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Flame of revolution. A revolutionary situation has developed in Russian museums Monument at the Novodevichy Cemetery

Free visit days at the museum

Every Wednesday you can visit the permanent exhibition "The Art of the 20th Century" in the New Tretyakov Gallery for free, as well as the temporary exhibitions "The Gift of Oleg Yakhont" and "Konstantin Istomin. Color in the Window”, held in the Engineering Corps.

The right to free access to expositions in the Main Building in Lavrushinsky Lane, the Engineering Building, the New Tretyakov Gallery, the house-museum of V.M. Vasnetsov, museum-apartment of A.M. Vasnetsov is provided on the following days for certain categories of citizens in general order:

First and second Sunday of every month:

for students of higher educational institutions of the Russian Federation, regardless of the form of education (including foreign citizens-students of Russian universities, graduate students, adjuncts, residents, assistant trainees) upon presentation of a student card (does not apply to persons presenting student trainee cards) );

for students of secondary and secondary specialized educational institutions (from 18 years old) (citizens of Russia and the CIS countries). On the first and second Sundays of each month, students holding ISIC cards have the right to visit the exhibition “Art of the 20th Century” at the New Tretyakov Gallery free of charge.

every Saturday - for members of large families (citizens of Russia and CIS countries).

Please note that conditions for free access to temporary exhibitions may vary. Check the exhibition pages for details.

Attention! At the ticket office of the Gallery, entrance tickets are provided with a face value of "free of charge" (upon presentation of the relevant documents - for the above-mentioned visitors). At the same time, all services of the Gallery, including excursion services, are paid in accordance with the established procedure.

Visiting the museum on public holidays

On National Unity Day - November 4 - the Tretyakov Gallery is open from 10:00 to 18:00 (entry until 17:00). Paid entrance.

Tretyakov Gallery in Lavrushinsky Lane, Engineering Building and New Tretyakov Gallery - from 10:00 to 18:00 (ticket office and entrance until 17:00)
Museum-apartment of A.M. Vasnetsov and the House-Museum of V.M. Vasnetsov - closed

Paid entrance.

Waiting for you!

Please note that conditions for preferential admission to temporary exhibitions may vary. Check the exhibition pages for details.

Right of preferential visit The Gallery, except as provided for by a separate order of the Gallery's management, is provided upon presentation of documents confirming the right to preferential visits:

pensioners (citizens of Russia and CIS countries),
full cavaliers of the Order of Glory,
students of secondary and secondary special educational institutions (from 18 years old),
students of higher educational institutions of Russia, as well as foreign students studying in Russian universities (except for student trainees),
members of large families (citizens of Russia and CIS countries).

Visitors of the above categories of citizens purchase a reduced ticket in general order.

Right of free admission The main and temporary expositions of the Gallery, except for cases provided for by a separate order of the Gallery's management, are provided for the following categories of citizens upon presentation of documents confirming the right to free admission:

persons under the age of 18;
students of faculties specializing in the field of fine arts of secondary specialized and higher educational institutions of Russia, regardless of the form of education (as well as foreign students studying in Russian universities). The clause does not apply to persons presenting student cards of "trainee students" (in the absence of information about the faculty in the student card, a certificate from the educational institution with the obligatory indication of the faculty is presented);
veterans and invalids of the Great Patriotic War, combatants, former underage prisoners of concentration camps, ghettos and other places of detention created by the Nazis and their allies during the Second World War, illegally repressed and rehabilitated citizens (citizens of Russia and the CIS countries);
military servicemen of the Russian Federation;
Heroes of the Soviet Union, Heroes of the Russian Federation, Full Cavaliers of the "Order of Glory" (citizens of Russia and CIS countries);
disabled people of groups I and II, participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (citizens of Russia and the CIS countries);
one accompanying disabled person of group I (citizens of Russia and CIS countries);
one accompanying disabled child (citizens of Russia and CIS countries);
artists, architects, designers - members of the relevant creative Unions of Russia and its subjects, art historians - members of the Association of Art Critics of Russia and its subjects, members and employees of the Russian Academy of Arts;
members of the International Council of Museums (ICOM);
employees of museums of the system of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the relevant Departments of Culture, employees of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and ministries of culture of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation;
volunteers of the Sputnik program - entrance to the exhibitions "Art of the XX century" (Krymsky Val, 10) and "Masterpieces of Russian art of the XI - early XX centuries" (Lavrushinsky pereulok, 10), as well as to the House-Museum of V.M. Vasnetsov and the Museum-apartment of A.M. Vasnetsov (citizens of Russia);
guide-interpreters who have an accreditation card of the Association of Guide-Translators and Tour Managers of Russia, including those accompanying a group of foreign tourists;
one teacher of an educational institution and one accompanying a group of students of secondary and secondary specialized educational institutions (if there is an excursion voucher, subscription); one teacher of an educational institution that has state accreditation of educational activities when conducting an agreed training session and has a special badge (citizens of Russia and the CIS countries);
one accompanying a group of students or a group of military servicemen (if there is an excursion voucher, subscription and during a training session) (citizens of Russia).

