebedev) was born in Kolomna, Moscow province, into the family of a priest. Alexander's childhood years were spent in the Kolomna Assumption Brusensky Convent.

Alexander received his primary education at the Kolomna Theological School, where his brilliant abilities were discovered. After graduating from college, the young man entered the local Theological Seminary, standing out here for his seriousness and abilities. The rector of the seminary appointed him as charterer and canonist until the very end of his studies. Here at the seminary he became close to a group of students inclined to deeply study religious and philosophical problems.

In 1898, Alexander Alekseevich entered the Kazan Theological Academy. After graduating from the academy with the first category, he was appointed by the Holy Synod to the position of teacher at the Simbirsk Theological Seminary.

With serious and enthusiastic lessons, the young teacher quickly attracted the attention of students to homiletics. He tirelessly led clubs where students learned to prepare sermon plans and notes on a wide variety of topics. He taught future preachers to deliver sermons - improvisations. Bishop Gregory (Lebedev) called them to inspired pastoral service in the name of the salvation of human souls. Sermons. “The Good News of the Holy Evangelist Mark” (Spiritual Reflections). Letters to spiritual children. M.: Publishing house "Father's House". 1996. P. 4.. Along with reading the holy fathers, Alexander Alekseevich also advised reading Russian classical literature, considering it necessary for a church preacher.

After working in Simbirsk for four years, Alexander Alekseevich moved to Moscow, where he again devoted himself to teaching work in the Cadet Corps of the 3rd Gymnasium.

In 1921, he took monastic vows in the Zosimov Hermitage in the Vladimir province with the name Gregory. At the monastery, the monk Gregory was ordained a hierodeacon, a hieromonk, and later received the rank of archimandrite.

In 1923, Archimandrite Gregory was ordained bishop by His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon to the suffragan See of Shlisselburg and at the same time appointed vicar of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

His ministry began at a difficult time for the Church. The church ship was shaken by many schismatic organizations, primarily renovationism. It was necessary to preserve the purity of Orthodoxy and with fiery pastoral burning to reveal to everyone the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit.

His heartfelt, reverent services and brilliant gift as a preacher earned him enormous popularity and deep love among the Petrograd flock. In personal communication, Vladyka was surprisingly gentle and condescending towards people.

During a difficult period for the Church, when the conflict between Metropolitan Sergius and Metropolitan Joseph finally matured, Vladyka Gregory retired. He did not accept the policies of Metropolitan Sergius, but also did not join Joseph. During the five years of his service at the department, Bishop Gregory was arrested three times for false slander.

Having left Leningrad in 1928, Vladyka settled first in his native Kolomna, and then in Kashin, where he lived until his arrest in the summer of 1937, after which his trace was lost in the labyrinth of the Gulag. Later it became known that Vladyka was shot on September 17.

After the martyrdom of Bishop Gregory (Lebedev), many of his sermons remained. All his sermons were copied by believers and passed on to each other for reading. Vladyka Gregory based his sermons on the Holy Scriptures. Each of his sermons is distinguished by extraordinary liveliness, simplicity and vitality so that it is read in one breath. To reveal this or that gospel theme in his sermon, Vladyka gave living, very vivid examples.

Theological writings and sermons testify to Bishop Gregory as a remarkable preacher - a homilet. His sermons still retain their apologetic value and persuasive power.

Word for St. Valentine's Day apostles Peter and Paul

Brethren, today I address you with a farewell speech and tell you in the words of the Apostle Paul: “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God is for Israel for salvation” (Rom. 10:1). Both my desire and my prayer for you to God is that everything will be for the salvation of your souls.

Many thoughts appear in my mind, but now my thought has settled on that holiday, on those faces that we glorify, on the faith of the holy apostles Peter and Paul. The desire of my heart is that you have no other thoughts and feelings other than the thought of imitating these apostles, the guardians of your temple and city.

Human salvation consists of two components: God and man. Just as a person cannot be saved without God’s help, so God cannot save a person without himself. As soon as one of these terms is violated, the correctness of a person’s salvation is violated. Let's see where this unity of terms is violated and how this is expressed.

First, God is in the background. True, your faith has not yet disappeared, you have not forgotten God, you go to church, but purely according to the stencil - you do not have a feeling of the living God. God has not left this life yet, but He stands behind. While everything is going well for a person, until he is “hit” either by the loss of loved ones or by material deprivation, he will not turn to God with a prayer for help. The feeling of the closeness of God, His constant presence, His care for you - everything that a simple layman had in the past has been lost. Then, no matter what he did, no matter what he started, he always called on God.

How does the loss of the sense of the living God manifest itself?

The fact is that you are ashamed to be baptized, ashamed to have large icons in your houses, and replace them with small, barely noticeable ones.

They removed the crosses from their necks. Look how many people wear crosses openly?

That's nothing yet. All this is filled with remorse, prayer, and sighs. But it will be even worse... Don’t think that I want to expose you. No, accept this as a fatherly edification, as my last testament to you. I began by praising your faith and let it remain in my memories as I saw it for the first time.

Brethren, when I was here for the first time, four years ago, I saw a huge upsurge of faith among you, which I clearly felt. Now I feel that your faith has cooled and weakened. Some have experienced some kind of cooling, insensibility, indifference, while others, although there is an upsurge, are of some kind of painful nature. Why is this?

You, of course, remember the story about the Gadarene demoniac, whom the Lord healed, and the demons from whom, by God’s command, entered a herd of pigs, which rushed into the sea and drowned. The inhabitants of that country heard about this, and after that they all, of course, went to Jesus Christ.

What would you do if even an angel from heaven or a prophet performing miracles appeared among you? How would you greet him? You would probably fall at his feet asking him to heal you. How did the Gadarenes who came to Him greet the Lord? They said: "Get away from us." And your souls, having lost a living sense of God, come to such a state that they say to God: “Get away from us,” and even any reminder of Him arouses anger. We have heard more than once the phrases: “Put out the lamp” or “What are you doing with the priests?” These phrases are an indicator of how the mere mention of God has become hateful to these people.

