Land of the Tzars in colour: Fascinating photographs show the people..of pre-revolutionary Russia

UK Daily Mail ^ | March 5, 2014 | Kate Lyons

[C19fan]

Amazing photographs, captured in vivid colour, show life in Russia in the early 1900’s as the country stood on the brink of the First World War - and revolution. Photographer Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky was one of the nation’s leading photographers at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. He was commissioned to capture a photographic record of Russia after the monarch saw his colour portrait of Leo Tolstoy. The portrait of Tolstoy, taken in 1908, just two years before the author's death, was Prokudin-Gorsky's most famous work and became widely popular and was reproduced on postcards, large prints and in various publications.

[C19fan]

Gorgeous color photos of Pre-Revolution Russia. The Library of Congress has the collection online if you want to browse:

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/prok/

[JoeProBono]

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Thanks for posting.

BFL.

[Carriage Hill]

Shining city-ski on a hill?

[DariusBane]

This picture perfectly illustrates the power of the church in the feudal times. Great, colorful buildings set on hills surrounded by colorless shacks. Imagine the effect, the intended effect on the mind.

Also the plate of the mud road going through the forest. That road would be impassable with any moisture. Hitler should have looked at that. He may have thought twice about Badbarossa.

[knarf]

WELL worth clicking.

[Batman11]

Pfl

[left that other site]

Those are Wonderful!

Thank You.

[C19fan]

Twice a year those roads would become nothing but mud during the rainy seasons. That is what first stopped the Wehrmacht and forced it to wait until it froze to launch the attack that was suppose to take Moscow.

[IncPen]

Ping

[afraidfortherepublic]

Magnificent photos. They certainly lend a different aspect to life in those times, compared to the black and white photos that we normally see.

[DariusBane]

The photographer never strayed far from the railroad. So we are seeing the most developed parts of Russia.

[piroque]

Thanks for the photo’s ,

[wally_bert]

Ditto.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Strangely these have the lyrics to Paul Simon's Kodachrome rattling around in my head.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"This picture perfectly illustrates the power of the church in the feudal times."

You picked a perfect adjective, feudal. For Pre-WWI Russia was still a feudal state and it makes you understand why they were ripe for revolution. Western Europes revolutions and moves away from monarchal society was in the 19th century. Russia was still living under a true monarchy dictatorship at this time. It was an unholy alliance between the Czar and the Orthodox Church. Thats probably what that Church building represented to the poor people of Russia at the time. It sat on the hill and acted as the central authorities eyes watching over all. I've often felt this is why Ayn Rand was an athiest, because of what must have been her experiences with the Church/State of the Russian Czar.

[Nevadan]

wow! Thanks for posting!

[Conservative4Ever]

Beautiful photos. The most interesting one to me was the wealthy woman standing on her beautiful carpet.

[DariusBane]

The Czar and the Church are Byzantine. The Czar was the true head of the church and defender. The Byzantine Emperor was Christs Vicar on earth. The Patriarch serves at the pleasure of the Czar. But of course intrigues between the Czar and the Patriarch were common.

The architecture of the churches, the dome, was meant to centralize power. The dome represented a portal to heaven and a portal to God, accessed through the church, and vicariously through the Czar, and the Patriarch and the priesthood. Very hierarchical. Even a mans relationship to God was only through the feudal system. Much the same way as the Catholic Church doles out God’s patronage. (zips up flame suit, puts on hood, pulls draw string tight over face, assumes the fetal position).

[Defiant]

That's a man, baby!