Museums section publications

Chronicle of the Russian land: seven historical figures in the paintings of Vasily Surikov

Asily Surikov is an unsurpassed master of historical painting. His works are distinguished by that special intonation, which allows the viewer to plunge into what is happening in the picture. Together with Anna Popova, we figure out which of the historical characters Surikov portrayed and what events are reflected in his paintings.

Peter I

Vasily Surikov. Peter I drags ships from Onega Bay to Lake Onega in 1702. 1872. State Russian Museum

Ksenia Godunova

Vasily Surikov. Princess Xenia Godunova at the portrait of the deceased fiance-prince. 1881. State Tretyakov Gallery

The tragic story of Ksenia Godunova is like a ready-made plot for a historical blockbuster. The daughter of Boris Godunov, the granddaughter of Malyuta Skuratov, tried to marry six times. But some fate seemed to dominate Godunova: every time the matrimonial plans were frustrated. Prince Gustav of Sweden preferred his mistress to her and did not want to change his faith. The wedding with Archduke Maximilian III of Austria also failed due to the fact that he did not want to convert to Orthodoxy. King Rudolf II of Germany did not want to live in Russia. The marriage with Johann of Schleswig-Holstein was almost concluded: he agreed to all the conditions, and Boris Godunov also liked him as a bride. But this marriage was not destined to come true either: the prince died suddenly. Due to unrest, two more marriages broke down - with Tsarevich Khozroy from Georgia and cousins ​​​​of King Christian IV of Denmark.

After the death of Boris Godunov, there was no talk of any unions. False Dmitry kept Ksenia Godunova for about six months, and then exiled to a monastery. But the Troubles got there too. The princess was in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra during its long siege, and after that she was transferred to the Novodevichy Convent, which was plundered by the Cossacks of the First Militia.

Vasily Surikov portrayed Ksenia Godunova at the portrait of the groom: she sadly bent over the image, and the courtiers standing nearby are trying to see what the overseas prince was like. Alas, this story never became a painting, remaining only in sketches.

Prince Alexander Menshikov

Vasily Surikov. Menshikov in Berezov. 1883. State Tretyakov Gallery

Often, the images of future paintings were inspired by random mise-en-scenes to Surikov. So it was with the painting "Menshikov in Berezov". “Yes, it was like this for me: I lived near Moscow in a dacha, in a peasant's hut. The summer was rainy. The hut is cramped, the ceiling is low. It's raining and you can't work. Boring. And I began to remember: who exactly was sitting in the hut in the same way. And suddenly ... Menshikov ... everything came at once - I saw the whole composition in its entirety ”- this is how the poet and artist Maximilian Voloshin remembered and wrote down Surikov's story.

The favorite of Peter I, Alexander Menshikov, supervised the construction of St. Petersburg, was the hero of the Battle of Poltava and the only Russian nobleman who received the title of duke. Under Catherine I, he actually ruled Russia and almost intermarried with the royal family. However, as a result of intrigues, the prince was accused of treason and embezzlement from the treasury and sent into exile with his family.

The “semi-powerful sovereign” was thrown out of court life and ended up in a tiny hut with a mica window. It seems that if Menshikov gets up from his chair, he will not fit in this new housing: he is too big. Next to him are the children: the eldest Mary, yearning for her fiancé Peter II, the son Alexander, thoughtfully looking at the candlestick, and the younger Alexandra, reading the Gospel. Neither the prince nor Maria will ever return to St. Petersburg: her father will die of apoplexy two years after the expulsion, the other - a year later - from smallpox.

Boyar Morozova

Vasily Surikov. Boyar Morozova. 1887. State Tretyakov Gallery

The large-scale canvas was created on the plot of the tragic period of Russian history - the church schism of the 17th century. Some critics called it too "noisy" and compared it to a barbarically colorful Persian carpet. However, the majority enthusiastically accepted this compositionally complex, rich picture. The artist Alexander Benois noted that Surikov's work is like "music that transports you to ancient, still distinctively beautiful Rus'."

The main character of the canvas is the noblewoman Fedosia Morozova. She did not support the reforms of Patriarch Nikon, communicated with his opponent Archpriest Avvakum, and remained in the Old Believer faith. In 1670, Morozova secretly took the veil as a nun. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich knew about her views and tried to convince the noblewoman, but she remained strong in her faith. The last straw in the confrontation was Morozova's refusal to attend the tsar's wedding with Natalya Naryshkina. She was soon arrested and sent along with her sister, first to Chudov and then to the Pskov-Caves Monastery. Neither deprivation nor torture forced Morozova to change her views. She was exiled to Borovsky jail, where she died.

Before Surikov, Alexander Litovchenko addressed this plot, but it was the painting of 1887 that became the most famous and large-scale. The artist depicted the moment when Morozov was brought to the Chudov Monastery. Sitting in the sledge, she raises up her two-fingered hand. People crowding around stare at her incessantly. The pale-faced figure in the center of the picture, wrapped in a black fur coat, has an almost hypnotic effect.

Ermak

Vasily Surikov. The conquest of Siberia by Ermak Timofeevich. 1895. State Russian Museum

“I am writing Tatars. Wrote a fair amount. Found a type for Yermak"- wrote Vasily Surikov in one of the letters. His interest in this topic was not accidental. A native of Krasnoyarsk, he came from a family of Cossacks whose ancestors had come to Siberia with Yermak. In 1891, the artist went on a trip, during which he studied the life and habits of local peoples. He painted sketches, sketched clothes, weapons, chain mail. And two years later he went to the Don to get acquainted with the local Cossacks.

