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- Ivan IV Vasilyevich, was the first of two children of Basil III and Elena Glinskaya. Ivan came into the world on August 25, 1530. Nearly a year after this Ivan's father died when he was only three. Basil had died due to a small, little pimple on his thigh that had developed into a deadly sore. Basil requested at his deathbed that his son Ivan would become the ruler of Russia when he became a man at age 15. Once Basil died the boyars took over Russia, denying Ivan's right to the throne. Ivan's mother then with other trusted boyars took over the ruling party. Elena was able to successfully rule Russia for four years, until she died suddenly in 1538, apparently from poisoning, leaving eight-year-old Ivan an orphan.
Through all this Ivan had remained isolated, Ivan's brutal behavior later on in life is testimony to his never having forgotten nor forgiven the childhood indignities he had suffered. The boyars would only pay attention to him when his presence was required at a ceremony. As the rivalry in the Palace for the power of Russia escalated into a bloody feud, Ivan witnessed horrible things. Living in poverty he watched and heard murders, beatings, and verbal and physical abuse regularly. The boyars alternately neglected or molested him; Ivan and his deaf-mute brother Yuri often went about hungry and threadbare. Incapable to strike at his tormentors, Ivan took out his terrible frustrations on defenseless animals, He tore feathers off birds, pierced their eyes and slit open their bodies.
On December 29, 1543 Ivan surprised his boyars by calling them to a meeting. He condemned them for their neglect of him and the nation, and denounced them for their misconduct. Prince Andrew Shuiksy, the leader of the boyars was thrown to a pack of hungry hunting dogs as an example to the others. After this the boyars conceded that their rule had ended and that Ivan had complete power. On Sunday, January 16, 1547, Ivan was crowned czar in Moscow's lavish Cathedral of the Assumption. Ivan soon married Anastasia Romanovna-Zakharyina-Yurueva. Anastasia bore him six children of whom only two survived infancy.
At times Ivan was very devote; he used to throw himself before the icons, banging his head against the floor. It resulted in a callosity at his forehead. Once Ivan even did a public confession of his sins in Moscow.
During the beginning of Ivan's reign, the administrative functions of the government were handled by two brothers of Ivan's mother, Prince Yuri Glinsky and Prince Mikhail Glinsky abused their position in the government, mistreating the boyars and the citizens. Ivan vowed to no longer leave administration duties in the hands of others.
From 1547 to 1560 Ivan is believed to have governed with the aid of a talented group of advisers dubbed the Chosen Council. It is unknown who wielded more power, Ivan or the council. In 1550, Ivan announced a reformed code of laws and a new system for justice, the Sudebnik. Criminal acts now were clearly defined, and punishments were prescribed for each. In addition, judges who were appointed by Moscow, would share their benches with representatives elected by local populations, in an effort to curb the practice of corrupt judges that sold justice to those who could afford it. Now magistrates would, at least in theory, enforce the laws equally, without discrimination against persons of low status. The central Moscow government also became more professional through a division of labor responsibilities. The Foreign Office was established, as was the Bureau of Criminal Affairs, the Land Office, and the Office of Military Affairs. Local officials were appointed to oversee the rebuilding of Muscovy's fortresses and then given other assignments. In the 1530s local police officials were appointed to try to stamp out crime, which was rampant during the disorder of Ivan's early years.
In June 1552 Ivan led his newly formed army of 100,000 troops down the Volga toward Kazan, the fortified capital of khanate. Ivan besieged the Tartar stronghold in late August and waited for its surrender. After Ivan's victory over Kazan he received, from his troops, the second part of his name that still remains today. This name that he received is Grozny, which has been taken to mean "the terrible" or "the dread," but most accurately translated as "the awesome."
Ivan's victories over Kazan and Astrakhan extended the Russian nation to the Caspian Sea in the south and to the Ural Mountains in the east, adding nearly 1,000,000 square kilometers to Ivan's realm.
When Moscow needed revenue to invade Kazan, Ivan planned to sell what was left of provincial administration to the locals. This was so successful that the sale of provincial civil administration was completed in 1556 to raise funds for the Astrakhan campaign. The tsar's treasury benefited, but the Russian people benefited also, as locally elected officials replaced the exploitative governors sent from Moscow.
In 1556, Ivan exerted control over the boyars and princes who still held private lands in Muscovy by requiring them and their personal slave soldiers to serve in the cavalry as well. By forcing them into the "service class," Ivan took away the Russian nobility's independence. The country's vast lower class, the peasants, also saw their lot worsened during Ivan's reign. Much of the land turned over to the military servicemen had been state land worked by free peasants. The system gradually turned many peasants into serfs, bound to the land they tilled. In 1581 Ivan even issued an edict forbidding some peasants on service lands from moving.
Looking to further expand his empire, Ivan targeted Livonia, a small, Baltic-coast nation in 1558. After the annexation of the Volga, Muscovy had two expansionist alternatives: either to conquer and annex the Crimean khanate, which was ceaselessly raiding Russia and Poland for slaves; or to reconquer Slavic lands to the west which had been annexed by Livonia, Lithuania, and Poland. Adopting a defensive posture toward Crimea the Russians plunged into an war against the Livonians on the western front.
With the Livonian monopoly on trade between Russia and Western Europe broken, merchants from as far away as Holland and France rushed to Narva to negotiate trade agreements with the Russians. Ivan had pursued relations with England, opened the port of Archangel to British merchant ships, and started trading directly with Western Europe. He brought Moscow a wide variety of artisans to teach his people the new trades that were essential for success in the modern world. He instituted sweeping reforms in the Church and the army, as well as in the way the country was governed
Ivan's much-loved wife Anastasia withered away due to a lingering illness in of 1560. Ivan suffered a severe emotional collapse. He banged his head on the floor in full view of the court and smashed his furniture. His suspicion deepened into paranoia. Angry and depressed, with his old cruelty resurfacing. Ivan had alternately violent fits of temper and feelings of remorse.
In December 1564 Ivan left Moscow with some of his court supposedly to visit various monasteries. In reality, the paranoid tsar had abandoned the capital, taking valuables and relatives with him. Ivan returned to the capital in February 1565, the hair on his head had fallen out and his beard had turned white, signs of major psychological stress.
Shortly after Ivan returned, he set up the Oprichniki, which became a separate police state within Russia. They dressed in black, the traditional colors of death, and rode black horses, from whose saddle hung two emblems - those of a broom and a dog's head. The broom signified the rider's mission to sweep Russia clean of Ivan's enemies; the dog's head symbolized that he was watchful for the czar.
The Oprichniki didn't hesitate to burst into a church during mass, either abducting the priest or murdering him in front of the altar. Subsequently, Ivan founded a pseudo-monastic order: he was the 'abbot' and his Oprichniki were the 'monks'. Supposedly they regularly performed sacrilegious masses that were followed by extended orgies of sex, rape and torture. Drunken licentiousness was alternated with passionate acts of repentance. After throwing himself down before the altar with such vehemence that his forehead would be bloody and covered with bruises, Ivan would rise and read sermons on the Christian virtues to his drunken retainers.
Among those killed were the head of the church, Metropolitan Filipp Kolychëv, who had criticized the Oprichnina. In1570, on the basis of unproved accusations of treason, Ivan massacred the 60,000 citizens of Novgorod with his Oprichniki. Novgorod's archbishop was first sewn up in a bearskin and then hunted to death by a pack of hounds. Men, women and children were tied to sleighs, which were then run into the freezing waters of the Volkhov River. The mass of corpses made it flood its banks. In the same year, there were mass public executions in Moscow. Crimean Tatars were able to sack Moscow in 1571, and much of the land around Moscow was depopulated.
