Take a close look at the image below. What do you see? …Any chance you thought the photograph resembled this man? What you have been looking at is a close-up of one of the most famous statues in all of Russia, The Worker and the Kolkhoz Woman, which was created in the year 1937 by … Continue reading The Worker and the Kolkhoz Woman →
Category: Red Star
Opium of the People
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The Soviet Union under the Bolsheviks in 1922 was the first state with the goal of being ideologically atheist, eliminating their existing religion (Russian Orthodoxy) and other religions practiced throughout the Soviet Union, as well as efforts to diminish future religious activity. Throughout the 1920s, religions were targeted based on State interests, and while not … Continue reading Opium of the People
Saying Yep to the NEP
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The New Economic Policy (NEP) was supposed to be a stabilizer while the government struggled to meet the demands of the ongoing Civil War. The policies of War Communism that had been instituted after the October Revolution were inadequate for overcoming the chronic shortages that plagued the Soviet Union. This forced the Bolsheviks to relinquish … Continue reading Saying Yep to the NEP →
Lights… Camera… REVOLT!
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How did the party sell this dream world to its citizens? The answer is in Movie Magic. From its conception, the art of cinema has been a whirlwind force of cultural change. That is exactly why the Bolsheviks utilized cinema as much as possible to allow for maximum possible influence. War films and exciting promises […]
The Life and TIMEs of Patriarch Tikhon
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So shocking was the imprisonment and conviction of Patriarch Tikhon, that it made this edition of TIME magazine in 1923. Patriarch Tikhon, who was “unfrocked” of his title to simply that of Comrade André Bélavin, was, according to the article, “judged without a hearing” and convicted of counterrevolutionary acts. The article mentioned further that the … Continue reading The Life and TIMEs of Patriarch Tikhon →
“You Do Not Lament the Loss of the Hair of One Who Has Been Beheaded.”
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“Now, the expropriation of the kulaks in the regions of solid collectivization is no longer just an administrative measure. Now, the expropriation of the kulaks is an integral part of the formation and development of the collective farms. Consequently now it is ridiculous and foolish to discourse on the expropriation of the kulaks. You do … Continue reading “You Do Not Lament the Loss of the Hair of One Who Has Been Beheaded.” →
Assimilation into Russian Culture in Inner Asia
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This image initially struck me for its bright colors. Because of Prokudin-Gorskii’s three-negatives technique, individuals were able to digitally produce one final, colorized version. With the… Read more “Assimilation into Russian Culture in Inner Asia”
Ladies, Let’s Get in Formation
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Pictured above is three peasant girls, each holding a couple of berries they harvested off the land. They collected these berries as a gift to the foreign visitor, in this case the photographer Prokudin-Gorskiĭ. This image was taken in 1909 prior to the industrialization of the Russian Empire. This picture intrigued me because, first of […]
The Trans-Siberian Railway
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Image Name: Trans-Siberian Railway metal truss bridge on stone piers, over the Kama River near Perm, Ural Mountains Region This photograph was taken by Prokudin-Gorskii in the 1910’s. Prokudin-Gorskii was a chemist turned photographer who ended up traveling around the Russian Empire, in a railroad car that the Tsar provided to him, photographing the Empire’s … Continue reading The Trans-Siberian Railway →
A Bird’s Eye View of Bukhara
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https://www.wdl.org/en/item/5808/#q=stork&qla=en This photograph, Айст «Этюд в Бухаре» or Stork “A Scene in Bukhara”, was taken by Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii in the year 1911, a time when the Russian Empire was continuing to exert influence and expand east, especially into Central Asia. Traveling throughout Russia and equipped with a railroad car that functioned as a dark … Continue reading A Bird’s Eye View of Bukhara →