The painting “The Conquest of Siberia” captures the dramatic moment of the battle between the Yermakovites and the army of Khan Kuchum. Having seized power during the coup, he made raids on neighboring Russian principalities. Yermak served the Stroganov merchants from 1579, protecting their possessions from the Siberian Tatars, and then led a campaign through the Ural Mountains. Despite the fact that Kuchum's forces were significantly superior to his own, Yermak defeated the Khan's army and occupied the capital of the Khanate - Kashlyk. Having sent an ambassador to Ivan the Terrible with a request to take Siberia under his rule, the chieftain was generously rewarded.

Ermak on the canvas is depicted in the thick of the battle, shoulder to shoulder with his comrades-in-arms. They seem to form a single whole: the guns of the Cossacks bare their teeth, the Irtysh boils, the khan's soldiers are frightened. The outcome of the battle is predetermined.

The Conquest of Siberia was the first painting that Surikov painted in a studio located in the Historical Museum. It turned out to be so great that it was no longer possible to work at home, as before. Due to the scale of the canvas, it was impossible even to evaluate the color solution. Moving to one of the towers of the Historical Museum turned out to be just in time.

To work on the "densely populated" picture, all the sketches made by the artist during trips around Siberia and the Don came in handy. “I wrote many studies; all faces are characteristic. The Don strongly resembles the Siberian areas, it must have been the Don Cossacks during the conquest of Siberia and chose places for the settlement that resembled a distant homeland "- wrote Surikov. Compositionally, the picture is built in such a way that the viewer seems to be watching the battle through the eyes of the Cossacks. In 1895, "The Capture of Siberia" was presented at the exhibition of the Wanderers. Coincidentally, it was on these days that the 300th anniversary of the conquest of Siberia was celebrated. Shortly before the opening, Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna purchased the painting for 40,000 rubles.

At first, Vasily Ivanovich Surikov called his painting “The Execution of Streltsy”. But then someone suggested to him a more accurate name, adequate to the artist’s intention: “Morning of the Streltsy Execution” (more precisely, “Morning of the Streltsy Executions”).

Surikov recalled that when the painting was close to completion, Ilya Repin entered the studio. Looking at the canvas, he said: “Why don’t you have a single executed person? You would be hanged here, on the gallows, on the right plane. When the master left, Surikov depicted one of the executed on the gallows with chalk. Soon Pavel Tretyakov, a collector and connoisseur of painting, came to Surikov and scolded the artist for the amendment: “What do you want to spoil the picture?”. The embarrassed Surikov wiped the silhouette on the gallows. Later he said: "I wanted to convey the solemnity of the last minutes, but not the execution at all." it is in the brilliant transmission of terrible solemnity, incredible tension that the essence of this canvas by Surikov lies.

How does a person feel when the executioners drag him to the scaffold? Fyodor Dostoevsky, who himself experienced this, wrote that the impending pain, near-death suffering are not so terrible, but "the transition to another, unknown image is terrible." Others testify that the person sentenced to death falls into a stupor, it seems to him that all this is not happening to him, that it is only a dream!

Surikov ingeniously showed all the states of people at the hour of death. This is the unceasing hatred of a red-bearded archer in a red cap, this is both indifference and some kind of lethargy of a black-bearded archer in a green caftan draped over his shoulders. Their comrade, standing on a cart, hung low on his chest, resigned to the villainous fate. peacefully, casually, a gray-haired warrior says goodbye to loved ones (in the foreground of the picture). and between them, in the motley crowd of women and children, dexterously flicker, like demons on the frescoes of the Last Judgment, the Transfiguration. They push the archers off the carts, drag the weeping women and children away from them. Two executioners, like an intoxicated friend, are led by the arms to the scaffold sentenced to death. It seems that to the right of him, with a drawn sword, the favorite of the sovereign Menshikov is “caringly” hugging the archer. These days, the “faithful Aleksashka” especially “distinguished himself”: with a military weapon - a sword, he finished off the executed and then boasted that he cut down twenty heads. He leads his victim past the king sitting motionless on a white horse. The young face of Peter is stern and reserved. For him, this whole crowd is sworn enemies. He hated the archers from the very day when, during the last rebellion in the spring of 168, he witnessed their bloody rampage. Forever, he, a ten-year-old boy, remembered the terrible scenes of the murder of his relatives, who were thrown from the Kremlin porch onto spears of a crowd of archers drunk on wine and blood. Now, after 16 years, the hour of reckoning has come, the morning of his revenge.

The news of the rebellion of the archers overtook the king in July 1698, when he was abroad. Peter learned that four Moscow archery regiments sent to the Polish border rebelled and moved home to Moscow. Not far from New Jerusalem, troops loyal to Peter under the command of Patrick Gordon defeated the rebels. The arrests of the fled archers began. Hastily returning to Russia, Peter began an investigation, convinced that this rebellion was an attempt at a palace coup in order to overthrow him and return Princess Sophia to the throne. The environment has never seen the king so severe: he became merciless, cruel, he himself participated in the interrogations and torture of archers, led the mass public executions of rebels, forced his associates to chop off their heads with their own hands.

This was an additional torture for those sentenced - the inept boyars could not cut off the head of the unfortunate with one blow, with trembling hands they cut the archers not on the neck, but on the back, on the head. Obviously, these days the king experienced a terrible tension, which, out of habit, he tried to relieve with wine and revelry. Torture and executions were interspersed with grandiose drinking parties and sprees, which gave a special, ominous gloom to everything that happened, reminiscent of the terrible times of the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible. In total, more than 000 people were executed in Moscow and its environs, and most of them without investigation or trial. Executions continued until the beginning of 1700, the country was shaken by terror. At the same time, many ordinary people were seized and brought to the dungeons, who said among themselves: “Our sovereign is such that if in the morning he doesn’t drink human blood, then he won’t eat bread.”