In 1572 the Oprichniki were disbanded after their failure to defend Moscow. Ivan abdicated and placed a Tartar general, Simeon Bekboelatovitch, on the Moscow throne, while he retired to a country estate. Ivan made regular visits to the capital to pay homage to the new Tsar. This strange game lasted for a year.
Ivan grew increasingly vicious and blood thirsty. So much that on November 19, 1582 his pregnant daughter-in-law Elena appeared immodestly dressed and Ivan attacked and caused her to miscarry. His son Ivan Ivanovich rose to defend his wife, whereupon the tsar killed his son, his only possible respectable heir. This left as heir Ivan's feebleminded son Fyodor. Ivan left behind a joyless Russia on March 18, 1584, when he died suddenly of a heart attack while preparing for a game of chess.
Scholars believe that Ivan manifested psychopathic characteristics; his quick mood shifts, unreliability, egocentricity and lack of lasting emotions. His first mock abdication showed that he was a master at manipulating other people, while convincing them of his good intentions. His personal friendships were of short duration and his friends usually ended up dead.
Later the exhumation of his body showed he suffered from mercury poisoning. It has also been suggested that Ivan suffered from syphilis; his sexual promiscuity with both sexes, his last illness and many features of his personality support such a diagnosis. However, it can not be determined indisputably if Ivan's problems were basically organic or psychological. - Born in Moscow, Griboyedov studied at Moscow University from 1810 to 1812. He then obtained a commission in a hussar regiment, which he resigned in 1816. The next year, he entered the civil service. In 1818 he was appointed secretary of the Russian legation in Persia, and transferred to Georgia.
His verse comedy The Young Spouses, which he staged in St.Petersburg in 1816, was followed by other similar works. Neither these nor his essays and poetry would have been long remembered but for the success of his verse comedy Woe from Wit, a satire on Russian aristocratic society.
As a high official in the play puts it, this work is "a pasquinade on Moscow". The play depicts certain social and official stereotypes in the characters of Famusov, who hates reform; his secretary, Molchalin, who fawns over officials; and the aristocratic young liberal and Anglomaniac, Repetilov. By contrast the hero of the piece, Chatsky, an ironic satirist just returned from western Europe, exposes and ridicules the weaknesses of the rest. His words echo the outcry of the young generation in the lead-up to the armed insurrection of 1825.
In Russia for the summer of 1823, Griboyedov completed the play and took it to St. Petersburg. It was rejected by the censors. Many copies were made and privately circulated, but Griboyedov never saw it published. After his death manuscript was jointly owned by his wife Nina Alexandrovna Griboyedova and his sister Maria Sergeyevna Durnovo (Griboyedova). The first edition was printed in 1833, four years after his death.Only once did he see it on the stage, when it was performed by the officers of the garrison at Yerevan. Soured by disappointment, he returned to Georgia. He put his linguistic expertise at the service of general Ivan Paskevich, a relative, during the Russo-Persian War of 1826-1828, after which he was sent to St. Petersburg at the time of the Treaty of Turkmenchay. There, thinking to devote himself to literature, he started work on a romantic drama, A Georgian Night.
Several months after his wedding to Nino, the 16-year-old daughter of his friend Prince Chavchavadze, Griboyedov was suddenly sent to Persia as Minister Plenipotentiary. In the aftermath of the war and the humiliating Treaty of Turkmenchay, there was strong anti-Russian sentiment in Persia. Soon after Griboyedov's arrival in Tehran, a mob stormed the Russian embassy.
The incident began when an Armenian eunuch escaped from the harem of Persian shah, and two Armenian women escaped from that of his son-in-law. All three sought refuge at the Russian legation. As agreed in the Treaty of Turkmenchay, Georgians and Armenians living in Persia were permitted to return to Georgia and Eastern Armenia. However, the Shah demanded that Griboyedov return the three. Griboyedov refused. This caused an uproar throughout the city and several thousand Persians encircled the Russian compound demanding their release.
Griboyedov then decided to offer to return the escaped eunuch and Armenian women. But it was too late. Moments later, urged on by the mullahs, the mob stormed the building." A high ranking Muslim scholar with the title of Mojtahed, Mirza Masih Astarabadi known as Mirza Masih Mojtahed, issued a fatwa saying freeing Muslim women from the claws of unbelievers is allowed.
Griboyedov's body, thrown from a window, was decapitated by a kebab vendor who displayed the head on his stall. The mob dragged the uniformed corpse through the city's streets and bazaars, to cries of celebration. It was eventually abandoned on a garbage heap after three days of ill-treatment by the mob, such that in the end it could be identified only by a duelling injury to a finger. Griboyedov was buried there, in the monastery of St David (Mtatsminda Pantheon). - Writer
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Born to noble parents (his father Sergei was a retired major, and his mother, Nadezhda, was the granddaughter of an ennobled Ethiopian general) on the 26th of May, 1799 in Moscow, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin became involved with a liberal underground revolutionary group that saw him exiled to the Caucasus.
He spent most of his time there writing poetry and novels. In 1826 Pushkin was pardoned by the Tsar and allowed to return home after six years of exile. He married Natalia Goncharova, whose coquettish behavior led to her husband challenging an admirer of hers to a duel in January 1837. Though both were wounded, only Pushkin died two days later from his injuries.- Aleksandr Herzen was born on 6 April 1812 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was a writer, known for Soroka-vorovka (1920), Soroka-vorovka (1959) and Novela (1963). He died on 21 January 1870 in Paris, France.
- Alexander Herzen was born on 6 April 1812 in Moscow, Russian Empire. He was married to Natalia Aleksandrovna Zakharina. He died on 21 January 1870 in Paris, France.
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Mikhail Lermontov was born in 1814 into an aristocratic Russian family and grew up in a trilingual environment. His ancestor was the Scottish Knight George Lermont, who came to Russia in 1613 and served the Tsar. Lermontov's grandmother hired a Frenchman, named Jean, who became a servant to the young poet. In addition his nanny was German. His mother died when he was 2 years old, and his grandmother took him away from his father. Lermontov graduated from a boarding school for the sons of the nobility in Moscow, where he studied English literature.
At age 14 he wrote "The prisoner of the Caucasus" and other early poems in the vein of Lord Byron and Shelly. From 1828-32 he studied at Moscow University. From 1832-34 he was a cadet at the Emperor's School of Cavalry Guards in St. Petersburg, from which he graduated as an Officer of the Imperial Cavalry Guards. At that time her wrote "Borodino", dedicated to the 1812 victory over Napoleon.
Lermontov was stunned by the duel and death of Alexander Pushkin and accused the autocratic Tsar Nicholas I and his "greedy throng around the Throne" in the "murder of the Genius". Arrested and exiled to the war in the mountains of Caucasus, he distinguished himself in battles and returned to the capital of St. Petersburg as a celebrity. His disillusionment in the aristocratic milieu, and his indignant observations of the Metropolitan vanity fair, occasioned his drama, "Masquerade".