Let us think, however, about that last time, when we will all appear in judgment, when the doors will be closed, and to our call, that we also called on the name of the Lord, the answer will follow: “We do not know you,” and this means that he who calls on the name of God the stencil, out of habit, having lost the living sense of God, will not enter the Kingdom of God.

Let us pray to the holy Apostle Peter that he would open the gates of the Kingdom of God for us, and that the Apostle Paul would take us with him to the third heaven. Amen.

Painting at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries

Russian artistic culture of the late 19th – early 20th centuries is usually called the “Silver Age” by analogy with the golden age of Pushkin’s time, when the ideals of bright harmony triumphed in creativity. The Silver Age was also marked by a rise in all areas of culture - philosophy, poetry, theatrical activity, fine arts, but the mood of bright harmony disappeared. Artists, sensitively capturing the mood of fear before the advent of the machine age, the horrors of world war and revolution, are trying to find new forms of expressing the beauty of the world. At the turn of the century, there was a gradual transformation of reality with the help of various artistic systems, a gradual “dematerialization” of form.

The artist and critic A. Benoit wrote at the beginning of the twentieth century that even representatives of his generation “still have to fight because their elders did not want to teach them in their works what can only be taught - the mastery of forms, lines and colors. After all, the content that our fathers insisted on is from God. Our times are also looking for content... but now by content we understand something infinitely broader than their socio-pedagogical ideas.”

Artists of the new generation strove for a new pictorial culture in which the aesthetic principle predominated. Form was proclaimed the mistress of painting. According to the critic S. Makovsky, “the cult of nature was replaced by the cult of style, the meticulousness of near-personality was replaced by bold pictorial generalization or graphic acuity, a strict adherence to plot content was replaced by free eclecticism, with a tendency toward decoration, magic, and the smokiness of historical memories.”

Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov (1865–1911) was the artist who, at the turn of the century, combined the traditional realistic school with new creative quests. He was given only 45 years of life, but he managed to do an extraordinary amount. Serov was the first to look for what was “pleasant” in Russian art, freed painting from its essential ideological content (“Girl with Peaches”), and in his creative quests went from impressionism (“Girl Illuminated by the Sun”) to the Art Nouveau style (“The Rape of Europe”). . Serov was the best portrait painter among his contemporaries; he possessed, in the words of the composer and art critic B. Asafiev, “the magical power of revealing someone else’s soul.”

A brilliant innovator who paved new paths for Russian art was Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel (1856–1910). He believed that the task of art is to awaken the human soul “from the trifles of everyday life with majestic images.” In Vrubel one cannot find a single subject painting related to earthly, everyday themes. He preferred to “float” above the earth or transport the viewer to the “far away kingdom” (“Pan”, “The Swan Princess”). His decorative panels (“Faust”) marked the formation of a national version of the Art Nouveau style in Russia. Throughout his life, Vrubel was obsessed with the image of the Demon - a certain symbolic embodiment of the restless creative spirit, a kind of spiritual self-portrait of the artist himself. Between “The Seated Demon” and “The Defeated Demon” his entire creative life passed. A. Benoit called Vrubel “a beautiful fallen angel,” “for whom the world was endless joy and endless torment, for whom human society was both fraternally close and hopelessly far.”

When the first work of Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov (1862–1942) “The Vision of the Youth Bartholomew” was shown at the exhibition, a deputation of senior Itinerants came to P. Tretyakov, who bought the painting, with a request to refuse to purchase this “unrealistic” canvas for the gallery. The Wanderers were confused by the halo around the monk’s head - an inappropriate, in their opinion, combination of two worlds in one picture: the earthly and the otherworldly. Nesterov knew how to convey the “bewitching horror of the supernatural” (A. Benois), turned his face to the legendary, Christian history of Rus', lyrically transformed nature in wondrous landscapes, full of delight before the “earthly paradise”.

Konstantin Alekseevich Korovin (1861–1939) is called “Russian Impressionist”. The Russian version of impressionism differs from Western European in its greater temperament and lack of methodological rationality. Korovin's talent mainly developed in theatrical and decorative painting. In the field of easel painting, he created relatively few paintings that are striking in their boldness of strokes and subtlety in the development of color (“Cafe in Yalta”, etc.)

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, many artistic associations arose in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Each of them proclaimed their own understanding of “beauty.” What all these groups had in common was a protest against the aesthetic doctrine of the Wanderers. At one pole of the quest was the refined aestheticism of the St. Petersburg association “World of Art,” which arose in 1898. The innovation of Muscovites—representatives of the Blue Rose, the Union of Russian Artists, and others—developed in a different direction.

The artists of the “World of Art” declared freedom from “moral teachings and regulations”, liberated Russian art from “ascetic chains”, and turned to the exquisite, refined beauty of the artistic form. S. Makovsky aptly called these artists “retrospective dreamers.” The picturesquely beautiful in their art was most often identified with antiquity. The head of the association was Alexander Nikolaevich Benois (1870–1960), a brilliant artist and critic. His artistic taste and mentality gravitated toward the country of his ancestors, France (“The King’s Walk”). The greatest masters of the association were Evgeny Evgenievich Lanceray (1875–1946) with his love for the decorative splendor of past eras (“Elizaveta Petrovna in Tsarskoye Selo”), the poet of old St. Petersburg Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky (1875–1957), the mocking, ironic and sad Konstantin Andreevich Somov ( 1869–1939), “wise poisonous esthete” (according to K. Petrov-Vodkin) Lev Samoilovich Bakst (1866–1924).