Johann Georg Korb, the secretary of the Austrian ambassador, also witnessed the terrible executions in the autumn of 1698. Perhaps it was the Austrian ambassador that Surikov portrayed in the form of a richly dressed diplomat standing in the pose of an outside observer near the embassy carriage. Behind him, perhaps, was Korb. He kept a diary, which has survived to this day. In it, starting from October 10, 1698, he entered records of eight mass executions - near the village of Preobrazhensky, where the tsar lived at that time and the investigation was conducted, and in Moscow itself. Korb wrote that all the loopholes of the walls of the Kremlin and the White City were hung with the corpses of the executed. Terrible executions were also carried out on Red Square - regimental priests and other rebels were brutally executed there. So Surikov quite reliably depicted the place of execution.

Here is a passage from Korb's diary that made a strong impression on the artist. It cannot leave us indifferent either: “... a hundred convicts in small Moscow carts (which Muscovites call cab carts) were waiting for the death penalty. For every criminal there is a cart, for every cart there is a soldier. There was no priest there to give spiritual help, as if the condemned were not worthy of this religious rite, but each of them held a wax candle in his hands so as not to die without consecration and the cross. Surikov recalled: “The execution of archers went like this: once I saw a candle lit in the afternoon on a white shirt, with reflexes.” in other words, Korb's description cited above, combined with the impression of a candle against the background of a white shirt, closed the links of the "chain" in the artist's mind, gave the key image of the painting: alive, but already dead. No wonder the yellow-bloody reflection of funeral candles on white shirts is visible in the picture four times.

Korb wrote further: “The horror of impending death was increased by the pitiful cries of the wives, the groans and tearing cries of the dying struck the bulk of the unfortunate. The mother mourned her son, the daughter - the fate of her father, the unfortunate wife - the evil fate of her husband; their sobs mingled with the cries of those women who, due to various ties of kinship or property, burst into tears. When any of the condemned horses were quickly carried away to the place of execution, the sobs and cries of the women increased, they tried to catch up with them, mourned the victim with different, almost similar ... words (I pass them on as they were translated to me): “Why are you being taken away from me so soon?” me? Why are you leaving me? And the last time you can not kiss? Do not let me say goodbye to you for the last time? With these sad lamentations, the unfortunate women saw off their loved ones, whom they could no longer catch up with. and last. Surikov's painting was first shown at the exhibition of the Wanderers on March 1, 1881. Just on this day, Emperor Alexander II was killed. The bloody wheel rolled across Russia further ...

EVGENY ANISIMOV

The painting “Morning of the Streltsy Execution” by Vasily Surikov confuses the unprepared viewer. What is shown here? It is clear that the national tragedy: the general intensity of passions does not give reason to doubt this. Also in the picture you can see - and recognize - Tsar Peter the Great. The Russian audience is probably familiar with the episode from Russian history, when the Moscow archery regiments, taking advantage of the sovereign's stay abroad, revolted. But what pushed them to this rebellion? And what did the artist want to say with his painting? After all, despite the gloomy name, not a single hanged or beheaded is visible in the picture. Let's try to figure it out.

Official version of events

The sister of Peter the Great, Sofya Alekseevna, imprisoned in not abandoned hopes to sit on the royal throne of Russia. Taking advantage of her brother's absence, she announced that Peter had been replaced. She called on the archers to come to her aid and protect Russia from the invasion of the Gentiles (that is, European managers whom the tsar invited from Germany and Holland). 175 soldiers from four regiments responded to her call. They arrived in Moscow with a petition in March 1698. In early April, they were driven out of Moscow, but they returned to their regiments and revolted. His goal was to elevate Sophia to the throne, and if she renounces the kingdom, the exiled V.V. Golitsyn. The government sent four regiments and noble cavalry against the two thousand rebels. In June, the rebellion was crushed, and the "most malicious instigators" were hanged. Describing the morning of the Streltsy execution, Surikov takes the official version as a basis. That is, an act of justice that took place on June 22 or 28, 1698. Then, according to the annals, fifty-six people were hanged.

Morning of the Streltsy execution: history

In fact, mass repressions began when Peter the Great returned to Russia (August 25, 1698). The king initiated and led a second investigation. The real morning of the Streltsy execution, described by the shocked diplomats of that time, took place on October 10th. Then about two thousand archers were hanged and beheaded. The king personally cut off the heads of five of them. He did not pardon anyone, did not look at gender or age. He ordered two of his sisters' maids to be buried alive in the ground. Those 500 archers who were too young, the king freed from, but they cut off their nostrils, ears, branded them and sent them into exile. Repressions continued until the spring of 1699. The tsar, who was considered an admirer of European values, allowed to bury the executed only in February.

The history of writing the canvas

So what does the picture “Morning of the Streltsy Execution”, which is on display at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, want to tell the viewer? This is the first large painting by Vasily Surikov, which he exhibited to the audience. He worked on it for three years - from 1878 to 1881. Why did the artist turn to the theme of Russian history? Probably, his stay in ancient Moscow, where he moved after graduation, had an effect. They say that at first the artist wanted to depict several hanged men on canvas. He even drew sketches. But one of the maids in the house, seeing them, fainted. Therefore, Surikov abandoned the idea of ​​shocking the viewer. But the tragedy of foreboding the execution keeps us in constant tension. This feeling is stronger than seeing bloody scenes. The picture "Morning of the Streltsy Execution" was liked by the collector Tretyakov. He bought it right away. And later he added to the collection two more works by the master on historical themes - "Boyar Morozova" and "Menshikov in Berezov".