His duel with a French diplomat led to his second exile to the war in the Caucasus. In 1839 he finished his first and only novel "A Hero of Our Time" with a prophetic rendition of a duel which paralleled the end of his own life in July 1841. That duel was possibly the work of the Tsar's conspiracy against yet another rebellious genius. Lermontov's dexterous command of language shines in such masterpieces as "The Cliff", "Prophet", "The Dream". His sacrilegious "Demon", about an angel who falls in love with a mortal woman, inspired Anton Rubinstein on writing a lush opera. Boris Pasternak was influenced by Lermontov's mellifluent lines, and Vladimir Nabokov imitated the structural patterns of "The Hero of Our Time".- Alexander II (29 April 1818 - 13 March 1881) was Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 2 March 1855 until his assassination. Alexander's most significant reform as emperor was the emancipation of Russia's serfs in 1861, for which he is known as Alexander the Liberator . The tsar was responsible for other reforms, including reorganizing the judicial system, setting up elected local judges, abolishing corporal punishment, promoting local self-government through the zemstvo system, imposing universal military service, ending some privileges of the nobility, and promoting university education. After an assassination attempt in 1866, Alexander adopted a somewhat more reactionary stance until his death. Alexander pivoted towards foreign policy and sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, fearing the remote colony would fall into British hands if there were another war. He sought peace, moved away from bellicose France when Napoleon III fell in 1871, and in 1872 joined with Germany and Austria in the League of the Three Emperors that stabilized the European situation. Despite his otherwise pacifist foreign policy, he fought a brief war with the Ottoman Empire in 1877-78, leading to the independence of the Bulgarian, Montenegrin, Romanian and Serbian states, pursued further expansion into Far East and the Caucasus, and conquered Turkestan, also approving plans leading to the Circassian genocide. Although disappointed by the results of the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Alexander abided by that agreement. Among his greatest domestic challenges was an uprising in Poland in 1863, to which he responded by stripping that land of its separate constitution and incorporating it directly into Russia. Alexander was proposing additional parliamentary reforms to counter the rise of nascent revolutionary and anarchistic movements when he was assassinated in 1881.
- 2nd of Russia Alexander was born on 29 April 1818 in Moscow, Russian Empire.
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Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was born on November 11, 1821, in Moscow, Russia. He was the second of seven children of Mikhail Andreevich and Maria Dostoevsky. His father, a doctor, was a member of the Russian nobility, owned serfs and had a considerable estate near Moscow where he lived with his family. It's believed that he was murdered by his own serfs in revenge for the violence he would commit against them while in drunken rages. As a child Fyodor was traumatized when he witnessed the rape of a young female serf and suffered from epileptic seizures. He was sent to a boarding school, where he studied sciences, languages and literature. He was devastated when his favorite writer, Alexander Pushkin, was killed in a duel in St. Petersburg in 1837. That same year Dostoevsky's mother died, and he moved to St. Petersburg. There he graduated from the Military Engineering Academy, and served in the Tsar's government for a year.
Dostoevsky was active in St. Petersburg literary life; he grew out of his early influence by Nikolay Gogol, translated "Eugenia Grande" by Honoré de Balzac in 1844 and published his own first novel, "Poor Folk", in 1845, and became friends with Ivan Turgenev and Nikolai A. Nekrasov, but it ended abruptly after they criticized his writing. At that time he became indirectly involved in a revolutionary movement, for which he was arrested in 1849, convicted of treason and sentenced to death. His execution was scheduled for a freezing winter day in St. Petersburg, and at the appointed hour he was blindfolded and ordered to stand before the firing squad, waiting to be shot. The execution was called off at the last minute, however, and his sentence was commuted to a prison term and exile in Siberia, where his health declined amid increased epileptic seizures. After serving ten years in prison and exile, he regained his title in the nobility and returned to St. Petersburg with permission from the Tsar. He abandoned his formerly liberal views and became increasingly conservative and religious. That, however, didn't stop him from developing an acute gambling problem, and he accumulated massive gambling debts.
In 1862, after returning from his first major tour of Western Europe, Dostoevsky wrote that "Russia needs to be reformed, by learning the new ideas that are developing in Europe." On his next trip to Europe, in 1863, he spent all of his money on a manipulative woman, A. Suslova, went on a losing gambling spree, returned home flat broke and sank into a depression. At that time he wrote "Notes from Underground" (1864), preceding existentialism in literature. His first wife died in 1864, after six years of a childless marriage, and he adopted her son from her previous marriage. Painful experiences caused him to fall further into depression, but it was during this period that he wrote what many consider his finest work: "Crime and Punishment" (1866).
After completion of "The Gambler" (1867), the 47-year-old Dostoevsky married his loyal friend and literary secretary, 20-year-old Anna Snitkina, and they had four children. His first baby died at three months of age, causing him to sink further into depression and triggering more epileptic seizures. At that time Dostoevsky expressed his disillusionment with the Utopian ideas in his novels "The Idiot" (1868) and "The Devils" (aka "The Possessed") (1871), where the "devils" are destructive people, such as revolutionaries and terrorists. Dostoevsky was the main speaker at the opening of the monument to Alexander Pushkin in 1880, calling Pushkin a "wandering Russian, searching for universal happiness". In his final great novel, "The Brothers Karamazov" (1880), Dostoevsky revealed the components of his own split personality, depicted in four main characters; humble monk Alyosha, compulsive gambler Dmitri, rebellious intellectual Ivan, and their cynical father Fyodor Karamazov.
Dostoevsky died on February 9, 1881, of a lung hemorrhage caused by emphysema and epileptic seizures. He lived his entire life under the pall of epilepsy, much like the mythical "Sword of Damocles", and was fearless in telling the truth. His writings are an uncanny reflection on his own life - the fate of a genius in Russia.- Lev Mey was born on 13 February 1822 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was a writer, known for Cara ligava (1964) and Rimsky-Korsakov: The Tsar's Bride (2013). He was married to Sofiya Grigorievna Polyanskaya. He died on 16 May 1862 in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire.
- Aleksandr Ostrovskiy was born on 12 April 1823 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was a writer, known for Zhenitba Balzaminova (1964), Without Dowry (1937) and The Busy Inn (1916). He was married to Maria Wassiljewna Vasilieva and Agafja Iwanowna. He died on 14 June 1886 in Shchelykovo, Kostroma Governorate, Russian Empire [now Kostroma Oblast, Russia].
- Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin was born on 27 January 1826 in Spas-Ugol, Tver Governorate, Russian Empire [now Moscow Oblast, Russia]. He was a writer, known for House of Greed (1934), Poshekhonskaya starina (1977) and Television Theater (1953). He died on 10 May 1889 in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire [now Russia].
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- Writer
Lev Ivanov was born on 18 February 1834 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was a writer, known for Swan Lake 3D - Live from the Mariinsky Theatre (2013), The Nutcracker - ROH, London 2022 (Ballet) (2022) and The Turning Point (1977). He was married to Vera Lyadova and Varvara Ivanova. He died on 11 December 1901 in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire [now Russia].- Additional Crew
Pyotr Kropotkin was born on 9 December 1842 in Moscow, Russia. He is known for Unrest (2022). He died on 8 February 1921 in Dmitrov, Russia.- Production Designer
Vladimir Simov was born on 14 April 1858 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was a production designer, known for Pobeda zhenshchiny (1927), Grekh i iskuplenie (1919) and Masony (1918). He died on 21 August 1935 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].- Vladimir Mikhaylov was born on 10 December 1861 in Moscow, Russian Empire. He was an actor, known for The Girl with the Hat Box (1927), Don Diego i Pelageya (1928) and Three Thieves (1926). He died on 31 March 1935 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].
- Nikolai Yudenich was born on 30 July 1862 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He died on 5 October 1933 in St. Laurent du Var, Alpes-Maritimes, France.
- Aleksandr Guchkov was born on 26 October 1862 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He died on 14 February 1936 in Paris, France.
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Konstantin Stanislavski was a wealthy Russian businessman turned director who founded the Moscow Art Theatre, and originated the Stanislavski's System of acting which was spread over the world by his students, such as Michael Chekhov, Aleksei Dikij, Stella Adler, Viktor Tourjansky, and Richard Boleslawski among many others.
He was born Konstantin Sergeevich Alekseev on January 5, 1863, in Moscow, Russia. His father, Sergei Alekseev, was a wealthy Russian merchant. His mother, Elisaveta Vasilevna (nee Yakovleva) was French-Russian and his grandmother was a notable actress in Paris. Young Stanislavski grew up in a bilingual environment. He was fond of theatre and arts, studied piano and singing, and performed amateur plays at home with his elder brother and two sisters. He studied business and languages at Lasarevsky Institute, the most prestigious private school in Moscow. He did not graduate, instead he continued self-education while traveling in several European countries and studying at libraries and museums. Eventually Stanislavski joined his father's company, became a successful businessman, and the head of his father's business, the Alekseev's factory and other assets. During the 1880s Stanislavski made a fortune in international business and trade, he was awarded the Gold Medal at the World's Fair in Paris. At the same time, he was an active patron of arts and theatre in Russia. In 1885 he studied acting and directing at the Maly Theatre in Moscow, and took a stage name Stanislavski. In 1888 he founded the "Society for Arts and Literature" in Moscow.