If the innovators of the “World of Art” took a lot from European culture, then in Moscow the process of renewal proceeded with an orientation towards national, folk traditions. In 1903, the “Union of Russian Artists” was established, which included Abram Efimovich Arkhipov (1862–1930), Sergei Arsenievich Vinogradov (1869–1938), Stanislav Yulianovich Zhukovsky (1875–1944), Sergei Vasilyevich Ivanov (1864–1910), Philip Andreevich Malyavin (1869–1940), Nikolai Konstantinovich Roerich (1874–1947), Arkady Aleksandrovich Rylov (1870–1939), Konstantin Fedorovich Yuon (1875–1958). The leading role in this association belonged to Muscovites. They defended the rights of national themes, continued the traditions of Levitan’s “mood landscape” and Korovin’s sophisticated colorism. Asafiev recalled that at the exhibitions of the Union there was an atmosphere of creative cheerfulness: “light, fresh, bright, clear”, “the picturesque breathed everywhere”, “not rational inventions, but the warmth, the intelligent vision of the artist” prevailed.

In 1907, an exhibition of the association with the intriguing name “Blue Rose” took place in Moscow. The leader of this circle was Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov (1878–1968), who was close to the image of an unsteady, elusive world filled with otherworldly symbols (“Still Life”). Another prominent representative of this association, Viktor Borisov-Musatov (1870–1905), was called “Orpheus of elusive beauty” by critics for his desire to capture the vanishing romance of landscape parks with ancient architecture. His paintings are inhabited by strange, ghostly images of women in ancient robes - like elusive shadows of the past (“Pond”, etc.).

At the turn of the 10s of the twentieth century, a new stage in the development of Russian art began. In 1912, an exhibition of the “Jack of Diamonds” society took place. “Valve of Diamonds” Pyotr Petrovich Konchalovsky (1876–1956), Alexander Vasilyevich Kuprin (1880–1960), Aristarkh Vasilyevich Lentulov (1841–1910), Ilya Ivanovich Mashkov (1881–1944), Robert Rafailovich Falk (1886–1958) turned to experience the latest trends in French art (Cézanneism, Cubism, Fauvism). They attached special importance to the “tangible” texture of colors and their pathetic sonority. The art of the “Jack of Diamonds,” as D. Sarabyanov aptly put it, has a “heroic character”: these artists were in love not with the foggy reflections of the otherworldly, but with the juicy and viscous earthly flesh (P. Konchalovsky. “Dry Paints”).

The work of Marc Zakharovich Chagall (1887–1985) stands apart among all the movements of the beginning of the century. With an amazing scope of imagination, he adopted and mixed all possible “-isms”, developing his own, unique style. His images are immediately recognizable: they are phantasmogorical, outside the power of gravity (“The Green Violinist”, “Lovers”).

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the first exhibitions of ancient Russian icons “revealed” by restorers took place, and their pristine beauty became a real discovery for artists. The motifs of ancient Russian painting and its stylistic techniques were used in his work by Kuzma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin (1878–1939). In his paintings, the refined aesthetics of the West and the ancient Russian artistic tradition miraculously coexist. Petrov-Vodkin introduced a new concept of “spherical perspective” - the elevation of everything that appears on earth into a planetary dimension (“Bathing the Red Horse”, “Morning Still Life”).

Artists of the early twentieth century, as Makovsky put it, were looking for “rebirth at the very springs” and turned to the tradition of primitive folk art. The largest representatives of this trend were Mikhail Fedorovich Larionov (1881–1964) and Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova (1881–1962). Their works are filled with gentle humor and magnificent, finely-tuned color perfection.

In 1905, the famous figure of the Silver Age, founder of the World of Art, S. Diaghilev, uttered prophetic words: “We are witnesses of the greatest historical moment of results and ends in the name of a new unknown culture that will arise by us, but will sweep us away...” Indeed, in 1913 In the same year, Larionov’s “Rayism” was published - the first manifesto of the non-objective in art in our art, and a year later the book “On the Spiritual in Art” by Vasily Vasilyevich Kandinsky (1866–1944) was published. The avant-garde appears on the historical stage, freeing painting “from material shackles” (W. Kandinsky). The inventor of Suprematism Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (1878–1935) explained this process this way: “I transformed myself into a zero form and caught myself out of the whirlpool of rubbish of academic art<…>got out of the circle of things<…>in which the artist and the forms of nature are contained.”

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, Russian art followed the same path of development as Western European art, only in a more “compressed” form. According to the critic N. Radlov, the pictorial content “first pushed aside and then destroyed the other content of the picture.<…>In this form, the art of painting merged into a system that undoubtedly had deep analogies with music.” Artistic creativity began to be reduced to an abstract play with colors, and the term “easel architecture” appeared. Thus, the avant-garde contributed to the birth of modern design.

Makovsky, who closely observed the artistic process of the Silver Age, once remarked: “Democratization was not in fashion on aesthetic towers. The promoters of refined Europeanism did not care about the uninitiated crowd. Indulging in their superiority... the “initiates” squeamishly avoided the streets and the fugitive factory back streets.” Most of the leaders of the Silver Age did not notice how the world war escalated into the October Revolution...

APOLLINARY VASNETSOV. Messengers. Early morning in the Kremlin.1913. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Apollinary Vasnetsov was an artist-archaeologist, an expert on old Moscow. This work is part of the “Time of Troubles” series, which tells what Moscow might have looked like during the famous historical events of the early 17th century. Vasnetsov creates a kind of archaeological reconstruction of the Kremlin, which at that time was closely built up with stone and wooden chambers of the court nobility, filling it with the poetic atmosphere of old Moscow. Riders rush along the narrow wooden pavement of the morning Kremlin, which has not yet woken up from sleep, and their haste is dissonant with the frozen, “enchanted” kingdom of picturesque towers with elegant porches, small chapels and painted gates. The messengers look back, as if someone is pursuing them, and this gives rise to a feeling of anxiety, a premonition of future misfortunes.