Composition

This is a large canvas (379 x 218 centimeters), made in oil. The painting “Morning of the Streltsy Execution” is designed in dark colors, which further emphasizes the tragedy and gloom of the moment. The artist resorted to an interesting technique in building a composition. He reduced the distance between objects on Red Square. The Kremlin tower with a wall fit right in the picture, and thus, only a few dozen characters create the feeling of a huge crowd, symbolizing the Russian people. It is important that the figure of the king is located in the background. To make the autocrat visible, the artist depicted him on horseback. Peter the Great conducts a "duel with a glance" with one of the archers, who did not break under the yoke of repression. The king realizes that he has no power over the proud spirit of the people, and his revenge remains unsatisfied.

coloring

For the painting "Morning of the Streltsy Execution" Surikov used a rich palette. An early autumn morning after a rainy night, when fog still hangs over the square, serves as a gray background, against which the white shirts of the condemned archers and the lights of candles in their hands show through the more clearly. A bright spot that attracts the eyes of the audience is an archer with red hair. Although his hands are tied and his feet are shackled, it is clear that his spirit is not broken. This symbolizes the high flame of a candle, which he squeezes in his palm. White shirts and a gray background soften the bright clothes of the inhabitants of those times. The little girl's red handkerchief and the gold-woven caftan of the archer's wife translate the viewer's gaze to the mourning people.

Symbolism

In the painting “Morning of the Streltsy Execution”, the artist laid down a certain code that not everyone understands. First, it is the number "7". That is how many archers are depicted on the canvas (one of them has already been taken away to be executed - only his burning candle remains - as a symbol of his eternal soul). You can also see the seven domes of the cathedral. The architectural background of the canvas also carries a hidden meaning. The strict Kremlin tower corresponds to the figure of Tsar Peter the Great, while the bright, colorful domes of the church symbolize the aspirations of the Orthodox Russian people, whose ideas were expressed by the executed archers.

Surikov Gor Gennady Samoilovich

V. "MORNING OF THE STRELETSKY EXECUTION"

V. "MORNING OF THE STRELETSKY EXECUTION"

The event depicted by Surikov in his first large picture - "Morning of the Streltsy Execution", marked a turning point in the new Russian history.

In the village of Preobrazhensky in October 1698 and at Lobnoye Mesto, the recalcitrant pre-Petrine Rus', defeated by the great reformer, was dying. “...Peter accelerated the adoption of Westernism by barbarian Russia, not stopping at barbaric means of struggle against barbarism,” wrote Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, revealing the essence of Peter's executions carried out in the name of the future of Russia.

Peter was in the "great embassy" in the West and lived in Vienna, when disturbing news came from Moscow: four streltsy regiments, sent after the Azov campaign to the western border, rebelled and went to Moscow to enthrone Princess Sophia.

The archers were exhausted by the heavy and long siege of Azov, excited and dissatisfied with non-payment of salaries and harassment. Their dissatisfaction was skillfully taken advantage of by the circles of the reactionary boyars, grouped around Princess Sophia, who by that time had already been imprisoned in the Novodevichy Convent, and her relatives, the Miloslavskys. Sophia herself gave the signal for a rebellion, sending a “pompous” letter to the archers with a call to take Moscow from the battle.

V. Surikov. Study for "The Morning of the Streltsy Execution" (a red-haired archer in a hat) (TG).

V. Surikov. Study for "Morning of the Streltsy Execution" (an old woman sitting on the ground) (TG).

Boyar demagogy deceived the archers. But it would be a mistake to reduce the whole meaning of the streltsy revolt to boyar intrigues.

The archers rose not only because they were deceived by the generous promises of Sophia and the Miloslavskys, not only because they became impoverished without a salary and did not want to be separated from Moscow and their families, leaving for a long time to the Lithuanian border. The streltsy movement reflected the hopes and aspirations of the oppressed, tormented, suffering people, who had to endure the historically progressive cause of Peter on their shoulders.

In a class society, progress is made at the expense of the oppressed. Such is the inexorable logic of history, such is its fundamental internal contradiction. Peter led Russia to a new, progressive path, but the great reforms were bought at the price of the people's blood and the unheard-of cruel enslavement of the masses.

Having opposed Peter and his innovations, the archers knew that the people sympathized with them, and they drew from the people's support the consciousness of their rightness.

Peter, having received news of the rebellion, gave a decree to his governor, Prince Romodanovsky, to mercilessly destroy the rebels, and he himself immediately left for Moscow. But the rebellion was crushed before his arrival. In June 1698, near New Jerusalem, the Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments met the archers under the command of the boyar Shein and General Gordon. Streltsy could not withstand the onslaught of regular troops and surrendered ...

On the "search" of Shane, 136 archers were hanged, 140 were beaten with a whip and about 2 thousand were sentenced to deportation to different cities. Peter, returning to Moscow, was dissatisfied with the "search", ordered to reconsider the whole case and personally led the investigation. The organizational role of Sophia became clear. The Streltsy army was destroyed. Sophia was tonsured a nun. Mass executions began. There was not a single square in Moscow where scaffolds and gallows with hanged archers did not stand. The opposition to the Petrine reforms was drowned in the blood of the archers.

“Surikov passionately loved art, he always burned with it, and this fire warmed around him both the cold apartment and his empty rooms, which happened: a chest, two broken chairs, always with holes in the seats, and a palette lying on the floor, small, very sparingly soiled with oil paints, immediately lying around in skinny tubes, ”says Repin.

One of the rooms was blocked by a huge canvas with the “Morning of the Streltsy Execution” begun. To capture the whole picture with a glance, Surikov had to look askance at her from a nearby dark room.

In a cramped apartment on Zubovsky Boulevard, hard, tireless, truly titanic work went on for almost three years.

The inspiration that lit up Surikov on Red Square gave him only an inner image, only a general feeling of the future picture. In order to clothe this image in living flesh, it took a long and careful study of historical sources and museum items, it took dozens of preliminary sketches and sketches from nature.

