The Unadorned Revolution of 1917: Exposing newsreels that haven't been shown to the world for 100 years

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

In recent years, little-known facts about the artists who worked in Russia in the last century have often been publicized. So, for almost a hundred years, the name of the original master Ivan Alekseevich Vladimirov was in the ranks of famous artists of the school of painting of socialist realism. And only relatively recently a completely different story about a battle painter, reporter and author of a series of documentary sketches of 1917-1918 was opened.

On the roads of glory and oblivion

As the son of an English artist, Ivan became addicted to painting from early childhood and successfully graduated from the Vilna drawing school, as well as the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts.

The fame of the artist overtook three times. The first time - when, already a graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, he chose the dangerous job of an artistic war correspondent. And when he had to go to the Caucasus and carry out a whole series of "Caucasian reports" about military operations in mountainous areas. Returning to St. Petersburg, he was awarded several gold and silver medals, as well as the title of a first-class artist.

During the Russo-Japanese War, and then the First World War, the artist was at the forefront and worked on sketches of hostilities, which brought the master real fame as an artist-reporter. He portrayed everyday life without embellishment and pathos. Its heroes were - brave warriors, unhappy civilians, tortured prisoners, soldiers of the warring parties.

For the second time, glory to the artist was favored already under Soviet rule, when he enthusiastically painted the Bolsheviks and their leaders. He was ranked among the galaxy of masters of socialist realism, awarded with an order and medals for services to the young country of the Soviets. At that time, he wrote the epic canvas "Lenin and Stalin in Razliv".

And the last time they started talking about Ivan Alekseevich was recently. After the publication of his secret albums with completely different sketches and drawings, which depicted what actually happened on the streets of Petrograd after the revolution and during the civil war. At that time he happened to work in the city police department and he had to see many unsightly moments of the "new" life with his own eyes.

The works of Vladimirov are unique in that he managed to objectively capture both the front and the "casual" sides of the revolution, civil war, the behavior of people endowed with even a little power. These are everyday life of revolutionary events without any embellishment.

The "new" works, which were presented to the audience, presented the events of those stormy years in a different vein - not in a pretentious officialdom, as they used to see the artist's work for many years, but in a frankly grotesque form. For the first time they saw in all its glory the depravity of Soviet power on the face of drunken Red Guards; vandal soldiers crushing the Winter Palace; outrageous peasants, taking away the property of the landlords; Soviet youth destroying monuments. As well as other unsightly aspects of the regime that came to power.

A special theme for Ivan Alekseevich's plots was the famine in Petrograd during the revolution and civil war. Women trying to drown out hunger with a cup of boiling water, old men scornfully digging in garbage dumps and Red Army soldiers robbing peasants and taking food aid from the Red Cross.

Died Vladimirov at the age of 78, in 1947. But the stigma of a semi-official artist, who faithfully served the new government, remained with him until the end of the twentieth century. And only now this opinion is being revised.

Exposition dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the revolutionary events of 1917

Ivan Vladimirov, who had the honor and respect of the authorities during all the revolutionary upheavals, was undeservedly forgotten for almost a century. But last year, on the occasion of the centenary anniversary of the October Revolution, they remembered him and organized an exposition of his works in the Museum of Contemporary History of Russia. The exhibition featured more than fifty graphic and painting works of the artist, which were collected from the storerooms of museums and secret collections.

The premise of the exhibition was an extraordinary event: a series of watercolor sketches and sketches of the artist from American collections came to light. It radically changed the idea of the artist and his true work.

Earlier, when studying the artist's work, experts were always surprised that such an artist like Vladimirsky could see only the positive aspects of what is happening in the country. And the works that came to light, where he showed the vices of the new government and revolutionary leaders from an unsightly side, clarified and dotted all the "i's".

Retro photos Iona Dik-Dichesku, made in revolutionary Petrograd in 1917, today are a real rarity.