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. The Virgin and Child.1884–1885. Image in the iconostasis of the St. Cyril Church, Kyiv

Vrubel worked on the painting of the St. Cyril Church under the guidance of the scientist and archaeologist A. Prakhov. Most of the planned compositions remained only in sketches. One of the few realized images, “The Virgin and Child,” was painted during the artist’s stay in Venice, where he became acquainted with the monumental grandeur of Byzantine temple paintings. Sensitively grasping the main stylistic foundations of the Byzantine tradition, Vrubel fills the image of the Mother of God with sorrowful suffering and at the same time intense will. In the eyes of the Baby Jesus there is an inhuman insight into his own destiny. The artist M. Nesterov wrote that Vrubel’s Mother of God “is unusually original, attractive, but the main thing is a wonderful, strict harmony of lines and colors.”

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. Demon sitting.1890. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

According to Vrubel, “Demon means “soul” and personifies the eternal struggle of the restless human spirit, seeking reconciliation of the passions overwhelming it, knowledge of life and not finding an answer to its doubts either on earth or in heaven.” A mighty Demon sits on the top of a mountain in the middle of mysterious, endless outer space. Hands are closed in languid inaction. A mournful tear rolls down from his huge eyes. To the left, an alarming sunset blazes in the distance. Fantastic flowers made of multi-colored crystals seem to bloom around the powerfully sculpted figure of the Demon. Vrubel works like a monumentalist - not with a brush, but with a palette knife; he paints with broad strokes that resemble cubes of mosaic smalt. This painting became a kind of spiritual self-portrait of the artist, endowed with unique creative abilities, but unrecognized and restless.

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. Portrait of S. I. Mamontov.

Savva Ivanovich Mamontov (1841–1918), a famous industrialist and philanthropist, did a lot to establish and support Vrubel. Vrubel lived in his hospitable house after moving from Kyiv to Moscow, and subsequently became an active participant in the Abramtsevo circle, which was formed on Mamontov’s Abramtsevo estate. In the tragic intonations of the portrait there is a prophetic foresight of Mamontov’s future fate. In 1899, he was accused of embezzlement during the construction of the Severodonetsk railway. The court acquitted him, but the industrialist was ruined. In the portrait, he seems to have recoiled in fear, pressed himself into a chair, his piercingly anxious face tense. An ominous black shadow on the wall carries a premonition of tragedy. The most striking “visionary” detail of the portrait is the figurine of a mourner above the head of the patron.

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. Portrait of K. D. Artsybushev.1897. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Konstantin Dmitrievich Artsybushev was a process engineer, railway builder, relative and friend of S.I. Mamontov. In the spring of 1896, Vrubel lived in his house on Sadovaya Street; It was probably then that this portrait was painted, which wonderfully conveys the image of a man of intellectual labor. Artsybushev’s concentrated face bears the stamp of intense thoughts, the fingers of his right hand rest on the page of the book. The office environment is depicted strictly and realistically. In this portrait, Vrubel appears as a brilliant student of the famous teacher of the Academy of Arts P. Chistyakov - an expert in superbly drawn forms and architecturally verified composition. Only in the broad strokes of the brush, emphasizing the generalized monumentalism of the form, is the originality of Vrubel recognized - a virtuoso stylist and monumentalist.

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. Flight of Faust and Mephistopheles.Decorative panel for a Gothic office in the house of A.V. Morozov in Moscow. 1896. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

For the office in the house of A.V. Morozov, built according to the design of the architect F.O. Shekhtel in 1895 on Vvedenensky (now Podsosensky) Lane in Moscow, Vrubel made several panels, the subjects for which were the motives of the tragedy of I.-V. Goethe's "Faust" and the opera of the same name by C. Gounod. Initially, the artist executed three narrow vertical panels “Mephistopheles and the Disciple”, “Faust in the Study” and “Margarita in the Garden” and one large, almost square, “Faust and Margarita in the Garden”. Later, already in Switzerland, he created the panel “The Flight of Faust and Mephistopheles,” which was placed above the door of a Gothic office.

This work by Vrubel is one of the most perfect works of Russian modernism. The artist flattens the space, stylizes the lines, turning them into marvelous ornamental patterns, united by a single rhythm. The colorful range is reminiscent of a slightly faded antique tapestry shimmering with precious silver.

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. Pan.

The hero of ancient myths, the goat-footed god of forests and fields, Pan, fell in love with a beautiful nymph and rushed after her, but she, not wanting to get to him, turned into a reed. From this reed Pan made a pipe, which he never parted with, playing a gentle, sad melody on it. In Vrubel’s painting, Pan is not at all scary - he resembles the Russian crafty goblin. The embodiment of the spirit of nature, he himself seems to be created from natural material. His gray hair resembles whitish moss, his goat's legs covered with long hair are like an old stump, and the cold blue of his sly eyes seem to be saturated with the cool water of a forest stream.

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. Portrait of N. I. Zabela-Vrubel.1898. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The singer Nadezhda Ivanovna Zabela-Vrubel (1868–1913) was not only the wife, but also the muse of the great master. Vrubel was in love with her voice - a beautiful soprano, designed almost all the performances of the Russian Private Opera of S.I. Mamontov with her participation, and designed costumes for stage images.

In the portrait she is depicted in a dress designed by Vrubel in the “Empire” style. The complex multi-layered draperies of the dress shine through one another and billow with numerous folds. The head is crowned with a fluffy hat-cap. Moving, sharp long strokes transform the plane of the canvas into a lush fantasy tapestry, so that the singer’s personality escapes in this beautiful decorative flow.

Zabela took care of Vrubel until his death and constantly visited him in a psychiatric hospital.

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. Swan Princess.

This painting is a stage portrait of N. Zabela in the role of the Swan Princess in N. Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Tale of Tsar Saltan.” She swims past us on the gloomy sea and, turning around, casts an alarming farewell glance. A metamorphosis is about to take place before our eyes - the beauty’s thin, curved hand will turn into a long swan neck.