The artist found a description of the execution of archers in the “Diary of a Journey to Muscovy” by Johann Georg Korb, secretary of the Caesar (Austrian) embassy, ​​who was in Russia in 1698-1699.

The source was well chosen. Korb has earned a reputation as a careful and thoughtful observer. The well-known researcher of the Petrine era, historian N. G. Ustryalov, pointed out that Korb wrote with deep respect for Peter, with love for the truth, and if he was mistaken, it was only because he sometimes believed unfounded stories. There are no major inaccuracies in the descriptions of the shootings: Korb described what he saw with his own eyes or knew from direct witnesses. In his detailed and unhurried narration, the atmosphere of the era is sensitively captured.

The executions began in October 1698 in the village of Preobrazhenskoye and continued the following February on Red Square in Moscow. Here is how Korb describes the first day of the executions:

“The dwellings of the soldiers in Preobrazhenskoye are cut through by the Yauza River flowing there; on the other side of it, on small Moscow carts (which they call cabbies - sbosek), one hundred guilty were planted, waiting for their turn to be executed. How many were guilty, as many carts and as many guard soldiers; there were no priests to guide the condemned, as if the criminals were unworthy of this feat of piety; yet everyone held a lit wax candle in their hands so as not to die without light and a cross. The bitter weeping of the wives increased their fear of the impending execution; from everywhere around the crowd of unfortunate groans and cries were heard. The mother wept for her son, the daughter mourned the fate of her father, the unfortunate wife lamented the fate of her husband; in others, the last tears were caused by various ties of blood and properties. And when fast horses carried the condemned to the very place of execution, the women's crying intensified, turning into loud sobs and cries ... From the estate of governor Shein, another one hundred and thirty archers were brought to death. On both sides of all the city gates, two gallows were erected, and each was intended that day for six rebels. When everyone was taken out to the places of execution and each six was distributed to each of the two gallows, his royal majesty in a green Polish caftan arrived, accompanied by many noble Muscovites, to the gate, where, by decree of his royal majesty, the emperor's ambassador stopped in his own carriage with representatives of Poland and Denmark…

Surikov took from this description a number of plot motifs, which later became part of the composition of his painting. He only moved the scene from the village of Preobrazhensky to Moscow. But to understand his plan, it is necessary to give a description of another day of executions that took place already on Red Square.

“This day will be overshadowed by the execution of two hundred people and in any case should be recognized as mournful; all criminals were beheaded. On a very large square, very close to the Kremlin, chopping blocks were placed on which the guilty were supposed to lay down their heads. His royal majesty arrived there in a gig with a certain Alexander, whose company gives him the greatest pleasure, and, having passed the ill-fated square, he entered the place next to it, where thirty condemned men atoned for the crime of their impious intent by death. In the meantime, the disastrous crowd of the guilty filled the space described above, and the king returned there, so that in his presence those who, in his absence, conceived such a great wickedness in a blasphemous plan, were punished. The scribe, standing on a bench brought by the soldiers, read the sentence drawn up against the rebels in different places, so that the crowd standing around would know all the better the magnitude of their crime and the correctness of the execution imposed on him. When he fell silent, the executioner began the tragedy: the unfortunates had their turn, they all approached one after another, without expressing any sorrow or horror on their faces before the death that threatened them ... One of them was escorted to the very block by his wife and children with loud, terrible cries. Preparing to lie down on the chopping block, instead of the last farewell, he gave his wife and little children, who were crying a lot, his mittens and the handkerchief that he had left. Another, who was supposed to kiss the unfortunate chopping block in turn, complained about death, saying that he was forced to undergo it innocently. To this, the king, who was only a step away from him, replied: “Die, unfortunate one! If you turn out to be innocent, then the guilt for your blood will fall on me ”... At the end of the massacre, His Royal Majesty was pleased to dine with General Gordon. The king was by no means in a cheerful mood, but on the contrary, bitterly complained about the stubbornness and stubbornness of the guilty. He indignantly told General Gordon and the Moscow nobles who were present how one of the convicts showed such inveterateness that, preparing to lie down on the chopping block, he dared to turn to the tsar, who was probably standing very close, with the following words: “Step aside, sir. I should lie down here."

In this passage, Surikov no longer found plot motives for the future picture, but something more important: the moral atmosphere of the executions was described here and the characters of the characters were shown; the pages of the diary of a visiting foreigner clearly reflected both the unshakable courage of the archers and the bitterness of punishing Peter.

Vasily Ivanovich later told how deeply he got used to his theme and how relentless were the thoughts about the bloody days that he decided to depict:

“When I wrote archers, I saw terrible dreams: every night I saw executions in a dream. Smells like blood all around. I was afraid of the night. Wake up and rejoice. Look at the picture. Thank God, there is no such horror in it. All I thought was not to disturb the viewer. To have peace in everything. Everyone was afraid that I would awaken an unpleasant feeling in the viewer. I myself am holy, but others ... I don’t have blood in my picture, and the execution has not yet begun. And I, after all, experienced all this - both blood and executions in myself. ”

In the same years, Repin worked on the painting “Princess Sophia” and, exactly following the instructions of historical sources, depicted a figure, a hanged archer, outside the window of the princess’s cell.

In Repin's plan, this figure was necessary: ​​the spectacle of death thickened the tragic atmosphere in which the historical portrait he conceived arose. For Surikov, this turned out to be impossible.

Surikov told Voloshin:

“I remember, “Streltsov” I have almost finished. Ilya Efimovich Repin comes to see and says: “Why don’t you have a single executed person? You would hang here at least on the gallows, on the right plane.

