Category Archives: Russia

Nikolay Rymsky-Korsakov

29 Thursday Nov 2018

Posted by in Russia, Russian Music

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640px-Rimsky-Korsakov_by_Repin

Portrait of Nikolay Rymsky-Korsakov by Ilya Repin, 1893 (Wikiart.org)

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (18 March 1844, near Novgorod – 21 June  1908) was one of the The Five and not the least. We know him as the composer of the Russian Easter Festival Overture. 🎶 Easter is/was a very important feast in Russia. You may have seen painted Russian eggs and a few of the 50 jewelled “Imperial” eggs Fabergé created for the Tsar’s family.

Rimsky-Korsakov was/is the most scholarly member of The Five and, consequently, their editor, Mussorgsky’s editor mainly. However, although his music exemplifies The Five’s attempt to express the Slavic roots of Russia’s music, he infuses into the music of Russia the sophisticated polyphony of European music, developed over centuries. Conversely, Russian music, the music of The Five and other Russian composers, would have a very real and important impact on western music.

Nijinsky in Scheherazade by George Barbier

Nijinsky in Scheherazade (Micheline’s Blog)

Scheherazade “combines two features typical of Russian music and of Rimsky-Korsakov in particular: dazzling, colorful orchestration and an interest in the East, which figured greatly in the history of Imperial Russia, as well as orientalism in general.” (See Scheherazade, Wiki2.org.)

“American music critic and journalist Harold C. Schonberg wrote that the operas “open up a delightful new world, the world of the Russian East, the world of supernaturalism and the exotic, the world of Slavic pantheism and vanished races. Genuine poetry suffuses them, and they are scored with brilliance and resource.” (See Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Wiki2.org.)

The quotations above point to the exotic nature of the music of the Slavic composers,  The Five: the Russian East. We have heard Alexander Borodin‘s In the Steppes of Central Asia (Mongolia). 🎶 Russia reaches from Europe to the Orient. The Five used folktales, a characteristic of 19th-century music and literature. These tales, many are fairy tales, were not necessarily Russian – Scheherazade isn’t, but they were the Russian expression of tales that overrode nationalism and belonged to a very distant past, millennia. Rimsky-Korsakov put his superior knowledge of orchestration, polyphony, blending many voices (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), into the service of a local idiom.

Exoticism

Besides, although the Slavic composers attempted to express the Slavic and exotic aspects of the music of Russia, Romanticism, a 19th-century movement, was characterized by a degree of exoticism. Rimsky-Korsakov composed Capriccio Espagnol, 🎶 and Victor Hugo (1802 – 1885) wrote the poem Les Djinns, published in his 1829 collection of poems, entitled Les Orientales. Yet, Hugo also wrote The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (Notre-Dame de Paris), published in 1831, locating France in the Middle Ages, which he considered a more genuine and national past, than the plays of Jean Racine (1639 – 1699). He also modified the alexandrine, the “noble” twelve-syllable verse borrowed from the 12th-century French Roman d’Alexandre, featuring Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia. As well, Hugo ensconced French literature into Gothic fiction, a characteristic of Romanticism.

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Rimsky-Korsakov’s birthplace in Tikhvin (Wiki2.org.)

Almaz1863 (2)

The Russian military clipper Almaz in New York Harbor in 1863. Rimsky-Korsakov served as a midshipman on this ship and later wrote about this cruise. (Photo and caption credit: Wiki2.org.)

A Musical Career & a Naval Career

Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 -1908) had a passion for the sea, which he had yet to see when he joined the Imperial Russian Navy. But his older brother, Voin Rimsky-Korsakov (1822 – 1871), had travelled to lands far away. Voin graduated from the School for Mathematical and Navigational Sciences in Saint Petersburg, and so would Nicolai who admired his brother. However, Nicolai would combine two careers. He would be a naval officer and a composer, and, as a musician, he would introduce the Russian East into European music. That would be his gift to classical music. As we have noted in posts about enlightened despots, Russia looked to Europe. Rimsky-Korsakov and other Russian composers, The Five, are less European than Tchaikovsky, but they composed music where east and west interact.