Vrubel himself came up with an amazingly beautiful costume for the role of the Swan Princess. Precious stones sparkle in the silver lace of a luxurious crown, and rings glitter on the fingers. The pearlescent colors of the painting are reminiscent of the musical motifs of the sea from Rimsky-Korsakov’s operas. “I can hear the orchestra endlessly, especially the sea.

Every time I find new charm in it, I see some fantastic tones,” said Vrubel.

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. By the night.1900. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The painting was painted based on impressions from walks in the steppe near the Ukrainian farm of Pliski, where Vrubel often visited his wife’s relatives. The mystery of the night turns an ordinary landscape into a fantastic vision. Like torches, the red heads of thistles flash in the darkness, its leaves intertwine, reminiscent of an exquisite decorative pattern. The reddish glow of the sunset turns the horses into mythical creatures and the shepherd into a satyr. “Dear young man, come to study with me. I will teach you to see the fantastic in reality, like photography, like Dostoevsky,” the artist said to one of his students.

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. Lilac.1900. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Vrubel also found this motif at the Pliski farm. The image of a lush lilac bush was born from field observations, but in the picture it is transformed into a mysterious purple sea that trembles and shimmers in many shades. The sad girl hiding in the thickets looks like some kind of mythological creature, a lilac fairy who, appearing at dusk, will disappear in a moment in these lush scatterings of strange flowers. Probably, O. Mandelstam wrote about this painting by Vrubel: “The artist depicted a deep fainting lilac for us...”

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. Bogatyr.1898–1899. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Initially, Vrubel called the painting “Ilya Muromets”. The main, invincible hero of the epic epic is depicted by the artist as the embodiment of the mighty elements of the Russian land. The powerful figure of the hero seems to be carved from a stone rock, shimmering with the edges of precious crystals. His heavy horse, like a mountain ledge, “grew” into the ground. Young pines circle around the hero in a round dance, about which Vrubel said that he wanted to express the words of the epic: “A little higher than a standing forest, A little lower than a walking cloud.” In the distance, behind the dark forest, the glow of sunset blazes - night falls to the ground with its deceptions, mysteries and anxious expectations...

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. Pearl.

“Everything is decorative and only decorative,” - this is how Vrubel formulated the principle of natural form-creation. He believed that the artist treats nature as a partner in form creation; he learns to create from it.

Two mysterious girls, naiad goddesses of streams and rivers, swim in a continuous round dance among the mother-of-pearl foam of a pearl and a scattering of precious crystals, in a silvery haze filled with a flickering radiance of reflections. It seems that this pearl reflects the entire Universe with the circular motion of the planets, the sparkle of many distant stars in the cosmic infinity of space...

With his arms crossed above his head, the Demon flies into a bottomless abyss, surrounded by royal peacock feathers, amid a majestic panorama of distant mountains... The deformation of the figure emphasizes the tragic fracture of a dying, broken soul. Being on the verge of a mental breakdown, Vrubel rewrote the Demon’s face, distorted by fear of the abyss, many times when the painting was already on display at the exhibition. According to the recollections of contemporaries, its color had a daring, defiant beauty - it sparkled with gold, silver, cinnabar, which became very dark over time. This picture is a kind of finale to the creative life of Vrubel, whom his contemporaries called “the crashed demon.”

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. The demon is defeated.Fragment

MIKHAIL NESTEROV. Hermit.1888–1889. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Nesterov was a mystically gifted person. In the world of Russian nature, he reveals the eternal beginning of Divine beauty and harmony. A very old man, a resident of the monastery desert (a remote secluded monastery), wanders early in the morning along the shore of the northern lake. The quiet autumn nature surrounding it is imbued with sublime, prayerful beauty. The mirror-like surface of the lake shines, the slender silhouettes of fir trees darken among the withered grass, revealing the smooth outlines of the shores and the distant slope. It seems that in this amazing “crystal” landscape there lives some kind of secret, something incomprehensible to earthly vision and consciousness. “In the hermit itself such a warm and deep trait of a peaceful person was found.<…>In general, the picture exudes amazing warmth,” wrote V. Vasnetsov.

MIKHAIL NESTEROV. Vision to the youth Bartholomew.1889–1890. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The idea for the painting arose from the artist in Abramtsevo, in places covered with the memory of the life and spiritual feat of Sergius of Radonezh. The life of Sergius (before he was tonsured his name was Bartholomew) says that as a child he was a shepherd. One day, while searching for missing horses, he saw a mysterious monk. The boy timidly approached him and asked him to pray that the Lord would help him learn to read and write. The monk fulfilled Bartholomew's request and predicted for him the fate of the great ascetic, the founder of monasteries. It’s as if two worlds meet in the picture. The fragile boy froze in awe of the monk, whose face we do not see; A halo shines above his head - a symbol of belonging to another world. He hands the boy an ark that looks like a model of a temple, foretelling his future path. The most remarkable thing in the picture is the landscape, in which Nesterov collected all the most typical features of the Russian plain. Each blade of grass is painted by the artist in such a way that one can feel his delight at the beauty of God's creation. “It seems as if the air is clouded with a thick Sunday gospel, as if a wondrous Easter song is flowing over this valley” (A. Benois).

MIKHAIL NESTEROV. Great tonsure.1897–1898. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Tenderly spiritual young women in white headscarves, who have decided to devote themselves to God, move surrounded by nuns in a leisurely procession in the lap of beautiful nature. They hold large candles in their hands, and they themselves are likened to burning candles - their snow-white scarves “flare up” with a white flame against the background of the monastic robes. In the spring landscape, everything breathes God's grace. The measured movement of women is repeated in the vertical rhythm of thin young birch trees, in the wavy outlines of distant hills. Nesterov wrote about this picture: “The theme is sad, but the regenerating nature, the Russian north, quiet and delicate (not the bravura south), makes the picture touching, at least for those who have a tender feeling...”

