Publications section Theaters

Fortress theaters of Russian nobles

“A home performance aims to occupy the society and the participants in an innocent and cheerful way, not at all pretending to be art ...” - wrote one of the metropolitan magazines of the 19th century. We recall the history of Russian serf theatres, their disenfranchised actors and owners passionate about art.

Fashion for home theaters in noble living rooms

The daily life of the nobles consisted for the most part of ceremonials, rules of etiquette and conventions. A vivid display of emotions in a decent society was not encouraged. But on stage, anything could be allowed: passion, grief, and even cruelty. In addition, ladies and gentlemen from high society were often frankly bored, and the theater became another opportunity to dilute the monotonous everyday life. Thanks to amateur performances, the everyday life of the family was enlivened. It took weeks to prepare for the premiere of a home performance: they chose works and assigned roles, rehearsed and created scenery, sewed costumes and thought out makeup.

Many homegrown actors were not without talent, but they did not have the opportunity to enter the professional stage. In those years, the actor's craft was considered bad manners in noble circles. But participation in amateur performances behind the closed doors of mansions was not blameworthy. Among the actors involved in productions, there were members of one or more families, neighbors and close friends. In the home performances of wealthy landowners, peasants and courtyards often became actors.

The nobles borrowed most of the plays for the home stage from the repertoire of the French classical theater. At the end of the 18th century, plays by Russian playwrights appeared on the stage of the provincial theater of Count Alexander Vorontsov, one of the most enlightened people of his time. The works of Alexander Sumarokov, Denis Fonvizin, Pyotr Plavilshchikov were devoted, as a rule, to the problems of the Russian people. Later, Nikolai Gogol and Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov and Nikolai Khmelnitsky began to play on home stages. The new generation of playwrights completely focused on the history and life of Russia. At the same time, the landowners did not put on too free-thinking plays: this could have a bad effect on their reputation. Criticism of officials and dissatisfaction with serfdom were taboo topics for serf theaters. So, for a long time, Alexander Griboyedov's comedy "Woe from Wit" went only on the lists; plays by Ivan Krylov and Alexander Ostrovsky were not allowed on stage.

Fortress actors and French prisoners

The landlords, who were keen on the theater, often gave the children of their lackeys, grooms and butlers for education in boarding schools. There they were taught French and Italian, drawing, singing, the humanities and the exact sciences. The most intelligent students became actors, the rest - either theater workers (dressers, make-up artists, musicians, choreographers), or returned to serve in the master's house. However, this approach was not universal. Most often, illiterate serfs became Ophelia and Oedipus, and theatrical art was given to them through force.

There were up to 50-60 people in the troupe: musicians, painters, machinists, tailors, hairdressers. Actors were divided into "first-class" and "second-class". Depending on their importance, they also received an annual reward: money and things.

However, the actor of the estate theater was deprived of rights, like any other serf. There was no question of freedom of creativity. At any time, a nobleman could send the artist to hard work, punish him for any trifle, or sell him.

First-class serf actors were a valuable commodity. Often such goods were bought by the directorate of the Imperial Theaters. So, in 1800, Alexander I purchased a troupe and an orchestra of musicians from Pyotr Stolypin for 32,000 rubles. By the standards of that time, it was a fortune, comparable to several tens of millions today.

At one time, the fortress theater of Kamensky in Orel was notorious. Count Sergei Kamensky, who passionately loved performances, was cruel to his actors and punished them for any wrongdoing. Journalist Mikhail Pylyaev wrote in his book Remarkable Eccentrics and Originals:

“In the box in front of the owner of the theater there was a book on the table, where he personally entered the mistakes or omissions he noticed on the stage, and several whips hung on the wall behind him, and after every act he went backstage and there made his calculations with the guilty, whose cries sometimes reach the audience."

Prince Nikolai Shakhovskoy, who owned a fortress theater in Nizhny Novgorod, was an even greater tyrant. For errors, he put slingshots around the neck of serf actors, which did not allow them to sleep or even lie down, chained them to chairs, and beat them with sticks. The prince did not allow the artists to talk to men. During the performance, the actor could not approach his partner closer than a meter. Upon reaching the age of 25, the owner gave the actresses in marriage, replacing them with young boarders.