Visitors of the above categories of citizens receive an entrance ticket with a face value of "Free".

Please note that conditions for preferential admission to temporary exhibitions may vary. Check the exhibition pages for details.

Free visit days at the museum

First and second Sunday of every month:

every Saturday - for members of large families (citizens of Russia and CIS countries).

Please note that conditions for free access to temporary exhibitions may vary. Check the exhibition pages for details.

Visiting the museum on public holidays

On National Unity Day - November 4 - the Tretyakov Gallery is open from 10:00 to 18:00 (entry until 17:00). Paid entrance.

Tretyakov Gallery in Lavrushinsky Lane, Engineering Building and New Tretyakov Gallery - from 10:00 to 18:00 (ticket office and entrance until 17:00)
Museum-apartment of A.M. Vasnetsov and the House-Museum of V.M. Vasnetsov - closed

Paid entrance.

Waiting for you!

pensioners (citizens of Russia and CIS countries),
full cavaliers of the Order of Glory,
students of secondary and secondary special educational institutions (from 18 years old),
students of higher educational institutions of Russia, as well as foreign students studying in Russian universities (except for student trainees),
members of large families (citizens of Russia and CIS countries).

Visitors of the above categories of citizens purchase a reduced ticket in general order.

persons under the age of 18;
students of faculties specializing in the field of fine arts of secondary specialized and higher educational institutions of Russia, regardless of the form of education (as well as foreign students studying in Russian universities). The clause does not apply to persons presenting student cards of "trainee students" (in the absence of information about the faculty in the student card, a certificate from the educational institution with the obligatory indication of the faculty is presented);
veterans and invalids of the Great Patriotic War, combatants, former underage prisoners of concentration camps, ghettos and other places of detention created by the Nazis and their allies during the Second World War, illegally repressed and rehabilitated citizens (citizens of Russia and the CIS countries);
military servicemen of the Russian Federation;
Heroes of the Soviet Union, Heroes of the Russian Federation, Full Cavaliers of the "Order of Glory" (citizens of Russia and CIS countries);
disabled people of groups I and II, participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (citizens of Russia and the CIS countries);
one accompanying disabled person of group I (citizens of Russia and CIS countries);
one accompanying disabled child (citizens of Russia and CIS countries);
artists, architects, designers - members of the relevant creative Unions of Russia and its subjects, art historians - members of the Association of Art Critics of Russia and its subjects, members and employees of the Russian Academy of Arts;
members of the International Council of Museums (ICOM);
employees of museums of the system of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the relevant Departments of Culture, employees of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and ministries of culture of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation;
volunteers of the Sputnik program - entrance to the exhibitions "Art of the XX century" (Krymsky Val, 10) and "Masterpieces of Russian art of the XI - early XX centuries" (Lavrushinsky pereulok, 10), as well as to the House-Museum of V.M. Vasnetsov and the Museum-apartment of A.M. Vasnetsov (citizens of Russia);
guide-interpreters who have an accreditation card of the Association of Guide-Translators and Tour Managers of Russia, including those accompanying a group of foreign tourists;
one teacher of an educational institution and one accompanying a group of students of secondary and secondary specialized educational institutions (if there is an excursion voucher, subscription); one teacher of an educational institution that has state accreditation of educational activities when conducting an agreed training session and has a special badge (citizens of Russia and the CIS countries);
one accompanying a group of students or a group of military servicemen (if there is an excursion voucher, subscription and during a training session) (citizens of Russia).