In 1898 Stanislavski together with his partner, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, founded the Moscow Art Theatre, which made a profound influence on theatrical art all over the world. They opened with staging of "Tsar Feodor" a play by Aleksei Tolstoy, then staged "The Seagull" written by Anton Chekhov specially for the Moscow Art Theatre. In 1900 Stanislavski brought the Moscow Art Theatre on tour in Sebastopol and Yalta in Crimea, where he invited then ailing Anton Chekhov to see several plays. Chekhov admired the company's stage production of his plays, and respected the theatrical achievements of Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. Chekhov's legendary collaboration with the Moscow Art Theatre was fruitful for both sides: it resulted in creation of such classics as 'The Seagull', 'Uncle Vanya', 'The Three Sisters', and 'The Cherry Orchard', the four big plays which remained in the repertoire ever since.
Stanislavski's system was developed through his own cross-cultural experience as actor, director, and businessman. He constantly updated his method through inter-disciplinary studies, absorbing from a range of sources and influences, such as the modernist developments, yoga and Pavlovian behaviorist psychology. He introduced group rehearsals and relaxation techniques to achieve better spiritual connections between actors. Pavlovian approach worked well by conditioning actors through discipline in longer, organized rehearsals, and using a thorough analysis of characters. Stanislavski himself was involved in a long and arduous practice making every actor better prepared for stage performance and eventually producing a less rigid acting style. In his own words, Stanislavski described his early approach as "Spiritual Realism." His actors worked hard to deliver perfectly believable performances, as none of his actors wanted to hear his famous verdict, "I don't believe."
As an actor, Stanislavski starred in several classical plays. His most notable stage performances, such as Othello in the Shakespeare's 'Othello', and as Gayev in Chekhov's 'The Cherry Orchard', were acclaimed by critics and loved by public. His own students said that Stanislavski was a very comfortable partner on stage, due to his highly professional and truthful acting. At the same time, he could be very demanding off stage, because of his high standards, especially during his lengthy and rigorous rehearsals, requiring nothing less but the full devotion from each actor of his company, the Moscow Art Theatre.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, his factory and all other business property was nationalized by the Soviet Communists, but he was allowed to own his mansion in Moscow. Stanislavski wisely let go of all his wealth and possessions and expressed himself in writing and directing. He remained the principal director of Moscow Art Theatre for the rest of his life. During the turbulent years before and after the Russian Revolution, and later in the 1920s and 30s, he witnessed bitter rivalry among his former students. Some actors emigrated from Russia, others fought for their share of success, and the Moscow Art Theatre was eventually divided into several companies.
In 1928 Stanislavski suffered from a heart attack. He then distanced himself from disputes and competition between his former students Michael Chekhov and Aleksei Dikij, whose individual ambitions resulted in further fragmentation of the original Moscow Art Theatre company. At the same time, his younger apprentice, Nikolay Khmelyov, remained loyal to the teacher, and eventually later filled the position held by Stanislavski at Moscow Art Theatre. However, his other students, such as Vsevolod Meyerhold and Yevgeni Vakhtangov founded their own theatre companies and continued using their versions of the Stanislavski's system. In the 1930s, Stanislavski together with Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko formed one more theatrical company in Moscow, the Musical Theatre of Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko.
Stanislavski was a proponent of democratic ideas, such as equal opportunity and equal value of every human being on the planet. At that time Stanislavski's nephew was arrested for political reasons, and died in the Gulag prison-camp. Stanislavsky was also under permanent surveillance, because his Moscow Art Theatre was frequently attended by Joseph Stalin and other Soviet strongmen. However, at that time Moscow Art Theatre became especially popular, because Russian intellectuals needed a cultural oasis to escape from the grim Soviet reality. Under Stanislavski the Moscow Art Theatre produced several brilliant plays by Mikhail A. Bulgakov, and also continued running such classics as 'The Seagull', 'The Cherry Orchard', 'The Lower Bottom' and other original productions of plays by Anton Chekhov and Maxim Gorky.
In his later years, Stanislavsky wrote a book titled "An Actor Prepares" which, in Charley Chaplin's words, ".. helps all people to reach out for big dramatic art. It tells what an actor needs to rouse the inspiration he requires for expressing profound emotions." Stanislavsky explained how actors may use his System, "Create your own method. Don't depend slavishly on mine. Make up something that will work for you! But keep braking traditions, I beg you!" And that was exactly what the best of his followers did. Stanislavski's ideas were used by many acting teachers, such as Michael Chekhov, Stella Adler, and Lee Strasberg, among others across the world.
During the 1930s Konstantin Stanislavski directed the original productions of several classic Russian plays, such as "Na Dne" (aka.. The Lower Depths) by Maxim Gorky, "Tsar Fedor Ioannovich" by A.K. Tolstoy, and other plays at the Moscow Art Theatre. After Stanislavski's death his original theatrical productions were adapted to black and white films, where Stanislavsky is credited as the original theatrical director. He died of a heart failure on August 7, 1938, in Moscow and was laid to rest in Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, Russia.
Stanislavski's mansion in central Moscow is now a public museum and research center displaying a collection of original stage sets and theatrical costumes. Stanislavski's personal library is also part of his museum. It has rare books that he collected in his numerous travels, as well as original manuscripts and letters by Stanislavski.- Vladimir Durov was born on 25 June 1863 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was married to Natalia Karnaukhova and Aleksandra Ignatevna Karnaukhova. He died on 8 August 1934 in Moscow, USSR.
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- Production Designer
Yevgeni Bauer was the most important filmmaker of the early Russian cinema, who made about eighty silent films in 5 years before the Russian Revolution of 1917.
He was born Yevgeni Frantsevich Bauer in 1865, in Moscow, Russia, into an artistic family. His father, Franz Bauer, was a renown musician who played zither, his mother was an opera singer, and his sisters eventually became stage and cinema actresses. From 1882 - 1887 he studied at Moscow School of Art, Sculpture and Architecture, graduating in 1887, as an artist. At that time Bauer worked for Moscow theatres as a stage artist as well as a set designer for popular musicals and comedies. He was also known as a newspaper satirist, a caricaturist for magazines, a journalist, and a theatrical impresario. During the 1900s he became involved in still photography and worked as an artistic photographer, having several of his pictures published in the Russian media.
In 1912, Bauer was hired by A. Drankov and Taldykin as a production designer for Tryokhsotletie tsarstvovaniya doma Romanovykh (1913), then he became a film director for their company. After making four films as director for A. Drankov, he moved on to work for Pathe's Star Film Factory in Moscow, and made another four films for them. In 1913, Bauer was invited by the leading Russian producer Aleksandr Khanzhonkov. Their fruitful collaboration would last only four years, yielding about 70 films, of which less than a half survived. Among Bauer's best works with Khanzhyonkov were such films as After Death (1915), Her Sister's Rival (1916), and Revolyutsioner (1917), starring Ivane Perestiani as an Old revolutionary.