After the war of 1812, French prisoners began to participate in the home performances of the landlords. So, thanks to the “educated and amiable” prisoners, the life of the writer Alexander Pleshcheev and his wife Anna on the estate, according to their neighbor Ekaterina Elagina, became like a “continuous feast”. Foreigners acted out plays in their native language and took part in musical performances.

Luxurious furnishings, sophisticated operas, skillful actors

Landowners created serf theaters not only for entertainment. It was another way to flaunt wealth and enlightenment. It was as prestigious to keep a manor theater as it was to have a kennel, a menagerie, a stable with breeding mares or a greenhouse with exotic plants.

“Each not only rich, but also poor landowner considered it his duty to have, to the extent of his means, his own orchestra and his own troupe, although often both were very bad. The wealthy, on the other hand, achieved some elegance in this regard.

Nikolai Dubrovin, historian

At first, fortress theaters were an exclusively metropolitan phenomenon. By the second quarter of the 19th century, there were only two imperial theaters in Moscow - the Bolshoi and the Maly - and more than 20 large estates. One of the most brilliant among them is the count's fortress theater in Kuskovo: once Catherine II even visited it. The prima of the theater - the serf actress Praskovya Zhemchugova - later became the wife of Nikolai Sheremetev. The serf theaters of Prince Nikolai Yusupov, General Stepan Apraksin, Countess Daria Saltykova also became famous.

By the middle of the 19th century, in terms of the splendor of the setting and the skill of the actors, the estate theaters began to compete with the capital. The landowners invested fortunes in the construction of buildings for the theater, their arrangement, interior decoration, education and maintenance of artists. The content of the theater killed two birds with one stone. On the one hand, this emphasized the high level of education, interest in art and progressiveness, and on the other hand, the name of the owner has always been heard in the highest circles.

One of the most luxurious theaters of that time was organized by Chief General Ivan Shepelev - on Vyksa, in a remote province, in a factory environment. In size, it was slightly smaller than the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. Inside were the stalls, the second and third rows of boxes, mezzanine, benoir. The front box was decorated with red velvet, gold and mirrors. During intermissions, the audience went out to drink tea in the spacious foyer. Kapellmeister Nikolai Afanasiev described the theater of Ivan Shepelev:

“The whole setting and all the devices were excellent, the mechanical part was impeccable, and the most complex operas of that time went on without any difficulty. The theater was lit by gas. It should be noted that at that time even the imperial theaters in St. Petersburg were lit with oil lamps.

Serf theaters existed until the time when Alexander II signed the Manifesto on the abolition of serfdom. Actors and theater employees received the right to leave the now former owners, create their own troupes, and tour. Some manor theaters switched to commercial beginnings, but most were simply empty.

The purpose of this essay is to systematize, accumulate and consolidate knowledge about the serf theater in Russia in the 18th century.

To achieve this goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasks:

Consider the history of the fortress theater;

Describe theatrical figures - Shchepkin, Semenova, Zhemchugov;

Summarize the main results of the abstract.

In the process of writing the essay, I studied textbooks on world artistic culture, essays on the history of Russian culture of the 18th century, and articles on theater figures.

The fortress theater existed in Russia for about a century (from the middle of the 18th century to the middle of the 19th century). The fortress theater was of two types - manor and city. The first was a well-organized premises with a large repertoire, a large troupe of artists trained from childhood for theatrical activities, an orchestra, ballet, choir and soloists. The so-called "booth theaters" also belong to this type, showing their performances at large fairs in county towns, in settlements at monasteries, etc. The second type includes manor theaters, which were of a closed nature - for the amusement of the gentlemen themselves and invited guests. Only at first glance, such fortress scenes existed in a closed way: their living connection with the social and cultural life of Russia is obvious.

The birth of the national professional theater is associated with the name F.G. Volkova(1729-1763) and the city of Yaroslavl, where he first staged the dramas of his great countryman D. Rostovsky, and then the first tragedies of A.P. Sumarokov. Since 1756, the public theater has opened its curtain in St. Petersburg. The creator of the repertoire and director of the theater was the playwright Sumarokov. And the brilliant actor and director was Fedor Grigorievich Volkov. Confirmation of his genius is his last creation - "Triumphant Minerva", in which Volkov's numerous talents were manifested. “He knew theatrical art to the highest degree,” recalled contemporaries. This grandiose holiday was staged on the occasion of the accession to the throne of Catherine II. During the celebration, F. Volkov caught a cold and died untimely "to the great and common regret of all."