Visitors of the above categories of citizens receive an entrance ticket with a face value of "Free".

Please note that conditions for preferential admission to temporary exhibitions may vary. Check the exhibition pages for details.

In the State Tretyakov Gallery there is an exhibition "Wind of Revolution. Sculpture 1918 - early 1930", In the project's boundaries "The Tretyakov Gallery opens its storerooms."

Mukhina V.I. Wind. 1926-1927.
Bronze. 88 x 54 x 30. Tretyakov Gallery

On the occasion of the centenary of the revolution in Russia, the Tretyakov Gallery opens an exhibition of works by sculptors who witnessed those historical events. On display are portraits of revolutionaries, workers and Red Army soldiers, projects of monuments created according to the plan of monumental propaganda of 1918, as well as works that reflected the spirit of the revolutionary era. The sculptural busts of N.I. Altman, who have not been shown since 1990, as well as "Homeless Children" by I.N. Zhukov and the project of the monument to Karl Marx A.M. Gyurjan, never exhibited after being added to the Gallery's collection in 1929.

Sculpture was the kind of art that the revolutionary power that was establishing itself valued for its huge agitation and propaganda potential. Masters of different generations saw in the revolution a harbinger of a new bright future. They captured the leaders and revolutionaries of their time, as well as the typical faces of the Red Army, peasants, workers, that is, those who sincerely believed in the revolution. In the works created after 1917, the revolutionary era appears stormy, dramatic and many-sided.

Mukhina V.I. The project of the monument to V.M. Zagorsky. 1921.
Bronze. 77 x 31 x 46. base: 5 x 31 x 31. Tretyakov Gallery

Portrait of V.I. Lenin (1920, bronze) is valuable because it was made by N.I. Altman from life in the Kremlin office and reflects the artist's impressions from direct communication with the statesman. In the 1920s, this bust was very famous, but later it was supplanted by N.A. Andreeva. The bust of Lenin is surrounded by sculptural images of his comrades-in-arms: “Portrait of A.V. Lunacharsky" N.I. Altman (1920, bronze) and “Portrait of F.E. Dzerzhinsky" S.D. Lebedeva (1925, bronze).
"Krasnoflotets" A.E. Zelensky (1932-1933, marble), "Portrait of a Red Army soldier" V.V. Adamchevskaya (1930s, bronze), "Worker with a hammer" by I.D. Shadra (1936, bronze) is a heroized collective image of contemporaries, bearing in itself the tension of feelings, the pathos of experiencing revolutionary events of unprecedented scope.

Frikh-Khar I.G. Chapaevsky harmonist Vasya. 1929.
Cement. 71 x 66 x 54. Tretyakov Gallery

The central work of the exhibition is “Wind” by V.I. Mukhina (1927, bronze). The element and the fight against it are filled with metaphorical, philosophical meaning. When moving around the sculpture, you can see how the pose of the female figure is transformed, the position of the arms and legs changes, then it is lost, then it is regained balance. This work is also interesting from the point of view of the establishment in society of a new ideal of the beauty of the female body, when a strongly built, full-bodied, physically strong female worker became a reference point.
For S.T. Konenkov, the theme of the destructive power of the Russian rebellion is connected with the revolution. The image of Stepan Razin (1918-1919, tinted wood) has something in common with folk sculpture and incorporates the folklore perception of the hero associated with the plot of folk songs. “Head of Stenka Razin” is a variation on the theme of the sculptural group “Stepan Razin with a gang”, made by Konenkov in accordance with the plan of monumental propaganda and installed on Red Square near the place where Razin was executed.

