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as cultural patrons, most notably in architecture,
where they commissioned Feodor
SHEKHTEL
to
build several mansions (1900-1902) and the
Yaroslavl Railway Station (1902), the Riabushin-
sky Bank (1903), and the Moscow Merchants'
Society (1909). As family leader, Riabushinsky
also became involved in politics, emerging as a
liberal, nationalist voice in Russian business cir-
cles. In 1913 he was elected chairman of the
Society of Cotton Industrialists, and in 1915 he
advanced the idea of the War Industries Com-
mittees and became a member of the Central
War Industries Committee and chairman of the
Moscow committee. He was a leader of the Pro-
gressive Bloc, which unsuccessfully sought to
build a coalition of “progressive” forces in oppo-
sition to the czar. He spent most of 1916 conva-
lescing in the Crimea and returned to Moscow
around the time of the February Revolution to
lead the All-Russian Union of Commerce and
Industry. A cautious supporter of the Provisional
Government in its early months, by August he
was despairing of rule by a “gang of charlatans.”
After the
OCTOBER REVOLUTION
he emigrated to
Paris, where he continued his work in émigré
politics on behalf of the Union of Commerce and
Industry until his death in 1924.
operas, numerous choral works and orchestral
works, chamber music, vocal works, piano works,
and 49 harmonized folk songs, first collected in
1875-76. His best-known operas include
The
Snow Maiden
(1880-81),
Sadko
(1894-96),
Tsar
Saltan
(1898-1900), and
The Golden Cockerel
(1906-7). He is now chiefly remembered for his
orchestral work,
Sheherazade
(1888). He also
revised and completed
MUSSORGSKY
's
Boris Godu-
nov
and
Khovanshchina,
and Borodin's
Prince Igor.
In his last years he ran into trouble with the
authorities. In 1905, he was dismissed from the
conservatory for his vocal support of his students,
taking part in the political protests of that revolu-
tionary year. Shortly before his death, the cen-
sors banned his final opera,
The Golden Cockerel.
Although considered a superb craftsman and
orchestrator of elegant and exuberant works, he
has been criticized for the repetitions and clichés
that inevitably found their way into such a large
body of work. His operas were often based on
national themes laced with folk music, and the
ecclesiastical and oriental music he studied. As
the most accomplished member of the Mogu-
chaia kuchka (
MIGHTY HANDFUL
) group of nation-
alist composers, Rimsky-Korsakov helped define
a distinctly Russian national school of music.
Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai Andreevich
(1844-1908)
composer
A prolific composer, Rimsky-Korsakov also made
a mark on Russian classical music as an unrivaled
teacher and a promoter of Russian national
themes. Originally a naval officer, Rimsky-Kor-
sakov began his teaching career at the St. Peters-
burg Conservatory in 1871 as a professor of
composition and instrumentation. Until 1884, he
also served as Inspector of Naval Bands. From
1886 to 1900, he was conductor of the influential
Free Music School Concerts inaugurated by a
patron of Russian music, Mitrofan Beliaev.
Among Rimsky-Korsakov's long list of distin-
guished students are Glazunov,
PROKOFIEV
, and
STRAVINSKY
. He composed extensively, writing 14
Rodchenko, Aleksandr Mikhailovich
(1891-1956)
artist
One of the leaders of the constructivist move-
ment in Russian art in the first decade after the
Russian Revolution of 1917, Rodchenko was a
versatile artist who worked in a wide range of
media, including painting, sculpture, and pho-
tography. Rodchenko was born in St. Petersburg
but moved with his family to
KAZAN
in 1907. He
attended the Kazan Art School from 1911 to
1914, after which he moved to
MOSCOW
, where
he studied at the Stroganov Artistic and Indus-
trial Institute until 1916. Under the influence of
Vladimir Tatlin, he embraced abstract art, and at
the 1916 Futurist exhibit in Moscow organized by
Tatlin, Rodchenko exhibited 10 of his paintings.
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