The famous actor began his acting career in the Volkov troupe I.A. Dmitrievsky(1736-1821), who from 1779 directed a private theater in the Tsaritsyn meadow. The comedy by D.I. Fonvizin "Undergrowth", in which I.A. Dmitrievsky played the role of Starodum.

There was a university theater in Moscow with the Italian troupe D. Locatelli. And in 1780, the Petrovsky Theater opened, the repertoire of which included both dramatic and opera performances.

A peculiar phenomenon of the cultural life of the second half of the XVIII century. was a fort theater.

At the end of the XVIII century. The role of the theater in public life has grown significantly and has become the subject of public discussion.

All these issues require further detailed consideration and study.

1. History of the fortress theater

The history of the Russian theater is divided into several main stages. The initial, playful stage originates in a tribal society and ends by the 17th century, when, along with a new period in Russian history, a new, more mature stage in the development of the theater begins, culminating in the establishment of a permanent state professional theater in 1756.

The terms “theatre”, “drama” entered the Russian dictionary only in the 18th century. At the end of the 17th century, the term "comedy" was used, and throughout the century - "fun" (Amusing closet, Amusement Chamber). In the popular masses, the term “theater” was preceded by the term “disgrace”, the term “drama” - “game”, “game”. In the Russian Middle Ages, definitions synonymous with them were common - “demonic”, or “satanic”, buffoon games. All sorts of curiosities brought by foreigners in the 16th-17th centuries, and fireworks were also called fun. The military occupations of the young Tsar Peter I were also called fun. In this sense, both the wedding and dressing up were called “play”, “game”. “Play” has a completely different meaning in relation to musical instruments: playing tambourines, sniffles, etc. The terms “game” and “play” in relation to oral drama were preserved among the people until the 19th-20th centuries.

The first public theater appeared in Moscow in 1702. It was the theater of Kunsta-Fgorst, the so-called "comedy temple". He did not last long. He was not popular with Muscovites. Peter I attached special importance to the theater in connection with the fact that he demanded that the theater propagate the ideas of statehood and proclaim its domestic and foreign policy through the theatrical stage. Therefore, under Peter I, nationwide large-scale actions were widely used: triumph processions, masquerades, fireworks. Peter I "pushed the theater out of the royal palace onto the square."

In the 1730s, “public games” appeared in Moscow at Shrovetide, at which Evdon and Berfa, Solomon and Gaer were represented. And since 1742, the German Comedy was represented in Moscow - a permanent city theater, whose performances were attended by many people.

Forced actors were trained by professional artists, composers, choreographers. Often, serf artists were brought up in state theater and ballet schools, and free artists played next to them on the serf stage. It happened that serfs, rented out by their owners, also appeared on the imperial stage (in such cases, in posters and programs, serfs were not called “master” or “lady”, but simply wrote their names). There are cases when serf artists were redeemed by the treasury for admission to the imperial stage - Stolypin serfs, together with the courtyard actors of the landowners P.M. Volkonsky and N.I. Demidov, entered the troupe of the state theater formed in 1806, now known as the Maly Theater. M.S. Shchepkin, S. Mochalov (father of the tragic poet P.S. Mochalov), E. Semenova, according to A.S. Pushkin, “the sovereign queen of the tragic scene”, and many others came out of the serf artists.

Such serf troupes as the theater of Count S. M. Kamensky in Orel are widely known. A special building had a stalls, mezzanine, boxes, a gallery. The chaplains were dressed in special livery tailcoats with multicolored collars. In the count's box, in front of his chair, there was a special book for recording the mistakes of artists and orchestra during the performance, and whips were hung on the wall behind the chair for punishment. Within six months in 1817, according to the "Friend of the Russians", in the theater of Count Kamensky "to the amusement of the public of the city of Orel, 82 plays were staged, of which there were 18 operas, 15 dramas, 41 comedies, 6 ballets and 2 tragedies." The count's estate has not been preserved, but in the Oryol Drama Theater. I.S. Turgenev, since the late 1980s, there has been a memorial “stage of Count Kamensky” with a reconstructed stage, a small hall, a curtain, a museum and a make-up room. Chamber performances are played here, and a portrait of the count and a rod for punishment hangs above the chair of the last row.