Bauer reached his peak in the genre of social drama, such as Daydreams (1915) (aka.. Daydreams), starring Alexander Wyrubow as Sergei, an obsessed widower who falls for an actress because of her resemblance of his late wife, but soon their characters clash, leading to a tragic end. Soon Yevgeni Bauer established himself as the leading film director in Russia. He achieved great financial success earning up to 40,000 rubles annually. In 1914, Bauer started using his wife's name, Ancharov, as his artistic name, due to the political pressure from rising Russian nationalism during the First World War, so he was credited as Ancharov in some of his films. Bauer was the main force behind successful careers of major Russian silent film stars of that time, such as Ivan Mozzhukhin and Vera Kholodnaya. With Vera Kholodnaya, Bauer made thirteen films back-to-back in one year. In After Death (1915) and Umirayushchiy lebed (1917), Bauer cast none other than Vera Karalli, the legendary ballerina of the Boshoi Theatre and Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.
Bauer's style evolved from his experience as a theatre artist, actor and photographer who incorporated theatrical techniques in his films in a uniquely cinematic way. His mastery of lighting, his use of unusual camera angles and huge close-ups, his inventive and thoughtful montage and such theatrical effects as long shots through windows or his use of gauzes and curtains to alter the screen image, all these innovations were decades ahead of his time. Bauer was one of the first film directors who used the split screen. He introduced a multi-layered staging involving juxtaposed foreground and background with lush decor and thoughtful compositions alluding to classical paintings of the old masters. He developed ingenious camera movements, showing a remarkable depth of field, and achieving powerful dramatic effects. Bauer's vision and inventiveness, his integrated skills as artist, actor, photographer, and director, made him the leading filmmaker of the early Russian cinema.
Russia was a tough place for film and entertainment business, becoming increasingly unstable during the turbulent years of the First World War. Then Russian culture and film industry suffered from a cascade of troubles and destructions caused by several Russian Revolutions. However, by 1917 several major Russian film studios became established in Yalta, Crimea, near the Tsar's palaces and lush villas of other major patrons, where social environment of an upscale resort with a Mediterranean climate provided special conditions conducive for filming all year round. Bauer moved to Yalta and continued his work at the newly established Khanzhyonkov film studio, becoming also its major shareholder. There Bauer directed his last masterpiece, Za schastem (1917) (aka.. For happiness), passing the torch to his apprentice, Lev Kuleshov, who replaced the ailing Bauer in the role as painter Enrico, which Bauer wanted to play himself, but unfortunately he fell and broke his leg.
In spite of his illness, Bauer used a wheelchair, and began directing his last film, Korol Parizha (1917), which was initially designed as his largest project, but was ended as his last song. His broken leg and unexpected complications interrupted his work as he became bedridden in a Yalta hospital. The film was completed by actress Olga Rakhmanova and his colleagues at Khanzhyonkov studio. Yevgeni Bauer died of pneumonia on 22nd of July (9th of July, old style), 1917, in Yalta, Crimea, and was laid to rest in Yalta cemetery, Yalta, Crimea, Russia (now Yalta, Ukraine).
Bauer was married to actress and dancer Emma Bauer (nee Ancharova), whom he met in the 1890s during his stint as a theatre artist. In 1915 Lina Bauer starred as a flirtatious wife who hides her lover in a closet and successfully outwits her husband in Bauer's comedy The 1002nd Ruse (1915) (aka.. The 1002nd Ruse). Bauer's sister, Emma Bauer also starred in several of his films.- Art Department
- Writer
Wassily Kandinsky, a lawyer turned artist, belongs in the Pantheon of the 20th century artists alongside Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.
He was born Wassily (Vasili Vasilevich) Kandinsky on December 16, 1866, in Moscow, Russia. His father, Vasili Silvesterovich Kandinsky, was a successful Russian businessman, his mother was a homemaker. Young Kandinsky enjoyed a happy childhood traveling across Europe with his parents and living in Odessa and Moscow. He studied arts and music from his early age and played piano and cello. Kandinsky had the physiological gift of synaesthesia cognate with that of composer Aleksandr Skryabin, and writer Vladimir Nabokov, which enabled him to hear colors and to see sounds. Kandinsky wrote: "Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul."
He earned his Law degree from the Moscow University and lectured at the Moscow Faculty of Law until 1896, then worked as managing director at a Moscow publishing and printing business. At age 30 he changed his life and career completely and moved from Russia to Europe. From 1896-1914 Kandinsky lived in Munich. There he studied art anatomy, drawing and composition under Anthon Azbe for two years. From 1897-1900, he studied in Munich Academy of Art and graduated from the class of Franz von Schtucke. In 1901 he founded "Falanga" artistic movement and school, where he also taught his ideas in art. At that time his paintings represented his earlier impressions from seeing the Russian folk art coupled with his musical imagination. Synaesthetic ability led him to creation of his original style, focused more on series of colors than on formal details. His paintings from that period, like "The Blue Rider" (1903), are steps to creation of the modern abstract art.
Kandinsky was the founder and active member of some of the most influential art movements. In 1911 he founded Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) together with Franz Marc, and included such artists as August Macke, Paul Klee, Alexej von Javlensky, and other painters fundamental to Expressionism. The group held two important exhibitions in 1911 and 1912 touring Germany, for which Kandinsky also included paintings by Henri Rousseau. Kandinsky was the main driving force behind the start of the new movement: he chose artists, collected their works, and published an almanac. In his writings Kandinsky promoted abstract art. He formulated his ideas of spirituality in art, his color theory, and the concept of autonomous color painted apart from an object or form.
The start of WWI in 1914 forced Kandinsky back to Russia. There he taught art in Moscow and visited St. Petersburg. In 1916, he met Nina Andrievskaya who became his wife in 1917. During and after the Russian Revolution of 1917, he was involved in art teaching and participated in museum reform. He published an autobiographical book 'Stupeni' (Steps 1918). From 1919-1921 he was the Chairman of Russian Art Acqusitions Commission, taught at VKHUTEMAS, and was elected the Vice-President of Russian Academy of Arts. His life in Russia was full of painful and traumatic events. He was devastated by the death of his young son in Moscow. At that time, Kandinsky suffered from another blow from the Soviets when his spiritual and artistic position was bashed and denounced as individualistic and bourgeois. He was under suspicion from the Soviet communists and was eventually stripped from his Soviet citizenship. In 1921 Kandinsky escaped from the Soviet Russia and joined the Bauhaus movement in Weimar, Germany. He was invited by Walther Gropius, the founder of Bauhaus, an innovative school of art and architecture. There Kandinsky taught design and advanced color theory, as well as an abstract painting class.
In 1933 Bauhaus was banned by the Nazis. Kandinsky fled from the Nazi Germany and settled in Paris. He became a French citizen in 1939 and continued living and working in Paris during the Nazi occupation in WWII. His studio in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, was frequently visited by 'Joan Miro' and younger artists. He became established internationally through several exhibitions, and his works were acquired in the USA by Solomon Guggenheim, who became one of his most enthusiastic supporters. Kandinsky expressed his creative achievements in the series of seven large "Compositions" (1911-39), which are widely acclaimed as the culmination of an abstract style in art.
Wassily Kandinsky died on December 13, 1944, in his studio in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. He is recognized as the developer of Abstractionism in modern art.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Pavel Orlenev was born on 6 March 1869 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was an actor and director, known for Brand (1915), Prestuplenie i nakazanie (1913) and Privideniya (1915). He died on 31 August 1932 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].- Aleksandr Sanin was born on 3 April 1869 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was a director, known for Devi gory (1919), Polikushka (1922) and Soroka-vorovka (1920). He died on 8 May 1956 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
- Dimitri Dimitriev was born on 3 March 1870 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was an actor, known for Nuits de princes (1929), Secrets of the Orient (1928) and Casanova (1927). He died on 27 November 1947 in Paris, France.
- Yevdokiya Turchaninova was a notable Russian actress of Maly Theatre in Moscow.
She was born Yevdokiya Dmitrievna Turchaninova on March 14, 1870, in Russia. She studied acting together with Varvara Ryzhova under A. Lensky at Moscow Theatrical College, graduating in 1892 as an actress. That same year she became member of the troupe at Maly Drama Theatre in Moscow.