“Teacher, Conductor, and Editor” (Britannica)

In 1873, Rimsky-Korsakov “assumed charge of military bands as inspector and conductor. He therefore left the naval service.” (See Britannica.)

Henceforth, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov would be a teacher of composition (1 & 2) and a conductor (3 & 4):

  1. St. Petersburg Conservatory (1871 – 1908)
  2. Free Music School in St. Petersburg (1874 – 1881)
  3. Conductor of concerts at the court chapel from 1883 to 1894
  4. Chief conductor of the Russian symphony concerts between 1886 and 1900.

We have noted that Rimsky-Korsakov differed from other members of The Five, and must note it again. Rimsky-Korsakov was very interested in the study of harmony, counterpoint, and orchestration. He delved into the European tradition, a rich tradition we can trace back to the Middle Ages. That would be his gift to The Five. Polyphony unfolded over centuries of liturgical and secular (the Madrigal and songs) compositions:

“Eager to complete his own musical education, he undertook in 1873 an ambitious program of study, concentrating mainly on counterpoint and the fugue. He ended his studies in 1875 by sending 10 fugues to Tchaikovsky, who declared them impeccable.”[1] 

On 2 March 1874, Rimsky-Korsakov conducted the first performance of his Symphony No. 3. That same year, “he was appointed director of the Free Music School in St. Petersburg, a post that he held until 1881.”[2]

Rimsky-Korsakov and Slavophiles

By turning to European music, Rimsky-Kosarkok’s relationship with the four of Slavic composers became that of editor. Had he not revised and enriched Mussorgsky’s opera Khovanshchina, it may no longer be performed. We have heard at least one segment of the introduction to Khovanshchina. Dawn over the Moscow River 🎶 is magnificent. One could suspect that Rimsky-Korsakov’s editing miffed his colleagues. I doubt it. He may be best described as a big brother to brilliant composers who were less learned than he was.

Writers often need a good editor, and the same is true of musicians. Rimsky-Korsakov would not have edited Mussorgsky, had Mussorgky’s music not been the product of a genius.

We now find ourselves returning to Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes (1909 – 1929). 

“In 1889 he [Rimsky-Korsakov] led concerts of Russian music at the Paris World Exposition, and in the spring of 1907 he conducted in Paris two Russian historic concerts in connection with Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.”[3]

Conclusion

Russian composers are specialists in the composition of music for ballet and for opera. Their music is “programmatic,”  in that it has a narrative. It therefore differs from “absolute music,” a non-representional form of music. Russian composers also love rhapsodies and contrasts. The programmatic pieces to which I have referred constitute Rimsky-Korsakov’s best-known compositions and they blend the Russian East and the fine polyphony of the European West. Favourites are:

Other favourites are The Tale of Tsar Saltan, Sadko, The Snow Maiden (1882) and other folktales and tales. 

But I have selected his Procession of the Nobles as today’s choice. Rimsky-Korsakov was a member of the nobility.

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Sources and Resources

Love to everyone 💕
______________________________
[1] Nicolas Slonimsky and Richard Taruskin, “Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov”
Encyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nikolay-Rimsky-Korsakov

[2] Loc. cit.

[3] Loc. cit.

[4] Image
Encyclopædia Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nikolay-Rimsky-Korsakov/media/503882/13785

Nikolai Golovanov conducts Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Procession of the Nobles”

Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, detail of a portrait by V. A. Serov; in the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
H. Roger-Viollet [4]

© Micheline Walker
29 November 2018
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The Emancipation Reform of 1861

23 Friday Nov 2018

Posted by in Despotism, Russia

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A 1907 painting by Boris Kustodiev depicting Russian serfs listening to the proclamation of the Emancipation Manifesto in 1861 (Wiki2.org.)