The theater of Prince Shakhovsky belonged to the same type of public fortress theaters, the permanent residence of which was in a specially equipped room in Nizhny Novgorod. Every year in July, the prince brought his theater to the Makariev Fair. The repertoire of the fortress theater included drama, opera and ballet performances. A similar type of theater is depicted in the story of Vl. A. Sologub pupil- the customs and life of theatrical figures of the early 19th century. conveyed here with the same tragedy as in the story of A.I. Herzen magpie thief. There is enough accurate information about the repertoire of serf theaters in the 1790s, mainly the works of V. Levshin and I. Kartselli: comic operas King on the hunt , Master's wedding Voldyreva , Your burden does not pull , Imaginary widowers and etc.

The theaters attached to the manors' estates were distinguished by a more complex repertoire and arrangement. In his study, V.G. Sakhnovsky notes that they were arranged “more often as fun, as entertainment or the desire to respond to the prevailing fashion, less often, but for a correct assessment of the art of theater in Russia, and for the assessment of artistic culture in Russia in general, it is all the more important - how the need for the forms of the theater to express one's sense of life, worldview and, consequently, to quench the passion for the art of the stage. The greatest role in the development of the "instinct of theatricality" in the Russian nobility was played, according to the general opinion of the researchers of the topic, by the county master's theater. The most famous theaters of the nobles of Catherine's and Alexander's time in Moscow and St. Petersburg were the theater of Prince Yusupov on the Moika and in Arkhangelsk near Moscow, the Counts Shuvalovs on the Fontanka, the Potemkin in the Tauride Palace, the Counts Sheremetevs in Kuskovo (later in Ostankino), the Counts Apraksins in Olgov, Counts Zakrevsky in Ivanovsky, Counts Panins in Marfin (N.M. Karamzin, who visited this theater, wrote a play for the serf theater marked “only for Marfin”), Counts Zagryazhsky in Yaropolets Volokolamsky.

2. Shchepkin Mikhail Semenovich (1788-1863)

Russian actor. Born on November 6, 1788 in the village of Krasnoye, Oboyan district, Kursk province, in the family of serfs, Count G.S. Volkenstein. In 1800, while studying at the Sudzhensk Folk School (1799-1801), Shchepkin played the role of Rosemary's servant in the comedy by A.P. Sumarokov quarrelsome, in 1801–1802 he played at the home theater of Count Wolkenstein, including the Actor (the role “with transformation”) in N.R. Sudovshchikov’s comedy Art experience, Stepan-sbitenshchik and landowner-gallomaniac Firyulin in comic operas by Ya.B. Knyaznin Sbitenshchik And Trouble from the carriage. While studying at the Kursk Folk School (1801–1803), he got behind the scenes of the city theater of the brothers M.E., A.E. and P.E. Zoa L.-S. Mercier. For several years, Shchepkin combined the duties of the secretary of his landowner, Count Volkenstein, with artistic activities in the Barsov troupe. In 1816 he joined the troupe of I.F. Stein and O.I. Kalinovsky, who played in the cities of southern and southwestern Russia. In 1818 he moved to the Poltava Theater, directed by the writer I.P. Kotlyarevsky. Especially for Shchepkin, who immediately took a leading position in the troupe, Kotlyarevsky wrote the roles of the elected Makogonenko and the villager Mikhailo Chuprun in "Little Russian operas" Natalka-Poltavka And Moskal-Charovnik. After the collapse of the theater in 1821, the actor returned to the troupe of Stein, who at that time headed the Tula Theater.

Provincial fortress theaters

Hermitage Garden Theater

The fortress theater existed in Russia for about a century (from the middle of the 18th century to the middle of the 19th century). The fortress theater was of two types - manor and city. The first was a well-organized premises with a large repertoire, a large troupe of artists trained from childhood for theatrical activities, an orchestra, ballet, choir and soloists. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. there were over 170 serf theaters, different in scale, character "and direction. Most of the serf theaters, owned by small-scale nobles, did not go beyond primitive home performances arranged on family holidays.