Yevdokiya Turchaninova was best known in Russia for her special voice, impeccable diction and powerful delivery. From 1910 - 1920s she taught acting at the Maly Theatre Drama School. From 1892 to 1959 Turchaninova was permanent member of the troupe at Maly Drama Theatre in Moscow. There her stage partners were such actors as Vera Pashennaya, Olga Sadovskaya, Nikolai Annenkov, A. Yablochkina, Varvara Massalitinova, Varvara Ryzhova, Yelena Gogoleva, Varvara Obukhova, Yelena Shatrova, Elina Bystritskaya, Rufina Nifontova, Tatyana Eremeeva, Aleksandr Yuzhin, Mikhail Tsaryov, Aleksandr Ostuzhev, Vladimir Davydov, Sergei Aidarov, Stepan Kuznetsov, Prov Sadovsky, Boris Ravenskikh, Boris Babochkin, Mikhail Zharov, Igor Ilyinsky, Pavel Olenev, Mikhail Sadovsky, Konstantin Zubov, Viktor Khokhryakov, Vsevolod Aksyonov, Nikolai Ryzhov, Evgeniy Vesnik, Viktor Korshunov, Evgeniy Samoylov, and many other notable Russian actors.
Her stage performances were captured on film, such as her stage character in the play 'Gore ot uma' (aka.. Woe from Wit) by Aleksandr Griboyedov. The stage play 'Woe From Wit' was captured on film as Gore ot uma (1952) by director Sergei Alekseyev.
Yevdokiya Turchaninova was designated People's Actor of the USSR (1943), and was awarded the State Prize of the USSR twice (1943 and 1948). She also received numerous decorations from the Soviet State. Yevdokiya Turchaninova died on December 27, 1963, and was laid to rest in Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, Russia. - Nikolai Aleksandrov was born on 2 January 1871 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was an actor, known for Pobeda zhenshchiny (1927), Khromoy barin (1929) and Ne nado krovi (1917). He died on 3 November 1930 in Moscow, Russia, USSR [now Russia].
- Varvara Ryzhova was a notable Russian actress of Maly Theatre in Moscow.
She was born Varvara Nikolaevna Ryzhova on January 27, 1871, in Moscow, Russia, into the Borozdin-Muzil family of renown actors. She studied acting together with Yevdokiya Turchaninova under A. Lensky at Moscow Theatrical College, graduating in 1893 as an actress. That same year she became member of the troupe at Maly Drama Theatre in Moscow.
Varvara Ryzhova was best known in Russia as a comedienne and character actress. However, her range allowed her to perform a variety of characters in a broad repertoire from musical comedy to classic drama. She shone as Feklusha, Anfisa, Ulita, Glumova, Domna Panteleevna, and other characters in plays by Aleksandr Ostrovskiy, such as 'Groza' (aka.. The Tempest), 'Volki i ovtsy' (aka.. Wolves and sheep), 'Les' (aka.. The Forest), and other classical Russian plays.
From 1893 to 1960 Ryzhova was permanent member of Maly Theatre in Moscow. There her stage partners were such actors as Vera Pashennaya, Olga Sadovskaya, Nikolai Annenkov, A. Yablochkina, Varvara Massalitinova, Yevdokiya Turchaninova, Yelena Gogoleva, Varvara Obukhova, Yelena Shatrova, Elina Bystritskaya, Rufina Nifontova, Tatyana Eremeeva, Aleksandr Yuzhin, Mikhail Tsaryov, Aleksandr Ostuzhev, Vladimir Davydov, Sergei Aidarov, Stepan Kuznetsov, Prov Sadovsky, Boris Ravenskikh, Boris Babochkin, Mikhail Zharov, Igor Ilyinsky, Pavel Olenev, Mikhail Sadovsky, Konstantin Zubov, Viktor Khokhryakov, Vsevolod Aksyonov, Nikolai Ryzhov, Evgeniy Vesnik, Viktor Korshunov, Evgeniy Samoylov, and many other notable Russian actors.
Varvara Ryzhova made her film debut in Without Dowry (1937), a classic black-and-white film by director Yakov Protazanov, based on the play 'Bespridannitsa' by A. Ostrovsky. One of her best known film roles was as Princess Khryumina grandmother, a reprise of her stage character in the play 'Gore ot uma' (aka.. Woe from Wit) by Aleksandr Griboyedov. The stage play 'Woe From Wit' was captured on film as Gore ot uma (1952) by director Sergei Alekseyev.
Varvara Ryzhova was designated People's Actor of the USSR, and was awarded the State Prize of the USSR (1943). She was decorated with the Order of Lenin twice, and also received other decorations, including the prestigious Soviet Order of the Red Banner of Labor. Varvara Ryzhova died on May 18, 1963, and was laid to rest in Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, Russia. - Martha von Konssatzki was born on 30 June 1871 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. She was an actress, known for The Last Waltz (1934), Eskapade (1936) and Der verzauberte Tag (1944). She died in 1945.
- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Alexander Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist who invented the first colour keyboard and notation for lights and colors based on his scale of Synesthetic colors. His symphony 'Prometheus: The Poem of Fire' (1910) was the first composition in history which included notation for lights and colors. Scriabin's large-scale performances in Moscow and New York were the first live shows ever with lights and colors played on a colour keyboard and projected to the beat and harmony of his music, thus preceding modern day rock concerts.
He was born Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin on January 6, 1872, (old calendar date December 25, 1871, the Russian Orthodox Christmas), in Moscow, Russia. His father, named Nikolai Scriabin, was a wealthy aristocrat, a lawyer, and a ranking diplomat, who lived mostly in the Russian embassies abroad. His mother, named Lyubov Petrovna, was a professional pianist; she died when Scriabin was only one year old. Young Scriabin was brought up by his aunt, and played his first music on his late mother's piano.
His first piano teacher was Nikolai Zverev who was also teaching Sergei Rachmaninoff at the same time, and two composers developed a life-long friendship. From 1882-1889 he studied sciences and languages at the Moscow School of Cadets. From 1888-1892 Scriabin studied piano and composition under 'Sergei Taneyev' at Moscow Conservatory, graduating in 1892, as composer and pianist, then he became a professor at the same conservatory. In 1896 Scriabin married a famous Russian pianist, Vera Isakovich, who was the winner of the Gold Medal for performances of Scriabin's piano music. Before 1900 Scriabin joined the Moscow Philosophic Society and studied various schools of thought in his pursuit of inspirational ideas.
From 1904-1910 Scriabin was living and concertizing in Western Europe and in the United States. He was a remarkable pianist and successfully performed his original compositions before international audiences. At that time Scriabin became a curious student of contemporary philosophic trends and literature. His readings ranged from Oriental philosophies and Metaphysics, to Friedrich Nietzsche, whose 'ubermensch' theory Scriabin eventually outgrew, to Astrology and Medicine, and to Sir Isaac Newton's 'Optics'. He joined the circle of the Belgian Symbolist and Occultist Jean Delwille in Brussels. Scriabin also entered the circle of late Helene Blavatsky in London, studied her Theosophy, and even visited the room where she died. Scriabin's search for inspiration was not limited to Mysticism, Astrology and other Esoteric writings of the time. From 1907-1910 Scriabin lived in Paris with his second wife, Tatiana Schletser. There he was involved in the circle of Sergei Diaghilev and provided his compositions for concerts of Russian music. He also gave piano performances with the Russian Symphony Orchestra directed by M. I. Altshuller.