Much of Russia’s history has been a grim tale of the very wealthy and powerful few ruling over a great mass of their poor and powerless compatriots.[1]

According to the writers of the Encyclopædia Britannica, serfdom in Russia did not end when Emperor Alexander II of Russia (29 April 1818 – 13 March 1881) issued the Emancipation Manifesto of 3 March 1861:

Serfdom endured well into the modern era; the years of Soviet communist rule (1917–91), especially the long dictatorship of Joseph Stalin, saw subjugation of a different and more exacting sort.[2]

Serfdom & Slavery

For our purposes, the emancipation of serfdom in Russia occurred in 1861, and it was “the first and most important of liberal reforms passed during the reign (1855-1881) of Emperor Alexander II of Russia.”[3] 

Serfdom was a medieval institution and [t]he vast majority of serfs in medieval Europe obtained their subsistence by cultivating a plot of land that was owned by a lord. This was the essential feature differentiating serfs from slaves, who were bought and sold without reference to a plot of land. In theory, serfs were not slaves, but in practice, many were.[4]

Serfs & Private Estates

In Russia, serfdom dated back to 1649.  In 1861, there were two types of serfs:

  1. those living on the land of private landowners and their domestics
  2. those living on state lands, under control of the Ministry of State Property

However, only those who worked on the land of private landowners were called serfs. They constituted 38% of the population.

The Emancipation Reform of 1861 freed 23 million serfs working on private estates as well as domestic household serfs. (See The Emancipation reform of 1861, Wiki2.org.)

Peasants: Mir or Obshchina

Altogether, three-quarters of the Russian population were peasants, a total higher than serfs who worked on the land of private landowners.

There was, in fact, a third group of peasants living on communes. These peasants lived in village communities called a Mir or an Obschchina. These were communes and they predated serfdom. Mir peasants cultivated one or two strips of land. Holding more strips would have increased a peasant’s tax burden. They belonged to 100,000 landowners. They did not belong to members of a commune, or ‘Mir,’ or Obshchina. (See The Emancipation reform of 1861, Wiki2.org.)

The Mir & the Collectivization of the USSR

These communes were idealized by August von Haxthausen in a book he published in 1847. It was also praised by Karl Marx. (See Obschchina, Wiki2.org.) Mir and Obschchina were destroyed by the Stolypin agrarian reforms (1906–1914), “the implementation of which would lead to the Russian Revolution and subsequent collectivization of the USSR.” (See Obschchina, Wiki2.org.)

KorovinS_NaMiru

Obshchina Gathering, by Sergei Korovin (Wiki2.org.)

Comments

It appears Tsar Alexandre II abolished serfdom to keep up with western European countries. Western Europe remained the model.

“My intention is to abolish serfdom … you can yourself understand that the present order of owning souls cannot remain unchanged. It is better to abolish serfdom from above, than to wait for that time when it starts to abolish itself from below. I ask you to think about the best way to carry this out.”

— Alexander II’s speech to the Marshalls of the Nobility, 30 March 1856. (See The Emancipation reform of 1861, Wiki2.org.)

I should note that:

“[m]any bureaucrats believed that these reforms would bring about drastic changes which would only affect only the ‘lower stories’ of society, strengthening the autocracy. In reality, the reforms forced the monarch to coexist with an independent court, free press, and local governments which operated differently, and more freely, than they had in the past. This new form of local government involved in each area an assembly called a zemstvo.” (See The Emancipation reform of 1861, Wiki2.org.)

The Tsar and his advisors wondered whether freed serfs should hold the land they had tilled. Given that a large number of insurrections that had taken place in western Europe in 1848, it was decided that freed serfs could own land. (See Revolutions of 1848, Wiki2.org.) However, the land was not given to them. Some serfs had money and could buy land. But, by and large, they couldn’t. Some continued to work for a landowner to earn money. Others, if not most, borrowed from the government and made redemption payments, of which they were relieved in 1905, the year of the massacre of Bloody Sunday. 

“The peasants remained ‘temporarily bonded’ until they redeemed their allotments.”[5]

Ironically, redemption payments transformed former serfs into slaves. Debt bondage is a form of slavery. As for those serfs who found employment in factories, as we now, their wages were low and their working hours, very long: some 15 hours a day. Workers went on strikes, which led to Bloody Sunday.

