“It’s not too interesting to do what others can,” the artist says. “To create something out of nothing in a completely new way is far more inspiring”. Sergey Bobkov
Bobkov, who received a patent on manufacturing art sculptures made of cutting chips, spent eight months creating two martens, using about 150 thousand pieces of Siberian cedar. In total he has made 15 life-size wooden sculptures of Siberian birds and animals.
This disturbing 1940 film records the successful experiments in the resuscitation of life to dead animals (dogs), as conducted by Dr. S.S. Bryukhonenko at the Institute of Experimental Physiology and Therapy.
"Russian peasants were a completely separate class from the land owners and nobility, many of whom must have considered their underlings less than human. Most peasants were actually serfs – individuals owned by or legally tied to their masters – before The Peasant Reform of 1861. The first major liberal reform in Russia, it freed serfs to marry without consent and to own businesses and property. About 23 million people were affected.
Yet life was still tough for the peasants. They made their living working the land or were employed in unskilled jobs. The 1905 Russian Revolution may have been on the relatively distant horizon at the time these photographs were taken – in the 1860s and '70s – but the seeds of revolt had surely already been sown by the harsh living conditions in which these people were forced to live."
Russian Peasants in the 1800s
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The Summer Palace of Tsar Alexis Mikahilovich at Kolomenskoye
"Kolomenskoye is a former royal estate situated several miles to the south-east of Moscow city-centre, on the ancient road leading to the town of Kolomna (hence the name). It was here that Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich built an elaborate wooden palace in the second half of the 17th century.
The history of Kolomenskoye is intertwined with the history of the Russian monarchy and the summer palace built by Tsar Alexis was to become a favourite for both himself and his successors. Alexis himself often came to Kolomenskoye to enjoy falconry and to receive foreign officials. It was a home for Peter the Great during his early years, and it was here that his daughter, the future Empress Elizabeth Petrovna was born in 1709. It was the scene of festivities marking the coronations of Catherine I, Peter II and Empresses Anna and Elizabeth. Peter II often hunted in the woods nearby, and in the late 18th century Catherine the Great used to come here with her grandchildren, including the future Emperor Alexander I.
During his reign, Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich had all the previous wooden structures in Kolomenskoye demolished and replaced them with a new great wooden palace, famed for its fanciful, fairy-tale roofs. It exemplified the asymmetrical beauty of Russian wooden construction, and foreigners referred to it as ‘an eighth wonder of the world’.
The palace, built without using saws, nails or hook, contained an intricate combination of some 250 rooms, a maze of corridors and porches decorated with carving and various elements like hipped roofs and other roofs unusual in form, weathercocks, and gilded figures of double-headed eagles. The original palace survived for 100 years.
During the 18th century, after the Russian court moved to the new capital of St Petersburg, the palace fell into disrepair. As a result, Catherine II refused to make it her Moscow residence. On her orders the palace was demolished in 1768.
Fortunately a wooden model (commissioned by Catherine the Great) and several drawings of the palace survived, and the Moscow Government begun its full-scale reconstruction in the 1990s. Builders used a special kind of wood that was found in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia.
The palace opened in March 2010. Surprisingly, a number of items originating from the original palace had been preserved in museums and have now found a home in the palace.
On the ground (main) floor, the historic interiors of the audience chambers, inner chambers (that of the Tsar, the Tsarina, i. e. the tsar’s wife, and the Tsarevitch, the Tsar’s son), as well as the Tsar’s mylnya (bath) will be recreated, and museum expositions will be arranged. The basement that historically used to serve as administrative premises will be modernized to house the museum infrastructure.
The restored palace is a far cry from what the structure looked like under Tsar Alexis. Rather, it is in sync with what it looked like right before the demolition in late 1760s, experts say."
Compiled by Paul Gilbert @ Royal Russia