Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Throughout the Soviet period, prominent lead-
ers were buried in the Kremlin walls near the
mausoleum.
Because of its central, symbolic, and strategic
location, Red Square has witnessed important
events of Russian history, including several 17th-
century riots, as well as fighting between sup-
porters and opponents of Soviet power at the time
of the OCTOBER REVOLUTION of 1917. Throughout
the Civil War, Lenin repeatedly addressed work-
ers and soldiers from a tribune erected on Red
Square. In 1918, holding the May Day and Octo-
ber Revolution parades was started in the square,
a tradition that continued throughout the period
of Communist rule. As the Soviet Union became
a military superpower, the parades increasingly
became the site for the display of Soviet weapons,
aircraft, and artillery. In the years since the dis-
solution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Red Square
has retained its central importance in Russian
life, and several architectural landmarks from
czarist times have been restored. Lenin's body is
still on display at the mausoleum, even though
the honor guard has been removed. In 1990, Red
Square was added to UNESCO's list of World Her-
itage Sites.
Russia, after four years in his native Chuguev
(1878-82), he returned to St. Petersburg and
from 1893 taught at the academy. The most
accomplished of 19th-century realists, Repin was
also the most prolific and versatile of Russian
artists. He painted with equal facility portraits,
historical and religious compositions, genre
scenes, and landscapes. His works are done with
an obvious gusto and a fine sense of color; his
brilliant portraits of MUSSORGSKY and MENDELEYEV
deserve special mention. A master of historical
drama, he painted some of the best-known
works of the genre: The Volga Boatmen (1873),
Easter Procession in Kursk Province (1880-83), Ivan
the Terrible and his Son Ivan (1885), and The
Zaporozhe Cossacks Write to the Turkish Sultan
(1891). Repin lived his last years in the Finnish
village of Kuokkal, working chiefly on religious
paintings. He died on September 29, 1930. Most
of his paintings are held in the Russian Museum
in St. Petersburg and at the Tretiakov Gallery in
Moscow. In 1940, the Ilya Repin Museum was
set up in Chuguev, and in 1958 a monument was
erected in Moscow in his honor.
Riabushinsky, Pavel Pavlovich
(1871-1924)
entrepreneur and politician
The leader of the third generation of a remark-
able Moscow business dynasty of OLD BELIEVER
stock, Riabushinsky also took part in the incipi-
ent democratic politics of the late imperial period
after the Revolution of 1905. The eldest of nine
sons (and sibling to 13 sisters), Riabushinsky
inherited the leading role in the family business
after his father's death in 1894. The Riabushin-
sky family empire had been built around textiles,
one of several similar dynasties in the Central
Industrial Region around MOSCOW . Under Ria-
bushinsky's leadership, however, the family busi-
ness expanded into a number of other areas such
as banking (the Riabushinsky Bank, which in
1912 became the Bank of Moscow), publishing
(the newspaper Utro Rossii ), and automobiles (the
AMO plant). He and his siblings also were active
Repin, Ilya Efimovich (1844-1930)
artist
An artist who distinguished himself as a painter
of historical themes, Repin was born on August
5, 1844, in Chuguev, in the Ukrainian region of
Kharkov. His father was a military settler and
Repin pursued studies at the Chuguev Military
School of Topography. As a youth he worked
with icon painters and studied with the painter I.
Bunakov. In St. Petersburg after 1863, he first
studied at the School of Graphic Art of the Soci-
ety for the Encouragement of Art, then at the
Academy of Arts (1864-71). A student of Ivan
Kramskoi, one of the leaders of the artistic revolt
against the academy that led to the formation of
the Peredvizhniki ( WANDERERS ) movement,
Repin joined the Wanderers in 1871. From 1873
to 1876, he studied in Italy and Paris. Back in
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