Thread: Russia in color photos, 1907-15

A very nice setup of Prokudin-Gorskii's photos --
http://photo.newsweek.com/2009/8/photos ... -1915.html

We have those wooden houses on "long legs" in Sweden too! (pic 3/29) They look exactly the same! (I think they were to keep products safe from wild animals..) Is there a name for it in the Russian langauge?

I really like the old style folk costumes and they are so colourful and cool looking. I hope people in Russia will keep them alive one way or another. If anyone is interested in Russian and Ukrainian folk costumes, there is a thread in the "Cultural" lounge, with lots of great photos that Starrysky and I posted.

But actually at least half of the photos in the set that the original link refers to are from Soviet countries other than Russia. I happen to find those countries interesting too, so the whole set was interesting to me. But Samarkand etc are definitely not Russian. Or perhaps they were in 1910??

Anyway, I think it's much easier to relate to colour pictures...
I guess the photos have been coloured at a later date though? I mean the originals must have been b/w or?

Originally Posted by Johanna

But actually at least half of the photos in the set that the original link refers to are from Soviet countries other than Russia. I happen to find those countries interesting too, so the whole set was interesting to me. But Samarkand etc are definitely not Russian. Or perhaps they were in 1910??

Of course they were.
Map of Russian Empire in 1910 (click to see larger version):

Anyway, I think it's much easier to relate to colour pictures...
I guess the photos have been coloured at a later date though? I mean the originals must have been b/w or?

It seems so.

That's the same area then the USSR, and even a bit more.. Even a bit of Poland it looks like..

I knew about Finland... And I knew Russia had a lot of INFLUENCE in Central Asia, because that's clear from literature I've read... But I actually didn't know they were part of Russia. When did they first become part of Russia?

I read about the Russian civil war in school but I actually don't remember the details... But I kind of thought that the Asian Soviet republics were annexed at that point.. Didn't know they were already Russian....

So Sukov in "White sun of the desert" was not out to conquer some new lands as I thought, but actually fighting inside of Russia... That makes him a bit more likable then...

Does Saint Nil Stolbenskii Monastery still exist? It's beautiful. I tried looking around on the internet and couldn't find much. If anyone from Russia knows and/or has seen it, I'd love to know so I could possibly go see it sometime.

Originally Posted by Marlow

Does Saint Nil Stolbenskii Monastery still exist? It's beautiful. I tried looking around on the internet and couldn't find much. If anyone from Russia knows and/or has seen it, I'd love to know so I could possibly go see it sometime.

Существует, но на реставрации.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolobny_Island
http://www.ostashkov.ru/prokudin-2003/prokudin.asp
http://www.monastyr-nilova-pustyn.ru/vidi_monastiria
http://www.seliger.3dn.ru/index/0-7

Originally Posted by Johanna

That's the same area then the USSR, and even a bit more.. Even a bit of Poland it looks like..

Yes, Eastern Poland (including Warsaw), was a Russian province from late XVIII cetury util WWI (the Western bit was a part of Ausro-Hungarian Empire).

I knew about Finland... And I knew Russia had a lot of INFLUENCE in Central Asia, because that's clear from literature I've read... But I actually didn't know they were part of Russia. When did they first become part of Russia?

Some parts (like Northern Kazakhstan) were Russian from XVII century when Russian and Ukrainian (at that time they were called 'малороссийские', the therm 'Ukrainian' was applied to geography, not to ethnicity back then) kasaks colonized that area and built forts there, their duty was to secure Russian border there. And the other parts (like Uzbekistan and Kirgizia) were annexed by Russian Empire in the XIX century (you could check history of conquering Khiva or Kokand Khanates for examle).

I read about the Russian civil war in school but I actually don't remember the details... But I kind of thought that the Asian Soviet republics were annexed at that point.. Didn't know they were already Russian....

After the revolution many of those provinces declared independence. Some of them were convinced (by various means) to join the USSR when it was formed in 1922, and a few were convinced to join later in 1940 (like Baltic states and Wester Ukraine /Galicia/ and Belorussia). Btw, the borders of Soviet Republics wich are independent states today were pencil-drown on the map by Lenin, Stalin & Co in 1922 and of course their reasons were based on the geopolitics of that time and their commie ideology, the historical reasons were the last thing they cared about. This fact caused many speculations about current borders between former USSR republics wich were just administrative ones but suddenly became borders of states in 1991.

So Sukov in "White sun of the desert" was not out to conquer some new lands as I thought, but actually fighting inside of Russia... That makes him a bit more likable then...

If you watched the movie recently than you should remember Verezhchagin character. It's mentioned in the film that he was a former tzar's custom officer and the building where he resides was former custom office of Russian Empire. (On the border between Russian Empire and Persia, modern Iran). So you can guess even from the movie without knowing the historical facts that the part of Middle Asia where the action takes place belonged to the Russian Empire before the Revolution.

prokudin-gorsky.org now has about 500 photos digitally restored by Konstantin and Vladimir Khodakovsky.
They meticulously fixed visual artifacts and made century-old images look almost like modern shots.

Take a glimpse:



P. S. Note that the photos are NOT coloured. They are real colour photos of Russian Empire taken at the beginning of the 20th century!