We do not know how many people were killed on Bloody Sunday (1,000 – 4,000), but we know that the reprisals were gruesome:

“It is estimated that between October 1905 and April 1906, 15,000 peasants and workers were hanged or shot, 20,000 injured, and 45,000 sent into exile.” (See Bloody Sunday, Wiki2.org.) It was a peaceful demonstration. Workers were carrying a petition. As of Bloody Sunday, Russians ceased to see their Tsar as a father to the nation.

Conclusion

The abolition of serfdom was good in itself. As Tsar Alexander II stated ,“the present order of owning souls cannot remain unchanged.”  Serfs were emancipated in 1861. Landowners could no longer own serfs, domestic or farmers. Furthermore, Russia’s economy grew after the serfs were freed. Many former serfs were working in factories, domestic serfs especially. They could not own land.

“A significant measuring stick in the growth of the Russian economy post-reform was the huge growth in non-gentry private landownership. Although the gentry land-holdings fell from 80% to 50%, the peasant holdings grew from 5% all the way to 20%.”

Yet, there was social unrest (strikes, etc.) and, after Bloody Sunday (1905), confidence in the Tsar having waned, the Bolchevik party had an opportunity to take over. We then suffered through the Cold War.

But the greatness of Russia remains. As a child, the librarian could not let me borrow certain masterpieces of French literature. Several were on the Index of prohibited books. She directed me to the Russian literature shelves of the Public Library. I read Leo Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. I wish I could thank that librarian. The first piece of music I was introduced to was Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain.

This post contains many quotations. I did not want to make errors. However, I have left out the Crimean War. Russia’s defeat is a factor in the emancipation of serfs and the role Tsar Alexandre II played in liberating Bulgaria. (See The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, Wiki2.org.) Tsar Alexander II was killed by a bomb in 1881. His legs were torn off and he was otherwise fatally injured.

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Sources and Resources

The Emancipation Reform: the full text.  ↩

 

Love to everyone 💕

____________________

[1] “Russia,” Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, Sergey Arsentyevich Vodovozov and Others (See All Contributors)  Encyclopædia Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/place/Russia

[2] Op. cit.

[3] The Emancipation Reform of 1861, Wiki2.org.

[4] “Serfdom,” Encyclopædia Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/topic/serfdom/media/535485/121574

[5] “Russian Empire,” The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica,
https://www.britannica.com/place/Russian-Empire/Alexander-II

“The peasants remained ‘temporarily bonded’ until they redeemed their allotments. The redemption price was calculated on the basis of all payments received by the landlord from the peasants before the reform. If the peasant desired to redeem a plot, the government paid at once to the landowner the whole price (in 5 percent bonds), which the peasant had to repay to the exchequer in 49 years. Although the government bonds fell to 77 percent and purchase was made voluntary, the great majority of landowners—often in debt—preferred to get the money at once and to end relations which had become insupportable. By 1880, 15 percent of the peasants had not made use of the redemption scheme, and in 1881 it was declared obligatory. The landowners tried, but in vain, to keep their power in local administration. The liberated peasants were organized in village communities that held comprehensive powers over their members. Nominally governed by elected elders, they were actually administered by crown administrative and police officials.” (Britannica)

—ooo—

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 – 1975) wrote a Symphony based on Bloody Sunday, his Symphony No. 11, subtitled The Year 1905.

However, I have selected an excerpt from Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2, the Andante, or 2nd movement.

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Tsar Alexander II (Wiki2.org.)

© Micheline Walker
23 November 2018
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Mussorgsky & Repin: a New Dawn

19 Monday Nov 2018

Posted by in American Civil War, Russia, Russian Art, Russian Music

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unexpected-visitors-1888.jpg!Large

They did not expect him by Ilya Repin, 1884 – 1888 (Wikiart.org)

“It is generally believed that by depicting various reaction of young man’s household Repin tried to show diverse but mostly positive attitude of society toward revolutionary movements of that time. Actually, under strict censorship of Czarist Russia, it was a political declaration disguised as an everyday genre scene.” (Wikiart.org.)

