How an artist-chronicler of Stalin's times got the name of a pagan god as a pseudonym

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In recent years, more and more collectors began to quote the works of socialist realists who created their canvases in the first half of the twentieth century. History is history, and whatever it is, you cannot cross it out with a stroke of the pen. And no matter how much the galaxy of Soviet-era artists was denigrated, among them were amazing masters and wonderful people who firmly believed in the ideals of the socialist system. And in confirmation of this, the work of the painter Vasily Svarog.

Truly amazing was the artist and organizer Vasily Semenovich, who brought originality, a light palette of colors and a positive mood to the art of socialist realism, even when creating paintings with a deep political meaning, and also made many good deeds for his hometown of Staraya Russa.

Among other things, having a wonderful voice and perfect pitch, Svarog independently learned to play the guitar and devoted himself to it with all his passion: he wrote music, toured with concerts, and even created an opera group in his hometown. He often liked to say:

Several pages from the biography of the socialist realist

The real surname of Vasily Semyonovich Svarog (1883-1946) is Korochkin. He was born in the town of Staraya Russa, Novgorod province, into a peasant family. Soon the family lost its breadwinner father, and the mother took care of two daughters and a two-year-old son. They lived very poorly, barely making ends meet. And what else could Vasily think about education, especially artistic.

However, Vasya's gift for drawing from early childhood did not go unnoticed. He was noticed by the famous teacher of the Academy of Arts, and then only the drawing teacher of the old Russian city school - Pavel Chistyakov. It was he who threw a cry among the representatives of the intelligentsia of Staraya Russa and organized a fundraiser so that a talented fellow countryman could continue his art education after graduation. And so, thanks to kind people, Vasily Korochkin in 1896, at the age of 13, entered the St. Petersburg Art School of Baron Stieglitz. And already, four years later, he successfully graduated. And what is curious, it is there that Vasya Korochkin will acquire his sonorous artist pseudonym - "Svarog".

And it was like this … In the third year, for a term paper, a novice artist got the task: to paint a picture on the theme "The God of Heavenly Fire Svarog", where the main character would depict a deity from the mythology of the pagan Slavs. And then Vasily, showing his entire arsenal of fantasy, "painted the sun, stars, lightning, flashes of the northern lights, dawns, rainbows, and in this sparkling environment - the face of the deity - Svarog." The examiners liked the picture, and one of them, as if jokingly, said:. From that day on, this name seemed to stick to the guy. At first for a joke, and then in earnest, everyone began to call him Svarog. And Vasily over time, getting used to this nickname, took him for a pseudonym.

After graduating from an educational institution in 1900, the talented young man began to cooperate with the publishing houses of magazines popular at that time in St. Petersburg, and soon became the winner in the competition for a series of drawings for Leo Tolstoy's play "Living Corpse".

Somehow Svarog was lucky to make friends with the son of Ilya Repin - Yuri, also an artist, and paint a portrait from him. And then to get acquainted with the master of Russian painting himself, Ilya Efimovich, who, recognizing great inclinations of talent in Svarog, will give the young promising painter a recommendation for joining the Association of the Itinerants. It was then that Vasily wrote "Portrait of a Mother", which won the first prize at the 1916 Traveling Exhibition.

And very soon an event took place in the country that radically changed the life of Russia - the great October Revolution broke out, which Svarog accepted with all his fiery heart. By the first anniversary of the revolutionary events, the painter will create portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin.

But soon the artist leaves Peter in connection with a serious illness of his mother and returns to his hometown. Several years spent in Staraya Russa were very eventful for the artist. He organizes the People's House, creates an art studio, amateur choral and orchestral circles, and an amateur opera house.

In addition to the stormy organizational activity, Vasily Svarog writes many paintings dedicated to his native city and its inhabitants - "Portrait of Vasya Ushakov", "Children", "Rogachevka".

Returning to St. Petersburg in 1923, he joined the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia. And right up to the war, he painted portraits of the leaders of the revolution, their closest associates, shock workers, the exploits of the Red Army, popular celebrations and meetings, and created compositions on industrial and collective farm subjects. Vasily did not fail to exhibit his works in 1925 at the World Exhibition in Paris. For eleven of his politicized posters from the album "January 9" Svarog becomes the owner of a silver medal.

However, the most important stage in the work of Vasily Svarog began in the 30s. Having moved to Moscow, the painter created more than a dozen huge canvases depicting the leaders of the revolution. So Svarog gradually directs all his creative potential into the political channel, and the genre in which he began to work began to be called "political composition". The painter wrote some paintings based on personal impressions, others - on the basis of newspaper reports. It was these works that brought him official recognition and material wealth.

During the war, the artist was evacuated to Samarkand, where he worked fruitfully, depicting frontline events. And when the Germans were driven back from Moscow, many Muscovites from Uzbekistan began to return to the capital. Among them was Vasily Svarog. However, at the Samarkand railway station, trouble happened to the artist: while crossing the railway tracks with suitcases, he accidentally stumbled and, falling, hit the rails with his left temple. In critical condition, he was taken to Moscow. For a long time, doctors fought for the artist's life. He survived, but he could not return to painting. And four years later, Vasily Semyonovich Svarog was gone.

And in conclusion, I would like to note that Vasily Semenovich was not only one of the brightest chroniclers of historical events of the first half of the twentieth century, a famous graphic artist in the genre of propaganda posters, but also an excellent portrait master. His works are still kept in the storerooms of the central museums of the country and neighboring countries. They are part of our history. The picture gallery in Staraya Russa, where half of his heritage is kept, is named after the artist.

Read also: Moscow and Muscovites on the canvases of the impressionist of the era of socialist realism Yuri Pimenov, who was far from politics and painted pictures about the life of ordinary Soviet people.