At first, these theaters were closed and served a select audience, remaining as if at home. Later they began to receive spectators and even brought their owners a considerable income. For the most part, their repertoire was opera and ballet, although dramas could also be performed.

There were several varieties of fortress theater:

home theater, designed for a narrow circle of people close to the landowner;

the landowner's commercial theater and the theater that, as a result of the ruin of the landowner, fell into the hands of entrepreneurial merchants.

Some fortress theaters passed from one variety to another. There were commercial theaters, but tickets were sold only to a select audience.

At the end of the XVIII - beginning of the XIX century. many home theaters appeared. In some cases, the home theater was part of a large estate, and serf actors played in it. Such theaters were created and worked in Kuskovo, in the Ostankino Palace, in Arkhangelsk and other rich estates.

That is why even at home one hall, or even just a part of the room, was more and more often allocated, where a sliding curtain was arranged, and the hosts and guests dressed in costumes played a performance. Such productions of amateur performances remained popular until the beginning of the 20th century.

Among the first owners of serf troupes, we will find representatives of the most powerful noble families - the Yusupovs, Sheremetevs, Golitsyns, Saltykovs, Gagarins, Trubetskoy, Shakhovskoy, Chernyshevsky, Naryshkin, Dolgoruky, Vorontsov and others. For most of them, the serf theater was a means of satisfying ambition and demonstrating wealth. grandeur, education and secularism.

Sheremetev, Yusupov and some other nobles ordered textbooks from France on the technique of acting, engravings depicting scenes from Parisian performances. Many theater owners, in order to improve their actors in the performing arts, subscribed boxes for them in the theaters of St. Petersburg and Moscow for performances by Russian and French troupes.

The most common and typical form of the serf estate theater was very, very far from humanism and enlightenment.

Among the serf troupes of the late 18th century, one cannot fail to name the troupe that belonged to Generalissimo A.V. Suvorov. The great commander not only had his own home theater, but also enthusiastically engaged in its affairs. There were other, more or less enlightened and liberal theater landowners (among them I. M. Dolgorukov, M. V. Bakunin).

The St. Petersburg theaters of V. A. Vsevolozhsky and P. M. Volkonsky were also staged with great seriousness.

In the 1990s, Moscow became the site of the greatest concentration of serf theatres, outnumbering St. Petersburg more than twice. According to incomplete data from the Moscow police, in 1797, in nine urban parts of Moscow, there were fifteen landlord theaters with one hundred and sixty actors and actresses and two hundred and twenty-six musicians and singers. The fortress theaters of Moscow and the Moscow region were larger and richer than those in St. Petersburg.

Now you can see what a well-arranged Moscow theater was like in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In Moscow, in Ostankino, the Sheremetev Palace Theater is carefully preserved, in Arkhangelsk you can see the theater of the Golitsyns, and then the Yusupovs, a wonderful collection of amazing theatrical scenery by P. Gonzago (1751-1831) has been preserved here. "Costume designs for the Sheremetev fortress theater

At the end of the 17th century, the aristocratic, large-scale theater fell into decay. Under Paul, a draft special decree arose to close home theaters.

But at the very time when the serf theater is going through its crisis in a large-scale environment, on the whole it still continues to be a completely active theatrical form. He only moves to a different environment, at the same time somewhat changes his character. The number of serf theaters in Moscow, in the estates near Moscow, is declining, but their total number in Russia is increasing. Especially a lot of them occur in the agricultural regions of the country - in the Kursk, Oryol, Penza, Poltava provinces.

On March 7 (February 23, old style), 1803, Praskovya Ivanovna Zhemchugova-Kovaleva, the famous actress, serf of the Sheremetyevs, died. Bright dramatic talent, an extraordinary voice and beauty quickly made Praskovya, the daughter of the serf blacksmith Kovalev, inherited by the wife of Sheremetyev Sr., the prima of the serf theater, and later Countess Sheremetyeva. Empress Catherine II herself, admiring Zhemchugova's performance, awarded her with a diamond ring in recognition of her talent. We decided to talk about gifted serfs who became more famous than their masters.