The Russian Revolution

In the second half of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th century, Russia changed dramatically. The Emancipation of serfdom, in 1861, led to a major social upheaval. Ironically, several former serfs had to pay for the piece of land they had been cultivating for centuries, but more importantly, an agrarian society was industrialized. (See Industrialisation of Russia, Wiki2.org.) Many Serfs became factory workers whose working conditions were unacceptable.

Matters culminated in a massacre known as Bloody Sunday, 22 January 1905. From 3,000 to 50,000 factory workers marched towards Saint Petersburg’s Winter Palace to deliver a petition (←text) to Tsar Nicholas II. Some 4,000 demonstrators, an approximate number, were gunned down or injured by the Imperial Guard. Others were arrested.

By the end of Word War I, there would no longer be a Russian Empire. Two revolutions occurred in 1917: the February Revolution and the October Revolution. The Bolsheviks, under Vladimir Lenin, took over during the October Revolution, sometimes called the Bolshevik Coup.

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (18 May [O.S. 6 May] 1868 – 17 July 1918) had abdicated on 2 March 1917. He and his family were executed during the night of 17 – 18 July 1918.

The painting above is immensely foreboding.

But let us listen to another part of Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina, its introduction.

—ooo—


Mussorgsky’s Dawn on the Moskva-River
Introduction to Khovanshchina

Barge Haulers on the Volga by Ilya Repin, 1873 (Wikiart.org.)

© Micheline Walker
19 November 2018
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Mid-November…

12 Monday Nov 2018

Posted by in Art, Russia, Russian Music

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Oak Grove by Ivan Shishkin, 1887 (Wikiart.org)

It was a slow day and a cold day. I could not write. But I could sense winter approaching. Je n’ai qu’une saison. C’est l’hiver.

Yvan Shishkin (25 January 1832 – 20 March 1898) was a Russian landscape painter associated with the Peredvizhniki movement.

Forest Path by Yvan Shishkin, 1863 (Wikiart.org)

The video I have inserted combines images by Yvan Shishkin and music by Mussorgsky, one of the Five. You will hear bells.

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Love to everyone 💕

Mussorgsky — Prelude to Khovanshchina (1872-1880)

Portrait of Shishkin by Ivan Kramskoi, 1873 (Wiki2.org)

© Micheline Walker
11 November 2018
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Catherine the Great by V. Borovikovsky

02 Friday Nov 2018

Posted by in Enlightenment, Russia

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Portrait of Catherine, age approximately 65, with the Chesme Column in the background by Vladimir Borovikovsky 1794 (Tretyakov Gallery) (Photo credit: Wiki2.org.)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Portraits_of_Catherine_II_of_Russia#Lampi

In my last post, credits for the image above were left incomplete. I tried to add the name of the artist, but could not access the post. The artist is Vladimir Borovikovsky. The portrait is housed in the Tretyakov Gallery, in Moscow.

Britannica’s Video

Moreover, the link to Britannica’s video on Catherine the Great was moved.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Catherine-the-Great/media/99597/193539

Finally,

Wiki2.org (2nd part) provides a concise and fascinating discussion of Catherine’s life, times and accomplishments. (See Catherine the Great, Wiki2.org.)

—ooo—

Mussorgsky was one of The Five (composers) (the Mighty Handful) who attempted to give the music of Russia a typically Russian idiom. Remember the bells.

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—ooo—

Modest Mussorgsky – Night on Bald Mountain (ca 1858)

The Rooks have come back by Alezei Savrasov, 1871, Ipatiev Monastery in Kostroma

© Micheline Walker
2 November 2018
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Enlightened Despotism in Russia

01 Thursday Nov 2018

Posted by in Enlightened Despotism, Russia

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Catherine the Great Empress and Autocrat of All the Russias  by unknown (Wiki2.org.)