Konenkov S.T. Head of Stepan Razin. 1918-1919.
Tree. 54 x 30 x 35. Tretyakov Gallery

Statue of I.D. Shadra "Into the Storm" (1931, bronze) is seen as a symbol of the opposition of the will and consciousness of man to natural and social forces. The incredibly complex pose of the female figure, which violates the concept of static and stability, the broken lines of her silhouette give rise to drama and emotional intensity of the image.
The exhibition displays works that convey the atmosphere of those years and specific episodes of history. Sculpture I.N. Zhukov's Homeless Children (1929, tinted plaster) is evidence of the devastation and chaos that reigned during the Civil War, which followed the First World War and the Revolution. In these turbulent times, a huge number of children found themselves on the street.
An important part of the exposition is the projects of unrealized monuments within the plan of monumental propaganda. They represent that circle of personalities and the ideas they profess, in which the revolutionaries saw the foundation of a new culture. In Moscow, it was supposed to erect monuments to freedom fighters - the biblical Samson and the gladiator Spartacus.

Altman N.I. Portrait of V.I. Lenin. 1920.
Bronze. 51 x 41 x 33. Tretyakov Gallery

Contemporaries were not forgotten either - among them the revolutionary V.V. Vorovsky, as well as V.M. Zagorsky, whose monument project was created by V.I. Mukhina in 1921. Different figures became metaphorical images embodying the spirit of the revolution for sculptors: N.A. Andreeva - blacksmith; at B.D. Queen - slaves breaking the chains. Sketches of two figures of a peasant and a Red Army soldier for the sculptural composition by A.T. Matveev "October" (1927), which have not been shown to the viewer for the last thirty years.

Zhukov I.N. Homeless children. 1929.
Gypsum toned. 53 x 65. Tretyakov Gallery

The exhibition "Wind of Revolution" shows the realities of life in those years and conveys not only anxiety in the face of uncertainty, but also inspiration, nourished by hopes for a happy future. The revolutionary era appears before the viewer in a romantically upbeat vein.

Address: Krymsky Val, 10. Room 21-22.
Travel to st. metro station "Park Kultury" or "Oktyabrskaya".
Working mode: Tuesday, Wednesday, Sunday - from 10.00 to 18.00
Thursday, Friday, Saturday - from 10.00 to 21.00
(the box office closes one hour before the museum closes)
day off - Monday.
Ticket price: Adult - 500 rubles. Preferential - 200 rubles.
Free for persons under 18 years of age. Read more.
Every Wednesday entrance to the permanent exhibition and temporary exhibitions held in the building on Krymsky Val for individual visitors free.

After the October Revolution and the establishment of the new government, the head of the Soviet state, Vladimir Lenin, showed particular interest in the ideological possibilities of monumental art, expressed in the signing of the decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On the removal of monuments erected in honor of the tsars and their servants, and the development of projects for monuments of the Russian Socialist revolution” dated April 14, 1918, nicknamed the “monumental propaganda plan” and giving rise to a new direction in the artistic life of Soviet Russia.

Monuments to "kings and their servants" were proposed to be demolished, and instead of them, monuments to famous writers, philosophers, revolutionaries should be created; in the list developed by the People's Commissariat of Education, there were about 60 names. The civil war and devastation did not allow for the widespread use of monumental propaganda.

The first monuments were created from unstable materials - gypsum, wood, cement. In this regard, Lenin, in a conversation with People's Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky, noted that the statues should be "temporary, at least from plaster or concrete", it is also "important that they be accessible to the masses, so that they catch the eye", and their opening let "it be an act of propaganda and a small holiday, and then on the occasion of anniversaries, you can repeat a reminder of this great man, always, of course, clearly linking him with our revolution and its tasks." Therefore, in the period from 1918 to 1921, over 25 monuments were erected in Moscow and Petrograd - an extremely large number for that time.

47 sculptors joined in the implementation of the provisions of the decree in Moscow alone; Vera Mukhina was actively involved in the work. She was a prominent member of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia, and the 1920-1930s were the real heyday of her work and fame. Monument projects were discussed during numerous competitions, but their implementation was delayed for many decades. So Mukhina's four projects were not realized, one of the many unrealized works that she called "dreams on the shelf." Among them was a sketch of a monument to Lenin's comrade-in-arms and one of the authors of the first Soviet constitution - revolutionary and statesman Yakov Sverdlov, secretary of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b), chairman of the All-Russian Executive Committee, who died during a flu pandemic in 1919.