Scriabin was gifted with syn-aesthetic ability, though probably different from that of the physiological gift of Wassily Kandinsky, or a cognate cross-sensational gift of Vladimir Nabokov. Scriabin was the first composer in the world who wrote the musical notation for the light and color, thus making color intertwined with sound in a cross-senses harmony. In his symphonic poem 'Prometheus: the Poem of Fire' (1909) he wrote the line with notation for 'Luxe', a specially designed multicolor light projector with colored light-bulbs which was controlled by Scriabin himself playing on a colour keyboard. The multi-colored keyboard was first built in Russia by physicist Alexander Moser in 1910 for the performances of 'Prometheus'. It's performances in Moscow and in New York were the first ever orchestral concerts with color accompaniment being projected on a special screen. Scriabin also experimented with such styles as musical impressionism and expressionism. His harmonic and melodic inventiveness became manifested in his piano works and especially in his orchestral compositions. The 'Prometheus' chord' was the beginning in Scriabin's search for the new tonal/harmonic means of expression. His theory of the 'Synthesis of arts' made profound effect on innovations in film and theatre, most notably those of Vsevolod Meyerhold at the Moscow Art Theatre.
In 1915 Scriabin worked on developing of a new form of entertainment that would unite all Mankind through music, art, light, acting and interaction between performers and public. For this project Scriabin started a draft of a new cross-genre composition, which included music, literature, dance, architecture, natural landscape and light. He contemplated a seven-day long composition titled 'Misterium', of which he wrote down a few fragments on seventy pages shortly before his death. He described the composition in his draft as "a grandiose religious synthesis of all arts which would herald the birth of a New World." Scriabin planned his work to be performed at the foothills of the Himalayan mountains. Scriabin planned to include the Sunrises and the Sunsets into the measures of his unfinished music score. Part of that unfinished composition was performed under the title of 'Prefatory Action' by Vladimir Ashkenazy in Berlin with Aleksey Lyubimov at the piano. The idea of a seven-day music piece was later realized by Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Scriabin's admirer and friend poet Valery Briusov was a regular guest at Scriabin's home, where composer performed for friends and absorbed new ideas in cross-disciplinary discussions. Those discussions initially revolved around Symbolism in Art, and then eventually led to Scriabin's idea of "Future Art" or "Synthesis of Arts" alluding to a term "Gezamtkunstwerk" which was originally coined by Richard Wagner. Music and cultural heritage of other nations was among important sources of inspiration for Scriabin, who was also known as an acclaimed piano performer of music by Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt and Ludwig van Beethoven. Scriabin's original piano pieces show progressive development of his own tonal and harmonic thinking. His ten piano sonatas, 24 preludes, poems, études and other piano pieces are staples of many contemporary concert pianists' repertoire. The piano recordings of Scriabin's music by Vladimir Sofronitsky and Vladimir Horowitz are among the finest there are.
During the 1890s and 1900s Scriabin's evolution to multi-tonal complexities superseded calculated duodecafonic compositions of the Neo-Viennese school. From his early piano compositions to his grand-scale symphonies, Scriabin's music is peppered with harmonic innovations, unusual changes and surprise tonal discoveries. Scriabin's creative thinking invites a prepared listener to an intellectual journey beyond the calculated atonality of Arnold Schönberg or even the sophisticated cosmopolitanism of Igor Stravinsky. The ascensual trajectory of Scriabin's multi-tonality development is unparalleled in freedom of musical imagination. His rich and delicate Piano Concerto in F-Sharp Minor (1896) and the passionate 'Poem of Ecstasy' (1906) has been among the most recorded and frequently performed of his orchestral works.
Alexander Scriabin was at the peak of his creativity and worked on his innovative breakthrough project of 'Mysteria', when he died of septicaemia, a complication from an inflammation on his upper lip, aged 43, on April 27, 1915, in Moscow. He was laid to rest in the Church of St. Nikolai na Peskah, near his home in Moscow, Russia. Since 1922, the Scriabin's home in Moscow has been open to public as a National museum and a Cultural Heritage Memorial. Scriabin's Bechstein grand piano has been used for regular concert performances of his music.
Since the 1910 premiere of 'Prometheus', Scriabin's large-scale symphonies has been successfully performed with light and color accompaniment at concert venues all over the world. Among the milestone performances of Scriabin's 'Prometheus' with lights were the London premiere with conductor Henry Wood (UK, 1914), the Carnegie Hall premiere (USA, 1915), the Bolshoi Theatre show (Russia, 1918), the New Haven show (USA, 1971), and the Kasan Conservatory show (Tatarstan, 1996) where Scriabin's music was intertwined with colorful compositions of Wassily Kandinsky. Scriabin's ideas are now working in such projects as "Animusic" and other 3D visualization and MIDI-based music applications.- Yuri Yuryev was a Russian stage actor best known for his performance with the Aleksandrinsky (Pushkin) Theatre in St. Petersburg.
He was born Yuri Mikhailovich Yuryev on January 15, 1872, in Moscow, Russia. His uncle, Sergei Yuryev, was a writer and critic, who played important role in the formation of young Yuryev. In 1880s he took acting under A. Yuzhin, then played at Maly Theatre in Moscow. In 1893, Yuri Yuryev moved to St. Petersburg, and made a career at the Aleksandrinsky Theatre. There, during the 1910s, he worked under directorship of Vsevolod Meyerhold. In 1913 Yuriev made his film debut in German silent movies under directorship of Georg Jacoby.
Yuri Yuryev was best known for his stage performances at Aleksandrinsky (Pushkin) Theatre in St. Petersburg during the 1900s - 1940s, such as Makbeth, Othello, and King Lear in the Shakespeare's tragedies. In 1919 Yuriev was among the founders of Bolshoi Drama Theatre (BDT) together with Maxim Gorky and Anatoli Lunacharsky. He was member of the troupe with BDT for three seasons, then he had a stint at the Meyerhold's theatre in Moscow, albeit eventually he returned to Aleksandrinka (Pushkin Theatre) and was permanent member for the rest of his life. During the siege of Leningrad in the Second World War, Yuryev was giving stage performances in Leningrad, he gave his last performance as Othello in January of 1945. He was designated People's Actor of Russia, and received Honorary Doctorship in Art History for his books of memoirs. Yuri Yuryev died on March 13, 1948, in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Russia, and was laid to rest in the Necropolis of Masters of Arts of Tikhvinskoe Cemetery of St. Aleksander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg, Russia. - Sergei Vasilenko was born on 30 March 1872 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was a composer, known for Loss of Feeling (1935), Dzhulbars (1936) and Okraina (1933). He died on 11 March 1956 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].
- M. Masin was born on 11 December 1872 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was an actor, known for Molchi, grust... molchi (1918). He died on 8 July 1952.
- Mikhail Massin was born on 11 December 1872 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was an actor, known for Zhivoy trup (1918), Tri portreta (1919) and Martin Vagner (1928). He died on 8 July 1952.
- Ivan Shmelyov was born on 3 October 1873 in Moscow, Russian Empire. He was a writer, known for Man from the Restaurant (1927), The 2007 Academy Award Nominated Short Films: Animation (2008) and My Love (2006). He died on 24 June 1950 in Bussy-en-Othe, Yonne, France.
- Valeri Briusov was a Russian writer, poet, dramatist, critic, and historian. He was one of the founders of Symbolist movement in Russia.
He was born Valeri Yakovlevich Briusov on December 13, 1873, in Moscow, Russia. His grandfather, Aleksandr Bakulin, was a poet, and his father, Yakov Briusov, was a wealthy merchant who also published his poems and stories. Young Briusov grew up in a trilingual environment, he spoke French and German in addition to his native Russian. He received an excellent private education; from 1885-1889 he studied at private Gymnasium of F.I. Kreiman, from 1890-1893 he studied at private Gymnasium of L.I. Polivanov and was acting in several school plays. At that time Briusov was romantically involved with a young and beautiful lady, Elena Kraskova. Her sudden death in 1893 caused him an emotional trauma, and Briusov expressed himself in writing. He wrote poetry and drama, as well as translated from English, French and German literature. In 1893 he wrote his first drama, "The Dekadents (End of a Century)". At that time Briusov wrote a letter to Paul Verlain and presented himself as a founder of Symbolism in Russia.