As he left, I wanted to try. I knew that it was impossible, but I wanted to know what would have happened. I drew with chalk the figure of a hanged archer. And just then the nanny entered the room, - as she saw it, she collapsed without feelings.

Even that day, Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov stopped by: “What are you, want to spoil the whole picture?” - Yes, so that I, I say, sold my soul like that! Is that possible?”

Surikov refused to depict the execution, not only because he was repulsed by the rough physiology of the suffering and the streams of blood shed on Red Square (“Everyone was afraid that I would awaken an unpleasant feeling in the viewer”). The artist also had deeper foundations.

The dramatic effect created by the spectacle of torment and death, perhaps, would shock the audience, but at the same time it would inevitably reduce the plot of the picture to a private episode from the history of the Streltsy rebellion. And the artist wanted to concentrate in a single moment the very essence of the historical event he had chosen - to show a national tragedy. Depicting not the execution, but only its expectation, Surikov could show the streltsy mass and Peter himself in all the fullness of their mental and physical strength, reveal to the viewer the high spiritual beauty of the Russian people.

"Morning of Streltsy executions": someone called them well. I wanted to convey the solemnity of the last minutes, but not the execution at all, ”the artist later said.

Having deeply experienced his theme, mentally becoming, as it were, a participant in the historical drama, Surikov organized the material gleaned from historical sources in his own way.

In the picture, separate motifs are merged into a single whole, selected from different places in Korb's diary, and all of them are subject to one general spiritual mood - the solemnity of the last minutes.

It was a real creative rearrangement of the material. The feeling invested by the artist in the picture filled the historical images with the breath of true life.

“In a historical picture, after all, it is not necessary that it be completely so, but that there be a possibility, that it should be similar. The essence of a historical picture is guessing. If only the spirit of the time itself is observed, you can make any mistakes in the details. And when everything is point to point, it’s even disgusting, ”Surikov himself said.

The action in the film "Morning of the Streltsy Execution" takes place on Red Square, against the backdrop of the Kremlin towers and St. Basil's Cathedral. When looking at the picture, it seems that it is filled with an innumerable crowd. The people are worried, “like the sound of many waters,” as the artist liked to say. But all the boundless variety of poses, clothes, characters is brought to an amazing wholeness, to an indissoluble and harmonious unity. The Surikov crowd lives a common life, all its constituent parts are interconnected, as in a living organism, and at the same time, each face is individual, each character is unique and deeply thought out.

Already in a pencil sketch made by the artist on the back of a sheet of sheet music for the guitar, the peculiarity of the conceived picture clearly stands out: it does not have a separate “hero” in whose image the meaning of the work would be embodied. There is Peter in the picture, there are characteristic types of archers that carry a particularly large semantic load, but they are not singled out from the crowd, they are not opposed to it. The content of "The Morning of the Archery Execution" is revealed only in the action of the masses. The hero of the picture becomes the people themselves, and its theme is the people's tragedy.

The understanding of history as a movement of the masses was the big new word that marked the work of Surikov in historical painting. Mass historical scenes were painted by Bryullov, the image of the crowd played a major role in the concept of Ivanov's "The Appearance of Christ to the People", but only Surikov brought to the end the thoughts of his great predecessors.

Surikov considered the national character to be the key to the correct interpretation of the historical life of the people. To reveal this character, to help the viewer look into the spiritual world of ordinary Russian people - the artist saw a similar goal in front of him while working on "The Morning of the Streltsy Execution".

Hence comes the inexhaustible variety of folk types in the picture and at the same time their inner relationship. They are all similar and not similar to each other.

Sagittarius are imbued with the "solemnity of the last minutes", the spiritual strength of the archers is not broken, they all face death without fear. But a single feeling is refracted in them in different ways.

A red-haired archer in a red cap, convulsively squeezing a burning candle, raises his gaze, full of indomitable hatred, and, as it were, throws down a silent challenge to the winner. He could have said to Peter: “Step aside, sir. I should lie down here!” Another, a tall, elderly black-bearded archer, in a red caftan thrown over his shoulders, does not seem to notice his surroundings at all: he is so deeply immersed in his last thoughts. Further, almost in the very center of the picture, a gray-haired old man in a white shirt, majestically calm, courageously expecting death, finds the strength in himself to console his crying children. Next to him, one of the archers, bent, apparently weakened from torture, stood on the cart and gives the people his last bow; he turned his back on the king and asked for forgiveness not from Peter, but from the people.

The harsh firmness and courage of the archers is opposed by the unbridled grief of the archers' children and wives. It seems that Surikov has exhausted the whole gamut of feelings here, from a violent explosion of despair to silent hopeless grief: unchildish fear distorts the face of a tiny girl lost in the crowd; the archer, separated from her husband, sobs uncontrollably; in mute despair, a decrepit old woman sank to the ground, seeing off her son ...

The figures of the Preobrazhensky soldiers, the executors of Peter's will, mingle with the streltsy crowd. In characterizing these, essentially secondary, characters, Surikov showed special psychological insight.

The soldiers are spiritually close to the archers, they are representatives of the simple Russian people. But at the same time, they, as it were, personify the new Russia, which replaced pre-Petrine Rus'. Without hesitation, they lead the condemned archers to execution, but there is nothing hostile in their treatment of the rebels. The young Preobrazhensky, standing near the black-bearded archer, looks at him with an expression of hidden pity. The soldier leading the archer to the gallows put his arm around him and supports him almost like a brother. Surikov acutely felt and truthfully expressed the complex, ambivalent attitude of the soldiers to the ongoing execution.

On the right side of the picture is Peter with his retinue.

In the royal retinue, no one is endowed with the expressiveness and strength of character that marks the images of archers - the interest and sympathy of the artist is not here.

