The second set of photos of common people taken by William Carrick (1827-1878), a Scottish-Russian artist and photographer, in the Russian Empire. The first part. Source: humus.

1. Orthodox priest.

Russians of the past

Tags: Russian Empire

William Carrick (1827-1878) was a Scottish-Russian artist and photographer. In 1859, in St. Petersburg, he opened the first photo studio in the Russian Empire.

Carrick quickly gained fame, capturing the daily life of the country and became the first Russian ethnographer-photographer. Let’s look at some of his works. The second part. Source: humus.

Musician playing a balalaika.

faces of the Russian Empire

Tags: Russian Empire

In 1913, on the wave of the general rise of the Russian economy, the rapid growth of the cinematographic industry began in the Russian Empire. In 1913, according to incomplete data, there were 1,412 movie theaters in the country, of which 134 – in St. Petersburg and 67 – in Moscow.

The heyday of the artistic Russian cinematography occurred during the First World War. In 1916, at least 150 million tickets to movie theaters were sold in the Russian Empire. Let’s look at the movie posters of these times. Source: humus.

1. Train of Horrors (1910s).

great vintage movie posters

Tags: posters · Russian Empire

Atheism, as a worldview denying religion, without being formally declared in the USSR as an element of state ideology, was actively supported by the Communist Party and state bodies until 1988.

Propaganda was actively used for these purposes. Here are examples of anti-religious posters that you could see in the times of the USSR.

1. There is no God!

religion is poison?

Tags: posters · propaganda · Soviet past

Propaganda in the USSR was diverse and covered almost all spheres of life. For example, the following posters educated readers how to handle books rightly. Pictures by humus.

1926. Protect the book from rain and snow.

read books rightly

Tags: propaganda · Soviet past

Krutitskoye Podvorye (Krutitsy Patriarchal Metochion) is a picturesque preserved fragment of old Moscow located almost in the very center of Europe’s largest metropolis.

This is an excellent example of when the natural landscape allowed to preserve the look of a street of the 18th-19th centuries. Krutitskoye Podvorye on Google Maps. Photos by: Kirill Moiseev.

walk around old Moscow

Tags: Moscow city

The State Historical, Architectural, Art, and Landscape Museum-Reserve “Tsaritsyno” is one of the largest museum and exhibition institutions in Moscow and the largest museum-reserve in the city.

The museum includes Tsaritsyno palace and park ensemble with a complex of palace buildings, Tsaritsyno ponds and a landscape park. Tsaritsyno on Google Maps. Photos by: Vladimir Dar.

stroll through the museum-reserve

Tags: Moscow city

Izborsk, a village with a population of about 700 people located in the Pechora district of the Pskov region, 30 km west of Pskov, is one of the oldest Russian towns first mentioned in the chronicles in 862.

Today, this historical-cultural and natural-landscape museum-reserve is a popular tourist destination. Photos by: zhzhitel.

walk around Izborsk

Tags: Pskov oblast

Suzdal is a small town with a population of about 10 thousand people located in the Vladimir region. This is one of the oldest towns in Russia, first mentioned in 999.

Let’s see how the town looked like 105 years ago, in 1912, when Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, a Russian chemist and photographer known for his pioneering work in color photography, visited it. Photos by: Open research project “The Legacy of S.M. Prokudin-Gorsky”.

General view of Suzdal.

back to the past

Tags: Vladimir oblast

The Astrakhan Kremlin is a historical and architectural complex, which is an integral ensemble of monuments of defense architecture, cult and civil architecture.

Today, it is not only a monument of Russian architecture. There is an ethnographic museum with a very rich collection of exhibits. Photos by: Dmitry Gazin.

take a stroll in the Astrakhan Kremlin

Tags: Astrakhan city