Enlightened Despotism

We are returning to our Enlightened despots. In the Encyclopedia Britannica,

Enlightened despotism, also called benevolent despotism, [is] a form of government in the 18th century in which absolute monarchs pursued legal, social, and educational reforms inspired by the Enlightenment. Among the most prominent  enlightened despots were Frederick II (the Great), Peter I (the Great), Catherine II (the Great), Maria Theresa,  Joseph II, and Leopold II. They typically instituted administrative reform, religious toleration, and economic development but did not propose reforms that would undermine their sovereignty or disrupt the social order.

(See Enlightened Despotism, Britannica)

Among the despots named above, Frederick II (the Great), King of Prussia, is our most prominent figure. He belonged to the Hohenzollern dynasty. But we must step back to Peter I (the Great) (9 June 1662, Moscow – 8 February 1725, Saint Petersburg) who defeated the Swedish Empire, and Catherine II (the Great) (21 April 1729, Prussia – 6 November 1796, Russia) who did not allow a disastrous marriage to rob her of her “profession” as an aristocrat. Both Peter I and Catherine II were despots, but they expanded and developed Russia in every way.  They are as Britannica defines enlightened despots. In this regard, both looked to Europe as a model and, in the case of Catherine II, mainly France. In the 18th century, French became the language of the Russian court and courtiers dressed as did Europeans. But soon Catherine dazzled Europe.

Posthumous Portrait of Peter the Great by Paul Delaroche, 1838 (Photo credit: Wiki2.org.)

Peter I (the Great) 1689 – 1725

Given Peter I the Great‘s passion for conquest, we need to see maps. For instance, Peter I, of the Romanov dynasty, who reigned jointly with his sick half-brother Ivan V, from 1689 to 1725, wanted a port to the north, but west of Arkhangelsk, a port that abutted on the Arctic Ocean. In 1703, he founded Saint Petersburg, located north of Moscow, on the Neva River.

The Neva flows into the Gulf of Finland, thereby providing access to European countries and facilitating the westernization of Russia which, to a large extent, characterizes Russian enlightenment. Peter I (the Great) was ordained Emperor of “all the Russias” after defeating the Swedish Empire, in 1721, three years after King Carl XII of Sweden was killed at the Siege of Fredriksten, in 1718.

Map of the Baltic Sea  (Wikimedia.org.)

3850-004-87B10401

Russian Expansion Britannica

Peter I, the son of tsar Alexis of Russia, had been exiled from the Kremlin during the regency of his half-sister Sophia (1782 – 1789), by his half-brother Fyodor III (1676 – 1782). Contrary to his siblings, Peter was very healthy and played at war, organizing battles, with boys of lesser birth. (See Peter the Great, Britannica.) He also mingled with Moscow’s intellectually freer European citizens who “kindled” his interest in navigation and the mechanical arts. He shared his mother Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina‘s progressive ideas. Peter founded the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1724.

Peter is associated with the Northern War, the Russo-Turkish Wars, the Persian War and numerous conflicts. (See Peter the Great), Britannica.)

The Russian Empire, in 1796

See Digital Collection

Britannica Video on Catherine the Great

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Catherine-the-Great/media/99597/193539

Catherine II (the Great ) 1762 – 1796

Empress Catherine II (the Great) was born Sophie Friederike Auguste, Prinzessin (princess) von Anhalt-Zerbst (Britannica). In 1745, she married Peter III of Russia, or Karl Peter Ulrich zu Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp, born in Kiel. Peter III is described as follows:

He was extremely neurotic, rebellious, obstinate, perhaps impotent, nearly alcoholic, and, most seriously, a fanatical worshipper of Frederick II of Prussia, the foe of the empress Elizabeth [Peter I’s successor].

(See Catherine II (the Great), Britannica.)

Catherine therefore resolved to become Empress of Russia. She relinquished her name, Sophie, and learned Russian. By marriage, she belonged to the House of Romanov, the ruling house of Russia, but her mother was Princess Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp. Although Catherine had lovers before she became Empress, it seems that she bore Peter III at least one child, a Romanov, who would reign as Paul I of Russia (1796 – 1801).

Catherine II was charming.

It was easy for Catherine, with the help of the senators, high officials, and officers of the guard regiments (led by her lover Grigory Orlov and his brothers), to overthrow Peter on June 28 (July 9, New Style), 1762. Thus began the long and important reign of Catherine II, whom her admiring contemporaries named ‘the Great.’

