File:Petrograd, past and present (1916) (14789297543).jpg

Identifier: petrogradpastpre00stev (find matches)
Title: Petrograd, past and present
Year: 1916 (1910s)
Authors: Steveni, W. Barnes
Subjects: Saint Petersburg (Russia) -- History
Publisher: Philadelphia : Lippincott
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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gh-est circles, French is the favourite among the officials.A Russian hardly considers himself as properlyeducated unless he can converse fluently in thattongue. German is naturally unpopular, and I heardrecently that since the war began a German was finedR.3000 for daring to speak his mother tongue in Petro-grad. Even before the war the Germans were so dis-liked that I have myself been asked not to speak thelanguage in Russian society ; but that was in Moscow,where the Panslavists and old Russian ideals and ideasare still very strong. It was the Tsar Alexander III. who first set theexample of speaking Russian instead of French atCourt, and who opposed everything that tended toweaken a national spirit among his subjects. Beforehe ascended the throne it was quite usual to meetRussian nobles who spoke English and French well,but could hardly hold a passably correct conversationin their own language. In order to encourage Russianart, he acquired the beautiful Mechail Palace, and con- 294
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The Tsak Ai.knandkk III < ai.i.ki. hik ■■ 1ka. k i.ovkk gem ALEXANDER III. 295 verted it into this Museum, where only the works ofgenuine native artists were exhibited. Many of thosewhich formerly adorned the walls of the Hermitageand the Academy of Painters were hung here. Aboutfour hundred statues and pictures were brought fromthe Winter Palace and the palaces of Gatchina andTsarskoe Selo. The best tilings in the collection are :The Last Days of Pompeii, by Bruloff; The LastSupper, Peter I. and the Tsarevitch Alexis, TheMarriage Kiss, by Makoffsky; The Cossacks, byRjepin; Ermak, by Soorekoff; and Phryna, bySemeradsky. There are also some splendid sculpturesby Anatolsky. The Museum cost Alexander III. afortune to found, and, as it is certainly one of thefinest in the city, it should be seen by all who wish toform a good idea of what constitutes true Russian art.Its originator, though rough and brusque, wasprobably the most genuinely Russian monarch whoever occupied the Romanof

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