Story

The first competition for the monument to Sverdlov took place in 1919, but did not produce results, and in 1922 they announced the second one, before which the sculptors were given photographs of Sverdlov, and also gave the opportunity to examine his death mask, which was removed by another famous sculptor - Sergey Merkurov .

However, Mukhina decided to get away "from historical photographic expressiveness" and portrait accuracy, resorting to allegory as a means, "sometimes much more powerful, allowing for a strong condensation and concentration of the theme."

unknown , Public Domain

It is noteworthy that the thin Sverdlov was a typical intellectual with glasses, and in his face, according to Lenin, appeared before us "the most refined type of professional revolutionary." It should be noted that in Soviet times, requirements were imposed on monuments that did not correspond to the specifics of this sought-after type of monumental art.

Without going into the narrow framework of officialdom, Mukhina, as an artist of realism and a painter of the beauty of the human body, unsuccessfully advocated conventionality, the use of allegorical and mythological images as methods for creating the necessary degree of generalization. In search of allegory, she turned to the antiquity of ancient Greece and Rome.

unknown , Public Domain

Mukhina's figurative sketches, distinguished by strokes of sharp angles and straight lines, appear with a furious gaze of a rebellious angel with mighty arms, an indomitable spirit Moses or the theomachist Prometheus, with boiling passions drawn from ancient legends, strong-willed aspiration and energy, moral strength.

The sculpture "Flame of Revolution" was a kind of fruit of these creative quests associated with the concept of the Moscow monument to Sverdlov. At first, Mukhina wanted to use the myth of Stymphalidae - huge birds with human heads that Hercules fought with, but the silhouette of the bird did not fit the monument, which required a tall and slender figure. Having rejected both a woman in long robes with wings instead of hands, and a winged Nike crowning the hero with a laurel wreath, the sculptor came not to the goddess of glory, not to the Stymphalis, but to the Genius of the Revolution with a torch in his hand, carrying the flame of revolution into the future, to that rushing to fight Hercules. In this we can see the sincere expression of the ideal of the sculptor, her faith in a new man, perfect and free.

Fate

Following the example of the “Revolution” monument for the city of Klin, Mukhina intended to make a polychrome sculpture for the Sverdlov monument - a figure cast from black cast iron, a robe and a torch from light golden bronze.

However, Mukhina's project was rejected as a caricature and not having a portrait resemblance. The work was criticized for "formalistic schematism" and was misunderstood by critics, which is why it was not even reproduced in monographs. The monument to Sverdlov was never erected, but a small copy of his project has been preserved. Mukhina regretted her unfulfilled dream and considered the plaster model lost.

Already after her death in 1953, the damaged statue was found in the storerooms of the Central Museum of the Revolution in Moscow, after which it was restored and cast in bronze in 1954 for the sculptor's failed museum. Currently, the plaster version is exhibited in Hall No. 15 "Culture of Soviet Russia" in the State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia - the fireplace hall of the English Club. The wax sketch is in the museum of Vera Mukhina in Feodosia.

Vera Mukhina, Fair use

A bronze copy 104 cm high is kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery, where it was exhibited in 2014-2015 in connection with the 125th anniversary of Mukhina. In 2017, she exhibited at an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London dedicated to the art born of the October Revolution.

Photo gallery

Helpful information

"Flame of Revolution"

Quote

“Work according to the plan of monumental propaganda was the seed from which sprouted Soviet sculpture. Unprecedented prospects opened before art, it was enriched with new goals. The task set by Lenin was important and necessary not only for the masses of the people, but also for us artists. By doing it, we learned the scale and courage of thought, we learned Creativity in the highest sense of the word.”

Vera Mukhina

Composition

Despite some formal references to modernism, cubism and futurism, The Flame of Revolution embodies all the romanticized elements of socialist realism. The half-naked figure of the Genius of the Revolution, the prototype of Sverdlov without specific portrait features, is a romantic image of the Bolshevik-Leninist, personifying the apotheosis of the rebellious elements of the revolutionary struggle. Stretching his arms up and forward, in one of which the Genius holds a lit torch, throwing his hair back, he stubbornly lowered his head, purposefully and courageously struggling with stormy gusts and whirlwinds of the wind of resistance. The sharp slope of the whole figure, embodied in the motif of energetic and expressive confrontation, finds firm support in the slope of the obliquely cut pedestal, which further enhances the dynamism of the composition, as if bubbling with furious tension. The attire of the Genius is conditional - his body is wrapped in a spiral with something like a huge fluttering scarf or cloak with spectacular folded and angular draperies, forming powerful volumes independent of plasticity, which, like sails embraced by the wind, create a feeling of flying up.

