The Empire That Was Russia - In Color 1907-1915

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#1

[b]The Empire That Was Russia
The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record Recreated

Photographer to the Tsar: Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii[/b]

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/object.html

From the website - a few samples of the color photographs taken during the early 1900’s prior to and during the First World War.

Overnight Camp by a Rock on the Bank of the Chusovaia River, 1912

Austrian Prisoners of War Near a Barrack, 1915

Peasant Girls, 1909

A Zindan (Prison), ca 1909-1915

General View of the Nikolaevskii Cathedral from Southwest, 1911

View of the Monastery from the Solarium, 1910

Dagestani Types, ca 1909-1915

Group of Jewish Children with a Teacher, 1911

A Group of Children, 1909

A Settler’s Family, ca 1907-1915

Three Generations, 1910

A Group of Workers Harvesting Tea, ca 1907-1915

Factory Interior Showing Turbines, ca 1907-1915

View of Suzdal’ from the Kamenka River, 1912

On the Handcar Outside Petrozavodsk on the Murmansk Railway, 1915

AND THERE IS MUCH MORE.

#2

Yes, it is a great collection og the images!!!

Here are some photos taken by Prokudin-Gorskii of the village where my great-great-grand father was a priest.
The village is called Nyrob. It is located in the West Ural in the Perm region.




More pictures of Nyrob.

#3

Thanks Egorka - these photos taken by Prokudin-Gorskii are really fantastic :slight_smile:

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/object.html

Although they were taken almost 100 years ago they seem very modern. The colors and sharpness of the images are simply amazing. They look as if they could have been in a recent edition of National Geographic magazine.

Do you still have family or relatives in Nyrob at the edge of the Ural mountain range where you’re great-great-grand father was a priest? I take it that Russian Orthodox priests are allowed to marry, unlike their Roman Catholic counterparts?

Beautiful country :slight_smile:

#4

George,

I am under the same impression from the quality of the pictures - it is amazingly nice feeling to watch them.

Though I might disapoint you - the photos were digitally enhanced during the process. [Read about it here.](Making Color Images from Prokudin-Gorskii’s Negatives)
But it hardly takes any value away from the original photos.

About Nyrob.
No I do not have any family left over there. I was bourn in Moscow and has never actually been to Ural region. My family was rather mobile back then. My different grand parents came from opposite sides of USSR. Even the mentioned great-great-grandfather moved from Nyrob to an other town - Solikamsk, where he was burried.
Yes, Orthodox priests a allowed to get married.

Since you asked I will try to scan his picture and place it here.

#5

Thanks Igor :slight_smile:

Well, I’m not disappointed, even though the images were digitally enhanced. They are still quite impressive, especially considering the level of photographic technology of that time. I am still very impressed.

Although your great-great-grandfather moved from Nyrob to Solikamsk where he is buried it appears that he continued to live near the Urals. Thanks for sharing that from your family’s heritage. :slight_smile:


http://welcome-ural.ru/urals/30/121/
http://welcome-ural.ru/urals/77/

Solikamsk – the salt capital of Russian Empire

http://www.uraltourism.com/solikamsk.php

Making Color Images from Prokudin-Gorskii’s Negatives
An Explanation of the Color Rendering Process, “Digichromatography”
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/making.html

Photographer to the Tsar:
Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/gorskii.html

Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) poses near a mountain stream, thought to be the Karolitskhali River in the Caucasus Mountains near the seaport of Batumi on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, 1912.

The photographs of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) offer a vivid portrait of a lost world–the Russian Empire on the eve of World War I and the coming revolution. His subjects ranged from the medieval churches and monasteries of old Russia, to the railroads and factories of an emerging industrial power, to the daily life and work of Russia’s diverse population.

In the early 1900s Prokudin-Gorskii formulated an ambitious plan for a photographic survey of the Russian Empire that won the support of Tsar Nicholas II. Between 1909-1912, and again in 1915, he completed surveys of eleven regions, traveling in a specially equipped railroad car provided by the Ministry of Transportation.

Prokudin-Gorskii left Russia in 1918, going first to Norway and England before settling in France. By then, the tsar and his family had been murdered and the empire that Prokudin-Gorskii so carefully documented had been destroyed. His unique images of Russia on the eve of revolution–recorded on glass plates–were purchased by the Library of Congress in 1948 from his heirs. For this exhibition, the glass plates have been scanned and, through an innovative process known as digichromatography, brilliant color images have been produced. This exhibition features a sampling of Prokudin-Gorskii’s historic images produced through the new process; the digital technology that makes these superior color prints possible; and celebrates the fact that for the first time many of these wonderful images are available to the public.

Born in Murom, Vladimir Province, Russia (originally believed to be St. Petersburg) in 1863 and educated as a chemist, Prokudin-Gorskii devoted his career to the advancement of photography. He studied with renowned scientists in St. Petersburg, Berlin, and Paris. His own original research yielded patents for producing color film slides and for projecting color motion pictures. Around 1907 Prokudin-Gorskii envisioned and formulated a plan to use the emerging technological advancements that had been made in color photography to systematically document the Russian Empire. Through such an ambitious project, his ultimate goal was to educate the schoolchildren of Russia with his “optical color projections” of the vast and diverse history, culture, and modernization of the empire. Outfitted with a specially equipped railroad car darkroom provided by Tsar Nicholas II, and in possession of two permits that granted him access to restricted areas and cooperation from the empire’s bureaucracy, Prokudin-Gorskii documented the Russian Empire around 1907 through 1915. He conducted many illustrated lectures of his work. Prokudin-Gorskii left Russia in 1918, after the Russian Revolution, and eventually settled in Paris, where he died in 1944.

#6

Egorka, Do you have any photos of your ancestors? Maybe you can post them.

#7

Oh that really amazing photos , thank you George and Egorka.
I have never seen it befor. Really great.
I heard about the digital restoration of old photos, but even did not guess the quality could be so impressive.

#8

I already posted some of them here. Here it is: http://www.ww2incolor.com/forum/showthread.php?p=93086&highlight=grandfather#post93086

You can see more pictures here: http://community.livejournal.com/ww2_photographs/233197.html

Here are the memoirs of my great-grandfather and my grandfather. They are in Russian, but if you scroll to the bottom you will see some photos and the document scans.

My great-grandfather - Vasily Klimov (school teacher - Warrant officer in Russian Army - Red officer - White officer - teacher - school director/teacher).
In Russian.
[ul]
[li]part 1 - with pictures
[/li][li]part 2 - with pictures
[/li][li]part 3
[/li][li]part 4
[/li][li]part 5 - with pictures
[/li][/ul]

My grandfather - Yurii Klimov (student - in occupation in town Odessa - RKKA soldier - Soil Resources Use Planner in Moscow reagion).
In Russian.
[ul]
[li]part 1 - with pictures
[/li][li]part 2 - with pictures
[/li][/ul]

#9

Yakov Vasketsov and Anna Vasketsova. My ansestors who lived in Nyrob.

Yakov_Vasketsov.jpg
Yakov_Vasketsov.jpg714×442 79.8 KB

#10

Did not you try to color it mate?

#11

Thanks Igor for sharing from your family’s history. I was able to translate some of your Russian pages using the Worldlingo translator. Also, thanks for posting the photographs of your great great grandfather from Nyrob and Solikamsk and other family pictures. I can see that you come from a very honorable family. :slight_smile:

#12

A beautiful, and wild land in those days, Very impressive images!

#13

You are most kind, George… :oops: I am too shy for that kind of talk…

:slight_smile:

#14

No, I have not. I do not think I need to color tham. I need to preserve them the way they are.