2) cultural developments

literature

• golden age for russian literature: turgenev, tolstoy and dostoyevsky

• influenced the educated elite

• public library in st petersburg had over half a million books in it

literature: turgenev

sportsman sketches (1852): considers real sufferings of russian serfs

literature: chernyshevsky

novel “what is to be done?” was enormously successful

literature: dostoyevsky

crime and punishment (1866)

brothers karamozov (1880)

explores “types of russians”

literature: chekhov

1904: cherry orchad

embraces cultural forces that emerged in Moscow on the eve of the twentieth century

literature: maxim gorky

• my childhood (1913): descirbed harsh upbringing of poverty and cruelty which he described in his book

• took up with populist revolutionary in late 1870s

• stories consumed by workers who identified with it

• started writing about politics and hardships, humiliations and brutal treatment of workers, peasants and Jews

• joined political groups and associated with emerging marxist social democrats, becoming a personal friend of lenin

• played an important role in and after 1917 revolution

the arts

1863: thirteen artists rebelled against academy of arts and its formal styles

• believed art should be useful to society

• depict social problems in their art

• voltza bargehaulers (1873) portrays harshness of a group of human pack animals

Moscow merchants and the arts

• mamontov founded the abramtsevo colony

• tretyakov became main buyer of russian art

• 1892: purpose-built gallery to moscow

abramtsevo artists colony

1870: an estate from a declining noble family was brought by mamontov who founded an artists colony

• mamontov influenced by tthe populists believed that art was for the education of the masses

• abramtsevo grew out og the wanderers and has been called the cradle of the modern movement in russian art

• alexander III used abramtsevo artists for the decoration of the church

russian avant-garde

• younger generation of merchant patrons collected modern art and moscow became the centre of the avante-garde at the beginning of the twentieth century

• merchants helped fund the jack of diamons exhibitions

• “jack of diamonds” as a symbol of young enthusiasm and passion, for the jack implies youth and the suit of diamons represents seething blood

• 1915: revolutionary contribution was the black square

• “black square” markws the beginning of a new culture

music

• period drew on the russian folk music and melodies which were an importanr part of national identity

• borodin, mussorgsky and rimsky-korsakov aimed to produce a national russian music

• tchaikovsky music drew on folk traditiond but was much more overly patriotic such as “1812 overture”- had morewesternised elements

• away from these national themes and music reflected some of the greater freedom and tumult after 1905

• igor stravinsky “firebird” marked a new departure from european music and linked with changes in art