Mukhina returned to the flight motif in 1938 in a version of the monument to the “Saving the Chelyuskinites”, made in more realistic forms. The huge figure of the north wind - Borea in the form of an old man with the skin of a polar bear fluttering over his shoulders, seemed to be inferior to the courage of people and flew away from the ice crystal block on the spit of the island, which was supposed to be created on the site between the Stone and Crimean bridges. Below, on the right and on the left, at the supports on the ledges of the bridge that was designed but not built, which would connect the embankment near the Palace of Soviets with Zamoskvorechye, it was supposed to install two large sculptural groups - Chelyuskinites led by Otto Schmidt and their saviors-pilots.

The motives of the "Flame of the Revolution" are also seen in the sculpture "Worker and Collective Farm Woman", made by Mukhina for the Paris World Exhibition of 1937 and subsequently installed at the main entrance of VDNKh in Moscow. The torch was replaced by a sickle and a hammer, which are held above the head by the heroes of this monument, devoid of the last elements of avant-garde, but which became Mukhina's professional triumph as the leading female sculptor of the era of socialist realism.

The author of the sculpture "Worker and Collective Farm Girl", which became the quintessence of the Soviet style, and the winner of five Stalin Prizes, left behind a huge number of unfulfilled plans (she called them dreams on the shelf). Among them is the demonic composition "Flame of Revolution" - the rejected project of a monument to Sverdlov, - a shepherd boy with a flute, which did not become part of the Tchaikovsky monument erected next to the Moscow Conservatory, a monument to the Chelyuskinites. At the exhibition in the Tretyakov Gallery, dedicated to her 125th birthday, the curators decided not to reduce Mukhina to The Worker and the Collective Farm Girl and showed about two dozen of her sketches from the 1910s-1940s.

In addition to the "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" and the implementation of Lenin's plan for monumental propaganda

Mukhina developed a model of a Soviet costume for a Soviet woman who condemned bourgeois excesses, made sculptural portraits of bronze (reminiscent of antique heads and sweeping expressionist figures), worked with glass and drew sketches for theatrical productions.

One can have different attitudes towards pseudo-antiquity with a taste of Stalinism, the enthusiasm of monumental sculptors and the main genre of Soviet art at that time - a production feat. But one can hardly deny their heavy sculptures power and dynamics. Mukhina herself, for example, wrote in 1939: "Style is born when an artist ... otherwise he can no longer feel when the ideology of his century, his people becomes his personal ideology."

"Worker and Collective Farm Woman"

ITAR-TASS

"Worker and Collective Farm Girl" tells about the totalitarian regime more quickly and more eloquently than history textbooks. Mukhina saw in them the heirs of the St. Petersburg "Bronze Horseman" - Peter I - as well as Minin and Pozharsky, sitting next to the Kremlin. The sculpture was conceived for the World Exhibition of 1937 in Paris, which became the harbinger of World War II. Then "Worker and Collective Farm Girl" from the pavilion of the USSR (designed by Boris) looked at the eagle crowning the German pavilion, and Warsaw Square lay between them.

Mukhina, who won the competition for the realization of the sculpture, did not like Iofan's idea of "equal size of sculpture and architecture." Iofan doubted that Mukhina, who was prone to lyrics, would cope with the project.

More than a hundred people worked on the statue. One "arm is a gondola; a skirt is a whole room, ”Mukhina recalled. She wanted to simultaneously convey "that vigorous and powerful impulse that characterizes our country", and at the same time not crush the audience with the weight of the sculpture. The role of a lightening element was played by a scarf fluttering in the air.

