This Thursday I’ve finally visited the exhibition of Ivan Aivazovsky (1817-1900) in the Tretyakov Gallery devoted to the 200th anniversary of his birth. Continue reading “Exhibition of Ivan Aivazovsky”
Continue reading “Portrait Medallions of Peter I & Catherine II”
On my latest trip to Saint Petersburg I visited the Kunstkamera (again), the first Russian museum established by Peter the Great in 1718 (the construction continued until 1734). Of course, me & my friends took some photos inside the Kunstkamera. Continue reading “Kunstkamera: Ancestors of Cheburashka & Leopold the Cat.”
Exhibition of the Russian painter of German descent Maks Haase (1938-1998) took place in Moscow at the end of January/beginning of February at Kino Gallery. Besides paintings, the exhibition included the so-called ‘goreliens‘ (made of wool and acrylic) – Haase derived this word by combining the words ‘gorelief’ (‘high relief’ in Russian) + ‘gobelen’ (tapestry). Due to Haase’s strong interest in the unconscious, mythology, archetypes, etc., which was reflected in his works, and some similarities in his artistic manner with that of Salvador Dali I heard several people label him as the Russian Dali. Do you agree with this statement?
God forbid we should ever witness a Russian revolt, senseless and merciless. Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837), The Captain’s Daughter.
One evening in the summer of 2012 I was coming back home by tram. I left several stops before to take a walk across the All-Russia Exhibition Centre (also known as VDNKh). The Moscow sky was filled with clouds illuminated purple by the setting Sun and calmness after day heat finally fell on the city. I came in through the main entrance of VDNKh and walked towards the Lenin sculpture and the House of Russia’s Peoples rising above it (by the way, the Peoples Friendship Fountain is situated besides the latter). I turned left from the central alley without saying ‘hi’ to Vladimir Ilyich (i.e. Lenin) and stepped into the garden where luckily I found an outdoor photography exhibition from the archives of the Izvestia newspaper. The exhibition was devoted to the milestones of the Soviet and post-Soviet Russian history. Among the photos there were two which drew my particular attention. These were the photos of the Moscow White House after tank shelling in October 1993 and I took several photos of them on my mobile phone. The memories of the Autumn 1993 events were vivid in my mind.
At that time I was 9 years old, so I didn’t follow the roller-coaster of then-current political situation in Russia. Thus, there wasn’t anything special about the Autumn of 1993 for me until October 3. October 3 was a sunny Sunday in Moscow. The surroundings of the Ostankino TV centre turned out to be the battle scene between Yeltsin’s and the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation (Russian Parliament) supporters. In short, the pro-parliament crowd and some armed people approached the Ostankino TV Centre in the evening and attempted to take it by storm but failed. Many people were killed including passers-by and journalists. I lived near the TV Centre so my parents told me that I should sleep in another room with windows looking out into the courtyard because they were afraid of random bullets. The night sky above the buildings was lit by tracer bullets and the strong smell of burnt gunpowder was in the air. Several days later we went to the battle scene with my father who came to the conclusion that expanding bullets were used (probably by the Interior Ministry units that defended the TV Centre) judging by the bullet holes in the fence which looked like a sieve. I came to the TV Centre yesterday to take some photos of those bullet holes and discovered that now the fence is colored blue (it used to be grey) and most of the bullet holes are fixed.
The next day (October 4, 1993) the storming of the Moscow White House happened.
P.S. Here’s the video of the football TV broadcast interrupted by the news presenter. He says: “Dear TV viewers, due to the armed siege of the Ostankino TV Company we have to stop the broadcasting”. Videos from the TV Centre surroundings: one and two.
P.P.S. To be continued.