In the foreground, like an indifferent witness, a gray-bearded boyar in a red coat looks indifferently in front of him. Behind him is a group of foreigners, in one of them, intensely and thoughtfully peering into the crowd, critics guess an imaginary portrait of Korb, the author of Journey to Muscovy. Further - some women look out of the windows of the carriage. But next to these secondary characters, the figure of Peter is sharply highlighted.

Peter's face with his angry and resolute look expresses unshakable confidence, in his whole figure, tense and impetuous, one feels a huge inner strength. Just like his opponents, Peter passionately believes in his rightness and, punishing the rebellious archers, sees them not as personal enemies, but as enemies of the state, destroyers of the Russian future.

He alone opposes the entire streltsy crowd, and his image becomes as ideologically significant as the collective image of the masses. In Surikov's interpretation, Peter is also the representative of the people and the bearer of the national character, like the archers.

Here the meaning of the folk tragedy embodied in the "Morning of the Streltsy Execution" is revealed: the Russians are fighting the Russians, and each side has a deep consciousness of the rightness of its cause. Streltsy respond with rebellion to the oppression of the people, Peter defends the future of Russia, which he himself led to new paths.

Korb's notes gave Surikov only a starting point for the realization of his plan. The main source of Surikov's images was living reality itself.

“When I conceived them,” Surikov told Voloshin, “all my faces appeared at once. And coloring along with the composition. After all, I live from the canvas itself: everything arises from it. Remember, there I have an archer with a black beard - this is ... Stepan Fedorovich Torgoshin, my mother's brother. And the women - you know, I and my relatives had such old women. Sarafannitsy, though Cossacks. And the old man in "Sagittarius" is an exiled one, about seventy years old. I remember walking, carrying a bag, swaying from weakness - and bowing to the people.

Genuine historicism, deeply characteristic of Surikov, nowhere appears so clearly as precisely in this ability to see the past in the present, the historical image in living modern reality. Surikov does not modernize the past, transferring the features of the present into it, but through careful and accurate selection he reveals the most typical and, therefore, the most viable and persistent signs of the national character that lived and manifested themselves in the distant past, live and manifest themselves today.

The image found by the artist was sometimes subjected to several successive stages of processing, and everything accidental and insignificant fell away and the main, defining features of the character were persistently emphasized.

Sketches have been preserved in which Surikov looked for a type of red-bearded archer.

Repin tells about the beginning of the search: “Amazed by the similarity of the one archer he had outlined, sitting in a cart with a lit candle in his hand, I persuaded Surikov to go with me to the Vagankovskoye cemetery, where one gravedigger was a miracle type. Surikov was not disappointed: Kuzma posed for him for a long time, and Surikov, with the name of Kuzma, even later lit up with feeling from his gray eyes, kite-like nose and reclined forehead.

Surikov himself also mentioned this to Kuzma: “The red-haired archer is a gravedigger, I saw him in the cemetery. I tell him: "Let's go to me - pose." He was about to put his foot into the sledge, and his comrades began to laugh. He says, "I don't want to." And by nature, after all, such as a Sagittarius. The deep-set eyes startled me. Evil, rebellious type. The name was Kuzma. Chance: the catcher and the beast runs. Forcefully persuaded him. He, as he posed, asked: “What, will they chop my head off, or what?” And a sense of delicacy stopped me from telling those from whom I wrote that I was writing an execution.

In the first sketches made by Surikov from Kuzma, his features still bear little resemblance to the appearance of an implacable and passionate rebel, whom we see in the picture. Before us is a characteristic, strong-willed, but calm face, striking only by its resemblance to the profile, briefly drawn in the first compositional sketch of The Morning of the Streltsy Execution, that is, even before Surikov's meeting with the gravedigger Kuzma. In subsequent sketches, the artist, as it were, evokes on the face of his model those feelings that once animated the rebellious archer. The lines of the silhouette become sharper, the wrinkles deepen, the expression becomes more tense, a furious gleam lights up in the sunken eyes - and through the features of the gravedigger, the image of an indomitable and passionate Moscow rebel comes through more and more clearly.

Other persons who served Surikov in kind were also reworked. In the portrait study of the black-bearded archer - Stepan Fedorovich Torgoshin - the features of everyday life have not yet been overcome. Only in the picture he is transformed and poeticized.

The "Study of a Seated Old Woman" still bears traces of direct copying of the model, and the image of the old archer in the picture, in terms of the power of generalization and poetry, echoes the images of the folk epic.

The deep ideological content of "The Morning of the Streltsy Execution" led to a holistic and perfect artistic form.

Surikov said that the idea of ​​a painting is born in his mind along with the form, and the idea is inseparable from the pictorial image. When he conceived The Morning of the Streltsy Execution, in front of him, in his words, “all the faces appeared at once. And coloring along with composition. But just as it happened when solving an ideological concept, the initial inspiration gave the artist only the general outlines of the task that was to be carried out on canvas.

“The main thing for me is composition,” said Surikov. “There is some kind of firm, inexorable law that can only be guessed by intuition, but which is so immutable that every added or subtracted inch of the canvas or an extra set point changes the entire composition at once.”

Surikov achieved unity and rhythmic completeness of the whole, never compromising the naturalness and expressiveness of the grouping of figures and the structure of the form. His composition is based not on dead schemes worked out once and for all, but on direct, keen observation of nature. No wonder he studied so carefully "how people grouped in the street." In life itself, he revealed the laws of harmonious and integral construction.

The scene of action in the picture is closed by the image of the Kremlin walls and St. Basil's Cathedral.

Already in the first pencil sketch of the future composition, the silhouette of the cathedral is outlined. A mute witness to the past, a remarkable monument of ancient Russian architecture, so closely connected in Surikov's mind with the "Morning of the Streltsy Execution", significantly influenced the artistic decision of the picture.