MIKHAIL NESTEROV. Silence.1903. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Boats with monks glide along the bright northern river among the forest banks. The enchanting silence of “primordial” nature reigns all around. It seems that time has stopped - these same boats sailed along the river many centuries ago, are sailing today and will sail tomorrow... This amazing landscape of “Holy Rus'” contains the entire philosophy of Nesterov, who guessed in it the religious depth of comprehension of the world, connecting, in the words criticism of S. Makovsky, “the spirituality of Slavic paganism with the dream of pagan deification of nature.”

MIKHAIL NESTEROV. "Amazon".1906. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

The portrait was painted in Ufa, in the artist’s native place, among nature, which he reverently loved. The artist’s daughter Olga in an elegant black riding suit (amazon) poses in the clear evening silence of the sunset, against the backdrop of the light mirror of the river. Before us is a beautiful frozen moment. Nesterov paints his beloved daughter in the bright time of her life - young and spiritual, the way he would like to remember her.

MIKHAIL NESTEROV. The youth of St. Sergius.1892–1897. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

This painting became a continuation of the cycle of paintings by Nesterov about the life of St. Sergius of Radonezh. In the wilderness of the forest, young Sergius, pressing his palms to his chest, as if listening to the breath of spring nature. The life of Sergius of Radonezh tells that neither birds nor animals were afraid of him. At the saint’s feet, like an obedient dog, lies the bear with whom Sergius shared his last piece of bread. From the forest thicket one can hear the melodious murmur of a stream, the rustle of leaves, the singing of birds... “The wonderful aromas of moss, young birch trees and fir trees merge into a single chord, very close to the mystical smell of incense,” admired A. Benoit. It is no coincidence that the artist initially called this painting “Glory to the Almighty on earth and in heaven.”

MIKHAIL NESTEROV. In Rus' (Soul of the People).1914–1916. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The painting depicts a collective image of the Russian people on the path to God. Along the bank of the Volga, near the Tsarev Kurgan, people are marching, among whom we recognize many historical characters. Here is the Tsar in ceremonial vestments and the Monomakh cap, and L. Tolstoy, and F. Dostoevsky, and the philosopher V. Solovyov... Each of the people, according to the artist, follows his own path of comprehending the Truth, “but everyone goes to the same thing, alone only in a hurry, others hesitating, some ahead, others behind, some joyfully, without doubt, others serious, thinking...” The semantic center of the picture becomes a fragile boy walking in front of the procession. His appearance brings to mind the words of the Gospel:

“Unless you become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). “As long as the picture satisfies me in many ways, there is life, action, the main idea seems clear (the Gospel text: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied”),” the artist wrote.

MIKHAIL NESTEROV. Philosophers.1917. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Nesterov was connected by personal friendship with Pavel Aleksandrovich Florensky (1882–1937) and Sergei Nikolaevich Bulgakov (1871–1944), the greatest thinkers, representatives of the heyday of Russian philosophy of the early twentieth century. He read their books, attended meetings of the Religious and Philosophical Society named after. V. Solovyov, where they performed, shared their spiritual guidelines. This portrait was painted in Abramtsevo on the eve of revolutionary changes in Russia. The theme of thinking about the future path of the Russian people sounded all the more insistently in him. Bulgakov recalled: “This was, according to the artist’s plan, not only a portrait of two friends... but also a spiritual vision of the era. For the artist, both faces represent the same comprehension, but in different ways, one of them as a vision of horror, the other as a world of joy, victorious overcoming.<…>It was an artistic clairvoyance of two images of the Russian apocalypse, on this side and on the other side of earthly existence, the first image in struggle and confusion (and in my soul it related specifically to the fate of my friend), the other to a defeated accomplishment...”

NICHOLAS ROERICH. Messenger. "Rise up generation after generation."1897. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Roerich was called the creator of a new genre - the historical landscape. The picture immerses the viewer in hoary antiquity not through the enticing plot, but through the special, almost mystical mood of historical time. On a moonlit night, a boat floats along the dark surface of the river. There are two people in the boat: a rower and an old man, immersed in heavy thoughts. In the distance is an alarming, homeless shore with a palisade and a wooden fort on a hill. Everything is filled with the peace of the night, but in this peace there seems to be tension, anxious expectation.

NICHOLAS ROERICH. Overseas guests.

The picture “breathes” the fabulous mythology of theatrical productions, in which Roerich the decorator participated a lot. Decorated boats float along the wide blue river, as if fairy-tale ships are flying across the sky, accompanied by the flight of white seagulls. From the ship's tents, overseas guests look out over foreign shores - a harsh northern land with settlements on top of the hills. The painting combines the enchanting charm of a fairy tale with historical details, the conventional decorativeness of color with a realistic spatial structure.

NICHOLAS ROERICH. Slavs on the Dnieper.1905. Cardboard, tempera. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Roerich, “bewitched” by the era of Slavic paganism, was unusually sensitive to comprehending its special, alarmingly mystical “aroma.” The landscape “Slavs on the Dnieper” is built according to the principles of a decorative panel: the artist flattens the space, sets the rhythm with repeating sails, boats, and huts. The color scheme is also conditional - it carries the emotional mood of the image, and not the real color of the object. Brown-red sails and light ocher huts stand out against the backdrop of lush greenery; People's shirts sparkle like the sun's glare.

NICHOLAS ROERICH. Panteleimon the healer.1916. Tempera on canvas. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The holy elder Panteleimon in Roerich’s painting is inseparable from the majestic deserted landscape. Green hills strewn with ancient stones draw the viewer into a dream of hoary antiquity, into memories of the origins of the people's destiny. According to the critic S. Makovsky, in the style of Roerich’s drawing “one can feel the pressure of a stone chisel.” With its sophistication of color combinations and fine detailing of individual details, the picture resembles a luxurious velvet carpet.