(See Catherine II (the Great), Britannica.)

This was a coup d’état. Peter III had to abdicate and was assassinated eight days later. We cannot ascertain that Catherine played a role in Peter III’s assassination. At any rate, Peter III had blemished his image by disengaging a victorious Russia from the Seven Years War against Prussia. However, before Peter III‘s death on 17 July 1762, he and Catherine II issued a Manifesto on Freedom of the Nobility, which “freed Russian nobles from compulsory military or state service.” (See Catherine II the Great, Wiki2.org.) As noted in an earlier post, in 1774, twelve years after Peter III’s assassination, Catherine may have married Grigory Potemkin, who also played a public role during the reign of Catherine II. (See Catherine II (the Great), Britannica.)

Would that Catherine II had abolished serfdom. She planned to do so, but didn’t. Catherine owned serfs and gave serfs to former lovers. But it should be noted that during most, nearly all, of Catherine the Great’s reign (1729 – 1796), slavery had not been abolished. Nor had serfdom been repressed in France and other European countries. (See History of Serfdom, Wiki2.org.) Scandinavian countries were an exception. They had no serfs, but several European monarchs profited from the slave-trade. In Russia, serfdom was abolished in 1861, under Tsar Alexander II (29 April 1818 – 13 March 1881).

Catherine did not frame a constitution, but Catherine’s Instruction could be considered a draft of this constitution, or its white paper.

1794 portrait of Catherine, age approximately 65, with the Chesme Column in the background, by V. Borovikovsky (Tretyakov Gallery) (Photo credit: Wiki2.org.)

The French Enlightenment & the French Revolution

Catherine admired Montesquieu and Rousseau. As we have seen, she bought Denis Diderot‘s library, making him its custodian for the rest of his life. Moreover, she and Voltaire shared letters. Despots, however, fear the people they control, and their fear leads them to control even more. After the terror Yemelyan Pugachov‘s Cossack troops inspired in 1774, Catherine was afraid.

Catherine now realized that for her the people were more to be feared than pitied, and that, rather than freeing them, she must tighten their bonds.

(See Catherine II (the Great), Britannica.)

Therefore,

Catherine, like all the crowned heads of Europe, felt seriously threatened by the French Revolution. The divine right of royalty and the aristocracy was being questioned, and Catherine, although a ‘friend of the Enlightenment,’ had no intention of relinquishing her own privileges: ‘I am an aristocrat, it is my profession.’

But Catherine was born, rather than elected, to privilege.

Conclusion

Despots they were. But Peter the Great and Catherine II (the Great), Peter in particular, enlarged Russia considerably, as the third map above indicates (See Digital Collection). They also organized Russia. Catherine II created several towns and promoted intellectual and cultural growth. As noted above, Peter’s model had been Europe, but France was Catherine’s chief model. However, the execution, by guillotine, of French King Louis XVI dampened Catherine’s admiration for France. Louis XVI was a fellow aristocrat by profession, as Catherine saw aristocrats. She was then approaching her own sudden death.

France and Europe may have been Peter I and Catherine II’s models. But our two enlightened despots’ leadership may also be considered a model.

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Love to everyone 💕

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov – Scheherazade (1/5)

© Micheline Walker
1st November 2018
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Isis: a Nightmare

03 Thursday Dec 2015

Posted by in Religion, Russia, Slavery, Terrorism

≈ 2 Comments

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an-arab-and-his-dog

An Arab and his Dogs by Jean-Léon Gérôme (Photo credit: WikiArt.org)

My lost post resurfaced. I added missing links to the published post, but did not change its contents. However, one of my links led to more information. It seems Isis is offending Russia. It appears a Russian has been beheaded.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/02/middleeast/isis-russian-beheading-claim/?iid=ob_lockedrail_topeditorial&iref=obinsite

It also appears Isis is targeting a religious group.

Assad was interviewed and claims not to have failed his people, but further radicalization of Islam is taking place.