Was subdued by the choice of material - stainless steel. The Parisians noted the logical validity of each line and the swiftness of the heroes' step. Later, Mukhina, however, will be accused on a false denunciation, which she portrayed in the person of the Worker. After the exhibition, “The Worker and the Collective Farm Woman” were supposed to be dismantled, but on the wave of success they decided to return to Moscow - let it stand for five years at the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (VSHV). She stood there until 2003 (with the internal frame rotten to the roots), and after six years she lay disassembled into parts and only in 2009 returned to VDNKh.

Monument to Leonid Sobinov at the Novodevichy Cemetery

vivovoco.astronet.ru

It is noteworthy that Mukhina herself considered her best creation not "Worker and Collective Farm Woman", but a decorative dying swan - a memorial sculpture made for the grave of an opera singer. She wanted to present the artist either Lensky or Orpheus descending into Hades - in one of his main images. However, instead of standing between the cypresses, a figure in a chiton appeared a dying bird made in plaster, reminiscent of Vrubel's "Demon Downtrodden" - a hymn to decadence that knows no transformation.

From the monumentalist Mukhina, they did not expect naturalism mixed with sentimentality.

But the widow (by the way, Mukhina's cousin) Nina Ivanovna liked it, and her daughter Svetlana called the swan a Russian song burned with metal. Six years later, in 1941, she translated the sculpture into marble, making a swan with outstretched wings a symbol of transcendent sorrow, and not a materialized torment of physical death.

Faceted glass

RIA News"

Mukhina is credited with the design of the Soviet-style faceted glass, which has become part of Russian mythology and the main fetish of the era. However, there are no documents confirming this, of course. The only evidence is the connection of the sculptor with the Leningrad Experimental Art Glass Factory, where in the 1930s and 1940s she created, for example, the massive and austere “Kremlin” service made of smoky glass.

At the same time, a state order for another production feat was ripe: it was necessary to make a glass for catering - durable and suitable in shape for dishwashers.

It is believed that the first Soviet faceted glass was produced on September 11, 1943 at a glass factory in Gus-Khrustalny. It had 16 faces and a smooth ring running around the circle. The dimensions of a standard faceted glass are 65 mm in diameter and 90 mm in height. It was ubiquitous in the USSR, from canteens to soda machines, and instantly became as much a sign of the times as, say, a can of Coca-Cola was to America in the 1960s.

Monument at the Novodevichy Cemetery

Monument to Maxim Peshkov at the Novodevichy Cemetery

vivovoco.astronet.ru

Maxim Peshkov, played by Mukhina, is the son of a famous father, painfully experiencing existence in the shadow of a giant of Soviet literature. Thoughtful and concentrated, he almost merged with the Ural gray marble tombstone, only his head protrudes slightly forward.

Gorky wanted to put on his son's grave a simple stone with a bas-relief and the inscription: "His soul was chaos."

Mukhina considered the idea poor and inexpressive. She decided: "Let's take a stone, but let a person be born from it." Then, in 1935, tomb sculptures had to be solemn and elegiac at the same time. Maxim came out ugly at Mukhina's: his face was gloomy, his head was shaved, his hands were stuffed into his pockets. He could become one of the inhabitants of the bottom depicted by Gorky. However, the sense of drama (and not the horror of death) makes the figure calm and, it seems, even majestic.

Monument to P.I. Tchaikovsky near the building of the Moscow Conservatory

ITAR-TASS

In sculpture, Mukhina believed, there should be nothing petty and ordinary, only one big generalized meaning. However, she decided to present Tchaikovsky not as an idol, but as a creator at work. At first she was going to portray him in full growth, conducting an orchestra. Then she stopped at a sitting figure, but the conductor's wave of hands remained. Mukhina was accused of the fact that the composer's posture is unnatural and too graceful, they say, a genius cannot sit cross-legged at the moment of creative insight.

To explain Tchaikovsky's pose, behind the monument she was going to carve a figurine of a village boy playing the flute. It was the composer who listened to his melody, picking it up with a movement of his hand.

But the shepherdess, associated with ancient Greek idylls and ideologically alien to Soviet ideas about music, was ordered to be removed. In 1945, the first version of the monument was rejected by the selection committee. Approval of the second option had to wait another two years. Before her death, Mukhina dictated to her son a letter to the government: she asked to finish the monument and install it. She called Tchaikovsky her swan song, but she never lived to see his discovery in 1954.