NICHOLAS ROERICH. Heavenly fight.1912. Cardboard, tempera. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Over the endless harsh northern landscape, where ancient dwellings nestle among lakes and hills, clouds crowd like grandiose ghosts. They run at each other, collide, retreat, making room for the bright blue sky. The celestial element as the embodiment of the divine spirit has always attracted the artist. Its land is ethereal and illusory, and true life occurs in the mysterious heights of heaven.

ANDREY RYABUSHKIN. Russian women of the 17th century in church.1899. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Against the background of bright patterned frescoes and colored stained glass windows, women stand opposite the iconostasis invisible to the viewer. Their heavily whitewashed, rouged mask faces express a ritual reverent silence, and their elegant clothes echo the jubilant colors of church wall paintings. There is a lot of scarlet color in the picture: the carpeting of the floor, clothes, ribbons in the hair... Ryabushkin introduces us to the very essence of the ancient Russian understanding of life and beauty, forcing us to immerse ourselves in the style of the era - the ritual ritualism of behavior, the marvelous pattern of temples, the “Byzantine” abundant elegance of clothing. This picture is “an amazing document that reveals about Alexei Mikhailovich’s Russia a hundred times more than the most detailed work on history” (S. Makovsky).

ANDREY RYABUSHKIN. Wedding train in Moscow (XVII century).1901. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Evening twilight has fallen on the city, one-story wooden huts stand out as dark silhouettes against the silver-blue sky, the last rays of the setting sun gild the dome of the white stone church. A holiday bursts into the dull, monotonous everyday life of a Moscow street: a scarlet carriage with newlyweds is rushing along a muddy spring road. Like good fellows from a fairy tale, she is accompanied by smart walkers in red caftans and bright yellow boots and riders on thoroughbred trotters. Muscovites immediately rush about their business - respectable fathers of the family, modest beautiful girls. In the foreground, an elegant, rouged young beauty with an anxiously dissatisfied face hastily turned the corner, away from the wedding procession. Who is she? Rejected bride? Her psychologically acute image brings into this semi-fairy-tale dream a feeling of real life with passions and problems that remain unchanged at all times.

ANDREY RYABUSHKIN. Moskovskaya street of the 17th century on a holiday.1895. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Ryabushkin’s painting is not a genre sketch on the theme of ancient life, but a painting-vision, a waking dream. The artist talks about the past as if it were familiar to him. There is no pompous theatricality and production effects in it, but there is an admiration of the virtuoso stylist for “gray-haired antiquity”, based on a deep knowledge of folk costume, ancient utensils, and ancient Russian architecture.

SERGEY IVANOV. Arrival of foreigners. 17th century1902. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The artist boldly involves the viewer in the flow of “living” life. The arrival of foreigners aroused keen curiosity in the snow-covered Moscow square. Probably a Sunday or holiday is depicted, because in the distance, near the church, a lot of people are crowding. The foreigner emerging from the elegant carriage looks with interest at the picture of bizarre Russian life that has opened up to him. A respectable boyar bows to him at the waist; on the left, a man in rags froze in mute amazement. In the foreground, a respectable “Muscovite” looks restlessly and angrily at the arriving stranger and resolutely hurries to take his young beautiful wife “out of harm’s way.”

SERGEY IVANOV. On the road. Death of a migrant.1889. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Painting “On the road. Death of a Migrant" is one of the best in the artist’s series of works dedicated to the tragedy of landless peasants who, after the land reform of 1861, rushed to Siberia in search of a better life. Along the way, they died in hundreds, experiencing terrible hardships. S. Glagol said that Ivanov walked dozens of miles with the settlers “in the dust of Russian roads, in the rain, bad weather and scorching sun in the steppes... many tragic scenes passed before his eyes...”. The work was executed in the best traditions of critical realism: like a poster, it was supposed to appeal to the conscience of those in power.

ABRAM ARKHIPOV. Laundresses.Late 1890s. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Arkhipov is a typical representative of the Moscow school with its pictorial freedom and novelty of subjects. He was fond of the broad brushstroke technique of the Scandinavian artist A. Zorn, which allowed him to convincingly convey in his painting the damp atmosphere of the laundry, the clouds of steam, and the very monotonous rhythm of the women’s grueling work. Following N. Yaroshenko's "Stoker" in Arkhipov's film, a new hero in art powerfully declares himself - the working proletarian. The fact that the painting depicts women - exhausted, forced to do hard physical work for pennies - gave the painting a special relevance.

ABRAM ARKHIPOV. Away (Spring Festival).1915. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

The main character of this picture is the sun. Its rays burst into the room from the open window, “igniting” the joyful, spring flame of the bright red clothes of young peasant women, who, sitting in a circle, are cheerfully gossiping about something. “Academician Arkhipov painted a wonderful picture: a hut, a window, the sun hits the window, women are sitting, the Russian landscape is visible through the window. Until now, I have not seen anything like this either in Russian or foreign painting. You can't tell what's going on. The light and the village are wonderfully conveyed, as if you had come to visit some dear people, and when you look at the picture, you become young. The picture was painted with amazing energy, with an amazing rhythm,” K. Korovin admired.

PHILIP MALYAVIN. Vortex.1905. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The dance of peasant women in elegant sundresses is turned into a sonorous decorative panel. Their wide, multi-colored skirts swirl in a whirlwind motion, and their red sundresses burst into flames, creating an enchanting spectacle. The tanned faces of the women are not emphasized by the artist - he boldly “cuts off” them with the frame of the picture, but in their excellent realistic drawing one can see a diligent student of I. Repin. “Whirlwind” amazed his contemporaries with its “rollingness”: the daring brightness of the colors, the boldness of the composition and the bravura of wide, impasto strokes.

SERGEY VINOGRADOV. In summer.1908. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Vinogradov, one of the founders of the Union of Russian Artists, a student of V. Polenov, was a poet of the old estate culture, in love with the silence and unhurried rhythm of life of the old “noble nests”, and the special style of the Russian garden.