In the composition "Morning of the Archery Execution" there are hidden correspondences with the architecture of St. Basil the Blessed. The crowd in the picture is united by the same broad measured rhythms that connect the pillars and domes of the ancient Russian temple. A characteristic feature of the cathedral is a kind of asymmetry and a bizarre combination of various architectural and ornamental forms, brought, however, to a stable and harmonious unity. Surikov aptly captured this unity in diversity and recreated it in the image of the streltsy crowd.

Even more obvious is the influence of St. Basil's Cathedral on the color system of the "Morning of the Streltsy Execution". In the coloring of the cathedral with its green-blue, white and rich red tones, the color key of the whole picture is given, as it were. The same tones, only in a more intense sound, pass through the entire composition.

Surikov strove for realistic naturalness and harmony of color. The combination of colors in his painting truly conveys the feeling of a gloomy, damp October morning; in the still autumn air, all shades and color transitions stand out especially clearly. Color in Surikov becomes the bearer of the characteristic of feeling. The artist himself pointed out that a significant role in the color scheme was played by the effect he once noticed of combining daylight with a burning candle, throwing reflexes onto a white canvas. Lighted candles in the hands of archers dressed in white shirts, according to Surikov's plan, were supposed to create that special, disturbing feeling that marked the solemnity of the last minutes. This feeling is enhanced by the contrast of white with rich red, passing through the whole picture.

“And the arcs are carts for the Streltsy,” I wrote about the markets. You write and think - this is the most important thing in the whole picture, ”said Surikov.

These words should not be taken literally: “the most important” for Surikov was not decorative details. But he acutely felt and - the first among Russian artists - revealed in his picture the organic, inextricable connection of the Russian character with national folk art. So, the silhouette of an archer bowed in a farewell bow resembles; as noted by the Soviet art critic A. M. Kuznetsov, an ancient Russian icon from the “rank”. Depicting the ornaments of St. Basil the Blessed, painted arches, embroidered caftans and patterned dresses of women, Surikov introduced the whole world of Russian beauty, which has developed in folk art, into the Morning of the Streltsy.

On the day of the assassination of the tsar, March 1, 1881, the IX traveling exhibition opened, where for the first time the “Morning of the Streltsy Execution” appeared before the audience - a picture whose hero was the people.

Repin wrote to Surikov: “Vasily Ivanovich! The picture makes a big impression on almost everyone. The drawing is criticized, and especially Kuzya is attacked, the lousy academic party is the most ardent of all: they say that on Sunday Zhuravlev grimaced indecently, I did not see it. Chistyakov praises. Yes, all decent people are touched by the picture. It was written in Novoye Vremya on March 1st, in the Order on March 1st. Well, then an event happened, after which there is no time for pictures yet ... "

The intrigues of the “academic party” also found a response in the press. A review appeared in one of the reactionary newspapers, which placed "The Morning of the Streltsy "Execution"" below any mediocrity. But in general, criticism reacted to Surikov rather sympathetically. The picture was praised - however, with many reservations. “... The deep plan is not entirely fulfilled due to the weak perspective that is too heaped up with figures, but the details of the picture are of great merit,” wrote, for example, Russkiye Vedomosti.

What happened next was almost always repeated with Surikov's paintings: in the condescendingly restrained praise of criticism, a complete misunderstanding of the artist's originality was seen through. Innovation and deep ideological Surikov were not up to modern criticism.

Even the ardent fighter for national Russian art, the critic V. V. Stasov, who usually noted with great sensitivity everything original and talented in contemporary art, this time preferred to refrain from reviewing The Morning of the Streltsy Execution. Repin wrote to him shortly after the opening of the exhibition: “I still cannot understand one thing, how is it that Surikov’s painting “The Execution of Streltsy” did not inflame you?” And in the next letter, he again returns to the same thing: “Most of all, I am angry with you for letting Surikov pass. How did it happen? After compliments even Makovskaya (this is worthy of a gallant gentleman) suddenly pass in silence of such an elephant !!! I don’t understand - it terribly blew me up. ”

Surikov received unconditional recognition only from the leading Wanderers.

Repin, who closely followed Surikov's work on The Morning of the Archery Execution and was the first to highly appreciate this picture, wrote to P. M. Tretyakov:

“Surikov's painting makes an irresistible, deep impression on everyone. All with one voice expressed their readiness to give her the best place; everyone has written on their faces that she is our pride at this exhibition ... A powerful picture! Well, yes, they will write to you about it ... It was decided to offer Surikov immediately member our partnership." Only a few have received this honor.

"Morning of the Streltsy Execution" at the same time became part of the wonderful gallery of Russian art created by the Moscow collector and public figure Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov.

From the first picture of Surikov, threads stretch to his further plans. "Streltsy" together with "Menshikov in Berezov" and "Boyarina Morozova" constitute a closed cycle devoted, in essence, to one circle of problems.

The folk tragedy that became the theme of "The Morning of the Archery Execution" had a prologue that took place in the second half of the 17th century, at the time when Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, together with Patriarch Nikon, reformed the Russian Church. A split movement rose up against the reform.

In 1881, Surikov made the first compositional sketches of the painting Boyar Morozova.

Following the era of Peter's reforms, the time came for reaction and foreign dominance, the time for the fall of Peter's followers.

Surikov made the tragedy of one of the largest figures of the time of Peter the Great the subject of his second big picture.

He turned to work on "Menshikov in Berezov" immediately after the "Morning of the Streltsy Execution".

Group of artists-peredvizhniki. 1899.

In Surikov. Detail of the painting "Menshikov in Berezov" (the eldest daughter of Meishikov) (PT).