Praskovya Zhemchugova

Praskovya Zhemchugova. Portrait by the serf artist Argunov

The fate of Praskovya Kovaleva could have turned out differently, if not for the fashion of that time for serf theaters and for a rare gift - an unusual bewitching voice. 8-year-old Praskovya was taken to the count's estate in Kuskovo and began to be taught stage skills, dancing, music, playing the harp and harpsichord, and foreign languages. Then she also received the pseudonym Zhemchugova: Sheremetyev wanted to change the peasant surnames of his actresses to pseudonyms formed from the names of precious stones - Zhemchugov, Biryuzov, Granatov. It is believed that the actress received the pseudonym Zhemchugova for her gentle “pearl” voice.

Praskovya played her first role at the age of 11, she appeared as a maid in Gretry's opera The Experience of Friendship. At the grand opening of the Sheremetyev Theater, timed to coincide with the victory in the war with Turkey on June 22, 1795, Praskovya shone in the title role of the Turkish woman Zelmira, who fell in love with a Russian officer, in the musical drama by I. Kozlovsky based on the text of P. Potemkin "Zelmira and Smelon, or the Capture of Ishmael" . At the age of seventeen, Zhemchugova played her best, according to contemporaries, role of Eliana in Marriages of the Samnites. It was for this role that Emperor Paul I granted Praskovya a pearl necklace, and the owner of the theater, by that time the son of Count Sheremetyev had become it, bestowed the title of chief marshal.

In 1798, Count Nikolai Sheremetyev gives freedom to Praskovya and the entire Kovalev family, and in 1801, having received the tsar's permission for an unequal marriage, he marries an actress. At the request of his wife, according to the project of the architect Giacomo Quarenghi, the count built the Hospice House - one of the first institutions in Russia to provide medical care to the poor and orphans. The Sklifosovsky Research Institute for Emergency Medicine traces its history from him.

Praskovya Zhemchugova died in 1803 from consumption at the age of 34, three weeks after the birth of her son Dmitry. She was buried in St. Petersburg in the family tomb of the Sheremetevs in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Praskovya Zhemchugova as Eliana (Marriages of the Samnitians by A. Gretry). Watercolor portrait of C. de Chamisso.

Mikhail Shchepkin

Mikhail Schepkin. Portrait of the artist N.V. Nevrev.

The founder of the Russian realistic theater Mikhail Shchepkin was born in the Kursk province in the family of Count G. S. Volkenstein, who organized a home theater for the entertainment of children, then young Mikhail became interested in acting. In 1805, he made his debut on the professional stage: quite by accident it was necessary to replace the actor in a performance based on the play by L.-S. Mercier. Since that time, with the permission of Count Volkenstein, the actor began to play in the theater of the Barsov brothers in Kursk.

Prince V. Meshchersky had a great influence on the young actor, whose style of play impressed Shchepkin. He himself believed that his transformation into a real actor occurred under the influence of Meshchersky's game. He "did not play on stage, but lived." Since then, Shchepkin began to implement a realistic style of play, using the principle of "internal justification of the role." Shchepkin advocated getting used to the image of the character being portrayed, so that the audience would feel the sincerity of the game. This new stage style made Mikhail Shchepkin the first actor in the province. In 1822, admirers of his talent collected the necessary amount and bought the actor out of serfdom. In order to raise the required amount, a performance was organized, with a subscription fee. In 1822, the already free Shchepkin was invited to the troupe of the Moscow Maly Theater, which was later assigned the unofficial name "Schepkin's House". In the capital, he brilliantly played the roles of Shylock in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, Famusov in Griboedov's Woe from Wit, and the mayor in Gogol's The Government Inspector.

New principles of acting: deep insight into the character and understanding of the character, which became widespread thanks to Shchepkin, later formed the basis of the famous "Stanislavsky system". The Higher Theater School at the State Academic Maly Theater in Moscow, the Regional Drama Theater in Belgorod and streets in Moscow, Kursk, Alma-Ata were named after Shchepkin.