In the painting “In Summer,” the afternoon bliss of a warm day is spread everywhere – in the flickering reflections on the wall of the house, translucent shadows on the path, the languid, elegant appearance of women reading. Vinogradov was fluent in the plein air technique; his brushstrokes are fluid, like those of the Impressionists, but retain the dense outlines of the form.

STANISLAV ZHUKOVSKY. Park in autumn.1916. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Like S. Vinogradov, Zhukovsky was a singer of an old noble estate. “I am a big lover of antiquity, especially Pushkin’s time,” the artist wrote. In Zhukovsky’s works, the nostalgic past does not look sad and lost, it seems to come to life, continuing to give joy to the new inhabitants of the old house.

STANISLAV ZHUKOVSKY. Joyful May.1912. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Vinogradov especially liked to paint interiors with mahogany furniture in the Empire style and antique portraits on the walls. Spring bursts into the room through large open windows, filling everything with a silvery glow and a special anticipation of summer warmth. Comparing “Joyful May” with the artist’s other interiors, A. Benois noted that in this work “the sun shines brighter than before, the fresh air seems more joyful, the special mood of a house thawing, coming to life after the winter cold, after a long shuttering, is more fully conveyed; in addition, the entire picture is painted with that valuable freedom of technique that is acquired only when the task set by the artist is clarified in all its parts.”

MARIA YAKUNCHIKOVA-WEBER. View from the bell tower of the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery near Zvenigorod.1891. Paper on cardboard, pastel. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Yakunchikova-Weber, according to A. Benois, “is one of those very few women who managed to put all the charm of femininity into their art, an elusive gentle and poetic aroma, without falling into either amateurism or cloying.”

A modest, intimate view of the Russian plain opens from the bell tower of the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery. Heavy ancient bells, compositionally close to the viewer, appear as guardians of time, remembering all the historical trials of this land. The bells are painted tangibly, with picturesque plein air effects - shimmering blue and bright yellow tones on a sparkling copper surface. The landscape, immersed in a light haze, complements the main “heartfelt” idea of ​​the painting and “expands” the space of the canvas.

KONSTANTIN YUON. Spring sunny day. Sergiev Posad.

Yuon was a typical Muscovite not only by birth, but also by his worldview and artistic style. He was in love with Russian antiquity, with ancient Russian cities, the unique ancient architecture of which became the main character of his paintings. Having settled in Sergiev Posad, he wrote: “I was greatly excited by the colorful architectural monuments of this fabulously beautiful town, exceptional in its pronounced Russian folk decorativeness.”

KONSTANTIN YUON. Trinity Lavra in winter.1910. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

The famous monastery appears like a fairy-tale vision. The combination of pinkish-brown walls with bright blue and gold domes evokes an echo of the exquisite coloring of ancient Russian frescoes. Looking at the panorama of the ancient city, we notice that this “fabulousness” has vivid signs of real life: sleighs rush along the snowy road, townspeople rush about their business, gossips gossip, children play... The charm of Yuon’s works lies in a wonderful fusion of modernity and dear to the heart picturesque antiquity.

KONSTANTIN YUON. March sun.1915. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

In its joyful, jubilant mood, this landscape is close to Levitan’s “March,” but Levitan’s lyrics are more subtle, with notes of aching sadness. The March sun at Yuon paints the world with major colors. Horses and riders walk briskly across the bright blue snow, pink-brown tree branches stretch towards the azure sky. Yuon knows how to make the landscape composition dynamic: the road goes diagonally towards the horizon, forcing us to “walk” to the huts peeking out from behind the slope.

KONSTANTIN YUON. Domes and swallows.1921. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

A. Efros wrote about Yuon that he “chooses unexpected points of view, from which nature seems not very familiar, and people not too ordinary.” It is precisely this unusual point of view that was chosen for the painting “Domes and Swallows.” The majestic golden domes of the temple, “overshadowing” the earth, are perceived as a symbol of Ancient Rus', which is so dear to the artist, whose spirit will live forever among the people.

The picture was painted in the hungry year of 1921, amid the devastation of the Civil War. But Yuon doesn’t seem to notice this; a powerful life-affirming principle resounds in his landscape.

KONSTANTIN YUON. Blue bush (Pskov).1908. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

It was not for nothing that Yuon called himself “a recognized cheerful person” - his landscape is always full of joyful feelings, his festive paintings emotionally convey the artist’s delight in the beauty of nature. This work is striking in its richness of color, the basis of which is deep blue. Interspersed with green, yellow, red tones, a complex play of light and shadow create a major pictorial symphony on the canvas.

ILYA GRABAR. Chrysanthemums.1905. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Grabar believed that “Chrysanthemums” “succeeded better than all other complex still lifes.” The still life was painted in the fall, and the artist wanted to convey that moment “when the daylight begins to fade, but twilight has not yet come.” Working in the technique of divisionism (from the French “division” - “division”) - with small, separate strokes and pure, unmixed colors on the palette, the artist masterfully conveys the flickering of light in glass glasses, the lush, airy heads of yellow chrysanthemums, the silvery twilight behind window, a game of color reflexes on a white tablecloth.

ILYA GRABAR. March snow.1904. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The landscape fascinates with the dynamics of a fragment snatched from life. Blue shadows on the snow from an invisible tree create a feeling of expanded space. With the help of short relief strokes, the texture of loose snow glistening in the sun is conveyed. A woman with buckets on a yoke is walking hurriedly along a narrow path cutting through the space of the picture. Her sheepskin coat stands out with a dark silhouette, marking the compositional center of the picture. In the background, among the brightly lit snow fields, huts are golden from the sun. This picture is filled with an exceptionally strong and clear feeling of love for life, admiration for the jubilant beauty of nature.

ILYA GRABAR. February blue.1904. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow Chapter III ITALIAN VIOLIN ART XVI - XVIII author