The following images are very perturbing

purchase-of-a-slave.jpg!Blog

Purchase of a Slave by Jean-Léon Gérôme  (Photo credit: WikiArt.org)

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Slave Market by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1866

http://www.haaretz.com/misc/iphone-article/.premium-1.609449

 

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The Newly-arrived Slave at the Harem by Giulio Rosati (Photo credit: FR Wikipedia)

Wikipedia has an entry entitled Traite des Blanches (trading white women).

The trading of white women is something French and French Canadian women have known about. But I have never heard anyone speak about the capture and enslavement of white women outside Quebec or France.

9/11

It is quite true that the wars of the 2000s triggered many of the acts of terrorism we are witnessing. But the attacks of 9/11 were acts of terrorism perpetrated against the United States. It was retaliation. So there is more to that story.

King regards to everyone. ♥

Jean-Léon_Gérôme_-_On_the_Desert_-_Walters_3734

On the Desert by Jean-Léon Gérôme (Photo credit: The Walters Art Museum)

© Micheline Walker
3 November 2015
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Viktor Hartmann & Modest Mussorgsky

08 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by in Art, Music, Russia

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Plan for a City Gate in Kiev, by Viktor Hartmann

Viktor Alexandrovich Hartmann (5 May 1834, St Petersburg – 4 August 1873, Kireyevo near Moscow) was a Russian architect and painter who lived during a period in European and Russian history when nationalism flourished. The quest for a national identity included a search for a national esthetics that had been expressed in some Golden Age, and would again be expressed in music, art, design, and other art forms. Hartmann’s plan was for a city gate in Kiev is an attempt to capture an inherently Russian and Ukrainian esthetics.

The Search for a National  Identity

For instance, as I may have mentioned elsewhere, in what would become a unified Germany, the brothers Grimm scoured the German-language states collecting its German-language folklore and planting the seeds of what would become a discipline: ethnology. But Russia was an exceptional case in that the country stretched thousands of kilometers. Esthetically and otherwise, it was therefore rooted in more than one culture.

Music: the “mighty Handful”

In music, the “mighty handful,” Mily Balakirev (the leader), César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin, attempted a revival of Russia. They were looking eastwards and, in the years 1856-1870, they met in Saint Petersburg. But the Russian Revival was not limited to music. It also included the fine arts, architecture as an art form, and other cultural areas.

Painting, Design and Architecture

Viktor Hartmann was therefore associated with the Abramtsevo Colony. The Abramtsevo Colony had been purchased in 1870 by Savva Mamontov, a patron of the arts who promoted a Russian Revival. Abramtsevo was the hub of revivalism.

Viktor Hartman’s foremost contribution to the Russian Revival was his Plan for the Gates to Kiev (Ukraine), a design rooted in what he perceived as inherently Russian (and Ukrainan).

Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an exhibition

Hartmann was Mussorgsky’s closest friend, but the two were forever separated when Viktor Hartmann died from an aneurysm at the early age of 39. An exhibition of Hartmann’s paintings was organized which inspired Modest Mussorgsky‘s Pictures at an Exhibition (1874), a suite for the piano that painted musically and therefore constitutes a union of music and painting suggesting synesthesia. It is c the piano, as it was composed by Mussorgsky. However, French composer Maurice Ravel  transformed the work for piano into an orchestral work of music. To hear it, please click on the following link: Mussorgsky/Ravel and enjoy yourselves. In this post, Mussorgsky’s piano suite is played by Sviatoslav Richter. By the way, listen for the sound of bells.

Modest Mussorgsky, by Ilya Repin[i] 

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[i] This portrait was painted in 1881, a short time before Mussorgsky’s death from alcoholism. Mussorgsky’s wealthy family was impoverished when serfdom was abolished in 1861. He joined a group advocating extreme behaviour.
 
composer: Modest Mussorgsky (21 March 1839 – 28 March 1881)
pianist: Sviatoslav Richter (20 March 1915 – 1 August 1997) 
 

320px-Modest_Musorgskiy,_1870© Micheline Walker
8 September 2012
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