Taras Shevchenko

The future National Hero of Ukraine Taras Shevchenko was born in the Kiev province in the family of the serf landowner Engelhardt, who, noticing the boy's talent for drawing, sent him to study in St. Petersburg to the artist V. Shiryaev, intending to make Taras his serf painter. In St. Petersburg, the talented serf was introduced to the secretary of the Academy of Arts V. I. Grigorovich, the artists A. Venetsianov and K. Bryullov, the poet V. Zhukovsky, thanks to whose efforts Shevchenko was redeemed from serfdom. For this, the portrait of Zhukovsky, painted by Bryullov, was raffled off in a lottery, and the 2,500 rubles received went towards Shevchenko's freedom. As a sign of gratitude to Zhukovsky, Shevchenko dedicated one of his largest works to him - the poem "Katerina".

In 1840, "Kobzar" was published in St. Petersburg - the first Ukrainian collection of Shevchenko's poems. Soon he published "Gaidamaki" - his largest poetic work, "Topol", "Katerina", "Naimichka", "Khustochka", "Caucasus". For his poem "Dream", which contained a satire on the Empress, Shevchenko was sent into exile with a ban on writing and drawing. He was released by an amnesty after the death of Nicholas I.

Shevchenko, who wrote more than a thousand works of art, is considered the founder of modern Ukrainian literature and the norms of the literary Ukrainian language. In addition, Taras Shevchenko is one of the most famous masters of Ukrainian painting. The National University in Kyiv, the embankment in Moscow, Ukrainian theaters and the Kyiv metro station are named after him.

Andrey Voronikhin

Portrait of Andrei Voronikhin. Engraving by Viktor Bobrov from a painting original from the early 19th century.

The Russian architect Andrei Voronikhin was lucky to be born into a family of serfs, Count A. S. Stroganov, a well-known philanthropist and philanthropist. Stroganov opened several art schools, in one of which Voronikhin also studied painting with the famous icon painter Yushkov. Soon, the count himself drew attention to the talent of the young man and sent him to study at the Moscow School of Architecture, where V. I. Bazhenov and M. F. Kazakov became his mentors. Count Stroganov gave freedom to Voronikhin in 1785, and a year later the young man went to study architecture, mechanics, mathematics and natural sciences in France and Switzerland with the count's son.

In 1791, the young architect began his first work - interior decoration of the Stroganov Palace, designed by Rastrelli, an adherent of the Baroque style. Voronikhin preferred the simplicity of classicism. There is an opinion that it was the European trip, during which Voronikhin got acquainted with examples of ancient architecture, that predetermined his love for classicism, which turned to the forms of ancient architecture as a standard of harmony, logic and beauty. In the same style of classicism, he rebuilt the interiors of the Stroganov dacha and several other houses.

The most famous work of Voronikhin was the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, made in the Empire style. After the construction was completed, Voronikhin was awarded the Order of St. Anna of the second degree, and went down in history as one of the founders of the Russian Empire style.

Ivan Sviyazev

The serf princess Shakhovskaya architect Ivan Sviyazev was educated at the Imperial Academy of Arts. At the exam in 1817, for his project “Post Yard”, he received a silver medal of the 2nd degree, but a year later Sviyazev was expelled from the academy due to his status as a serf. Sviyazev was released into the wild in 1821, after which he immediately received the title of artist-architect of the Academy of Arts.

For ten years, the architect worked in Perm, where a school for children of clerical workers, a civil governor's house, and a theological seminary were built according to his designs. Sviyazev owns the final draft of the bell tower of the Transfiguration Cathedral, which now houses the Perm Art Gallery. In 1832, Sviyazev moved to St. Petersburg, where he worked as an architect and teacher at the Mining Institute, where he published the first Russian Guide to Architecture, which was accepted for teaching at the Mining Institute and other educational institutions. For this work, Sviyazev was awarded the title of member of the Academy of Sciences, which gave an honorary review of his work, and the architect himself was invited to various educational institutions to lecture on architecture. In addition to this work, Sviyazev also published the "Textbook of Architecture", "Fundamentals of Furnace Art" and a number of articles published in the "Mining Journal", "Journal of the Ministry of State. Property", "Journal of Fine Arts" and "Proceedings of the Imperial Free Economic Society".