From 1892-1899 Briusov studied history and literature at Moscow University. After graduation in 1899, Briusov became a professional writer, literary translator, and critic. He joined the Moscow Literary-Artistic Society which was the center of emerging new styles and trends during the time known as the "Silver Age" of Russian culture. Briusov was involved in formation of Symbolism and Neo-Classicism in Russian literature and Arts, and later he saw emergence of Acmeism, Russian Modern, Cubo-Futurism and other avant-garde movements. Briusov himself tried a variety of styles in his numerous poems, albeit his best achievements belong to Symbolism and Neo-Classicism. From 1904-1906 he was editor of magazines "Vesy" (The Balance) and "Severnye Tsvety" (Nothern Flowers), and also worked with the "Skorpion" publishing house. His poetry ranged from sophisticated eroticism to mythology, legends, and epic subjects. During the 1900s Briusov's own view of the World was influenced by the situation of "fin de siecle." He expressed his feelings of "End of Time" in his novel "Ognenny Angel" (aka.. The Fiery Angel), set in Germany, delivers a plethora of allusions to modern time, through an artful blend of love story with history, occult philosophy, and mysticism. It was adapted into eponymous opera by Sergei Prokofiev.
Briusov expressed his premonitions about inevitable collapse of urbanized civilization; he described industrialization as a collective suicide of humankind. Briusov's metaphoric language became even more sharp and passionate, as he described himself as a "slave of bourgeois culture" but was still hopelessly addicted to pleasures of his hedonistic and "classy" lifestyle. In such poems as "Kamenshchik" (aka.. The Mason), "Umirayushchii koster" (aka.. Dying Fire), and his book of prose "Zemnaya Os" (aka.. The Earth's axis), Briusov pictured various ways out of trappings of civilization, such as going back to nature and organic way of life, or suffer through revolutionary changes of a decadent society. In real life Briusov became a military correspondent during the World War I, then suffered from a nervous breakdown, after he witnessed cruel realities of war and death. His sci-fi novel "Gora zvezdy" (aka.. Star's Mountain), stories "Vosstanie Mashin" (aka.. Uprising of Machines, 1908) and "Myatezh Mashin" (aka.. Revolt of Mashines, 1914) show his emergence as a sci-fi writer and departure from illusionary world of pure Symbolism.
After the Russian revolution of 1917, Briusov was appointed Head of Committee for Press and Publishing, then worked as Head of Moscow Public Libraries under Commissar Anatoli Lunacharsky. In 1919 Briusov was recommended to join the Communist Party, a recommendation he could not object at the time of dictatorship. From 1919-1921 he was Chairman of Union of Poets, then from 1921-1923 he was director of Moscow Institute of Literature and Arts. Briusov edited the first edition of the Soviet Encyclopedia. He made definitive translations of works by Edgar Allan Poe, Emile Verharn, Maurice Maeterlinck, Paul Verlain, Romain Rolland, Victor Hugo, Lord Byron and Oscar Wilde, among others. Briusov's complete translations of "Dr. Faust" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and "Aeneid" by Virgil belong among the highest achievements of literary translation into Russian. Briusov revealed the beauty of Armenian poetry in his numerous translations, he published a comprehensive book "Poetry of Armenia", a fundamental collection of Armenian poetry. For his Russian translation of Armenian folk epic "Sasuntsi David" (aka.. David of Sasuntsi), about the national hero of the Armenian people, Briusov was designated Poeple's Poet of Armenia (1923).
Valeri Briusov eventually came to disillusionment with the Soviet reality after witnessing rapid degradation of culture under the rule of Soviet Communists. Since the 1900s Briusov indirectly opposed Vladimir Lenin and wrote that Revolution causes destruction but fails to create a better world, in return Vladimir Lenin labeled Briusov as "poet-anarchist." During 1920-1924, when many of his friends emigrated, Briusov expressed disappointment with his life after the Soviet revolution. Briusov wrote that he was torn between his naive hopes in revolution, and the truth that the Russian revolution caused terrible losses and destruction, but did not deliver on the promise of social justice and freedom. The unfolding drama of totalitarian dictatorship and grim reality of the Soviet Communism caused Briusov a depression and a serious illness. He was found dead in his Moscow apartment on October 9, 1924, and was laid to rest in Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, Russia.
Maxim Gorky called Briusov "the most refined intellectual" of all Russian writers of his time. Briusov was the leader of Russian Symbolism during the cultural revival known as "Silver Age" along with such authors as 'Konstantin Balmont', Aleksandr Blok, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Andrei Bely, Dmitri Merezhkovsky, and Zinaida Gippius, among others. Briusov's collection of poetry "Venok" (aka.. The Wreth) belongs among the highest achievements in Russian literature. - Actor
- Director
Ivan Moskvin was born on 18 June 1874 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was an actor and director, known for Kollezhskiy registrator (1925), Polikushka (1922) and An Hour with Chekhov (1929). He died on 16 February 1946 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].- Sofya Khalyutina was born on 22 January 1875 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. She was an actress, known for Andrey Toboltsev (1915), Bez viny vinovatye (1945) and Bolshaya zemlya (1944). She died on 10 March 1960 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].
- Production Designer
- Art Department
Konstantin Yuon was born on 24 October 1875 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. Konstantin was a production designer, known for Volki i ovtsy (1953), Pravda - khorosho, a schastye - luchshe (1952) and Ivan Nikulin - russkiy matros (1945). Konstantin died on 11 April 1958 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].- Yekaterina Geltser was born on 15 February 1876 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. She was an actress, known for Muzikalniy moment (1913). She died on 12 December 1962 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].
- Vassiliy Tikhomirov was born on 29 March 1876 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was an actor, known for A Chopin Nocturne (1913), Kollezhskiy registrator (1925) and Muzikalniy moment (1913). He died on 20 June 1956 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Theodore Lodi was born on 28 May 1876 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was an actor, known for General Crack (1929), The Cossacks (1928) and Into Her Kingdom (1926). He died on 6 March 1947.- Vera Yureneva was born on 22 June 1876 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. She was an actress, known for Obryv (1913), Slyozy (1914) and Koroleva ekrana (1916). She was married to Mikhail Koltsov. She died on 19 January 1962 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].
- Yelizaveta Naydonova was born on 16 October 1876 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. She was an actress, known for Pobeda zhenshchiny (1927), Devi gory (1919) and Brat geroya (1940). She died on 14 June 1951 in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia].
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Vladimir Gardin was born on 18 January 1877 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was an actor and director, known for War and Peace (1915), Peterburgskiye trushchobi (1915) and Landlord (1924). He was married to Tatyana Bulakh. He died on 29 May 1965 in Leningrad, RSFSR, USSR [now St. Petersburg, Russia].- Mikhail Tarkhanov was born on 19 September 1877 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was an actor, known for An Hour with Chekhov (1929), Crime and Punishment (1923) and Poslední radost (1922). He died in August 1948 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].
- P.D. Ouspensky was born on 4 March 1878 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was a writer, known for Recife Inver$o$ - Fragmentos do Delírio Cotidiano (2004). He was married to Sophie Grigorievna Maximenko. He died on 2 October 1947 in London, England, UK.
- Writer
- Director
Nicolas Evreinoff was born on 13 February 1879 in Moscow, Russia. He was a writer and director, known for Pas sur la bouche (1931), Fécondité (1929) and Quella vecchia canaglia (1934). He died on 7 September 1953 in France.- Soundtrack
Herman Paley was born on 5 April 1879 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was married to Frieda. He died on 4 November 1955 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Antonina Khanzhonkova was born on 26 July 1879 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. She was an editor, known for Nabat (1917). She died on 29 July 1925 in Berlin, Germany.