Joseph Daziaro (1806-1865) came to the Russian Empire from Italy in the early 1820s. He opened a publishing business and specialized in the sale of lithograph prints. His firm can be called the first private publishing house of printed artistic graphics in Russia.

By the beginning of the 1830s, he had 2 shops in Moscow. In 1849, he became the owner of a shop in St. Petersburg. Let’s look at his lithographs united under the title “Memories of St. Petersburg” (“Souvenir de St. Petersbourge”). They were mostly made from drawings by the Charlemagne brothers: Josif Charlemagne (1824-1870) and Adolf Charlemagne (1826-1901). Source: aldusku.

Dvortsovy (Palace) Bridge.

back to the past

Tags: Russian Empire · Saint Petersburg city

The period from 1853 to 1917 was the most interesting period in the development of the Russian Navy. After the Crimean War of 1853-1855, steam Navy began to develop rapidly. By the end of the 1850s, the Russian fleet started to operate in the oceans.

During the second half of the 19th century, the Russian Empire created a modern for that time armored fleet. In the early 20th century, the country had the third largest fleet in the world. On these photos made in this period you can see the battleships of this once mighty fleet.

historical photos of the Russian Imperial Fleet

Tags: Russian Empire

Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky (1839-1915) was one of the most popular and influential Russian artists at the end of the 19th century. A lot of his paintings show an idealized view of life in Russia in the past centuries.

The portrait genre occupied a special place in the artist’s work. Largely thanks to it, he achieved success. His paintings are known for beautifully painted furniture, clothes, expensive fabrics and furs. The artist tried to show the person being portrayed in the most favorable light, while maintaining an exact likeness.

beautiful portraits

Tags: Russian Empire

The Circum-Baikal Railway is the name used during the construction (1899-1905) and in the first years of operation of the 260 km section of the Trans-Baikal Railway. Today, this is a dead end section of Slyudyanka II – Baikal, 89 kilometers long. It is located about 70 km south of Irkutsk and runs along the shore of Lake Baikal.

This railroad has no equal in Russia by the number of engineering structures. Its tunnels and stone galleries are unique. Built according to non-standard projects, they were not rebuilt in subsequent years, retaining the original plan of architects and engineers of the early 20th century. Photos by: Mikhail Tilpunov.

amazing train ride

Tags: Irkutsk oblast · Russian Empire

The anthropological album “Russians” by Anatoly Petrovich Bogdanov and Matthias Zikov was published in 15 copies in Moscow in 1867. Source

Abram Gavrilov, Svishchevo village, Uglich district, Yaroslavl Governorate (37 years old).

Russians in 1867

Tags: Russian Empire

Vasilyevsky Castle (also known as Shcherbatovsky Castle) is located in the village of the sanatorium named after Alexander Herzen in Moscow Oblast, about 65 west of the center of Moscow.

It was built by the architect Peter Boitsov by order of Prince Alexander Shcherbatov in the right-bank part of his estate in 1881. Vasilyevsky (Shcherbatovsky) Castle on Google Maps. Photos by: Alexandr Lipilin.

beautiful brick castle-estate

Tags: Moscow city · Moskovskaya oblast · Russian Empire

Volodarsk is a small town with a population of about 10 thousand people located in Nizhegorodskaya Oblast, about 60 km west of Nizhny Novgorod. In most cases, the main tourist attraction of small Russian towns is the local museum of local lore and Volodarsk is no exception.

However, the museum in Volodarsk occupies a unique wooden building known as “Nikolai Bugrov’s Summer Dacha” – one of the few surviving houses of similar architecture in the European part of Russia. Photos by: Anna Sukhareva and Yaroslav Gunin.

amazing wooden house

Tags: Nizhegorodskaya oblast · Nizhny Novgorod city · Russian Empire

The Brianchaninovs’ Estate is a noble estate of the early 19th century located in the village of Pokrovskoye in Vologda Oblast, about 25 km south of Vologda. Built in the style of early classicism, it is a historical and cultural monument of federal significance and a monument of landscape gardening art of regional significance.

The estate includes the main house with wings and galleries (1809-1810), the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos (1811), the Brianchaninovs’ necropolis (the 19th century), a park with a pond (the early 19th century), a stable (the second half of the 19th century), and a cellar (the second half of the 19th century). The Brianchaninovs’ Estate on Google Maps. Photos by: Alexandr Lipilin.

beautiful preserved noble estate

Tags: Russian Empire · Vologda oblast

From the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, advertising posters began to quickly gain popularity in the Russian Empire. Artists often depicted scenes from fairy tales. The first advertising posters used the element of hyperbole, exaggerating the properties of the advertised product.

Despite the fact that there was significant economic growth in the Russian Empire at that time, it did not cause an increase in the purchasing power of the majority of the population (peasants). Most of the advertising targeted the rapidly emerging Russian bourgeoisie. Source.

Perfumes of Russian boyars.

pre-revolutionary advertising posters

Tags: posters · Russian Empire

Carl Oswald Bulla or Karl Karlovich Bulla (1855-1929), a portraitist and master of documentary photography, was the owner of a photo studio in St. Petersburg. He became known as “the father of Russian photo reporting.”

In 1886, he received from the Ministry of Internal Affairs “permission to carry out all kinds of photographic work outside his home, such as: on the streets, apartments and in the vicinity of St. Petersburg.” In 1897, Karl Bulla’s photographs began to be published in the popular magazine “Niva”. Since that time, his name became known throughout the Russian Empire.

In total, his legacy is about 230 thousand photographs of the late 19th – early 20th centuries. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Tsarskoselsky (Vitebsky) railway station in St. Petersburg.

unique photos of the Russian Empire

Tags: Russian Empire · Saint Petersburg city