The Palace Square

After World War I, in 1917, the people of Russia fought against the leadership of the Tsars. Vladimir Lenin led the Bolshevik Party in revolution overthrowing the Tsar. Civil war broke out in 1918. Linen's side won and the communist state the Soviet Union was born in 1922. After Lenin died in 1924, Joseph Stalin seized power. Under Stalin, millions of people died in famines and executions.

During World War II, Russia initially allied with the Germans. However, the Germans invaded Russia in 1941. Over 20 million Russians died in World War II including over 2 million Jewish people who were killed as part of the Holocaust.

In 1949, the Soviet Union developed nuclear weapons. An arms race developed between Russia and the United States in what was called the Cold War. The Soviet economy suffered under communism and isolationism. In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed and many of its member nations declared independence. The remaining area became the country of Russia.

If all that comes to mind when you think of Russian art are those little nesting dolls (matryoshka dolls) and onion-domed churches, you're in for a surprise. Russian art is every bit as diverse and interesting as its counterparts around the world.

One of the greatest impacts Russian art has made on world culture developed very early. Around 988, Russia converted from a pagan religion to Christianity, and its artists soon became masters of a form known as the icon. No, this doesn't mean the little file folder pictures on your computer desktop. Religious icons are portraits of Jesus Christ, Christian saints, and other major figures. Other icons depict events like the birth of Christ or miracles performed by saints.

Icons are common in Eastern Orthodox Christianity (to which the Russian church belongs), and feature stylized portraits and flattened perspective, as you can see in a work by one of the most important Russian icon painters, Andrei Rublev (c. 1360 - c. 1430), The Trinity.

If I were the tsar, I would publish the law stating that if a writer uses a word, the meaning of which he cannot explain, he is then devoid of the right to write and gets a hundred blows with a rod. (Leo Tolstoi)

Literature is believed to be the most complete and expressive manifestation of the Russian creative genius. Great Russian poets and writers have always been the voice of this people's conscience and soul, and had to suffer for it.

The priority of literature in the cultural life of the Russian people can be explained by its origin and the meaning it got from the moment of its appearance. Written language and literature were introduced to Russia along with Christianity. Yet, one should not forget about the riches of folk creativity, a lively source of primordial knowledge. So, literature in this country developed as a blending of folklore and church scriptures, reflecting the mixture of pagan and Christian traits in Russian cultural tradition