City Day and More of the Russian Museum

Today is City Day, St. Petersburg’s 308th birthday! People throughout the city dress up for festivities, which include concerts and fireworks (although you can’t really see the fireworks with the white nights).

To top it all off, today is also the birthday of the Philology department at our university, which means we got out of class early to watch some sort of celebration. I’m not sure what was going on, but it looked like people were laying flowers at the graves or memorials of important people who contributed to our department. In my opinion, if someone at home tried putting on some of the events I’ve gone to recently, no one would show up because the gatherings are so cheesy (I’m thinking of that random concert at Smolny the other day…). Truthfully though, I think Russians just look for any excuse for a holiday, which is fine by me :)

What?? Philology Day?

We also met up with Sergei again to do a tour of the Russian Museum. I’ve already been there once, but I was thrilled to go again and hear the history behind some of the paintings. I wish I could share with you everything that I learned! I think my favorite artists were Repin and Kuindzhi, but the stories behind others were so intriguing!

Nikolai Mirlikiskij Saves from Death Innocent Prisoners
(Ilya Repin)

Rainbow: Arkhip Kuindzhi
(He's known for his illumination techniques)

One of the artists, Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov, worked on the same painting for 20 years, hoping that when it was finally complete, it would inspire people to see the light and become Christians. But what was so incredible about the piece was that his sketches are more important than the painting itself, for they illustrate all the different messages he was trying to convey about his faith.

Sketch of of A.A. Ivanov's The Appearance of Christ Before the People
(The finished painting is currently in Moscow)

Other paintings in the museum were beautiful but did not seem like something to be hung in a home. Known as Peredvizhniki, such paintings traveled from town to town, and their disturbing nature was meant to provide a critique of society.

The Convicted: Makovsky
Example of Peredvizhniki

Ah! I could go on and on, but I don’t want to bore my small following of readers…(hi Mom!)

Tomorrow we were supposed to go to a dacha (a country house), but due to uncertain weather, we are going to a play instead. It's entirely in Russian, so I hope I can understand it!