Russian Empire in color. Cities, provinces, provinces

A little more than a hundred years ago, the audience first saw pictures of Russian expanses "in kind", applauded them to the author - the pioneer of color photography by Sergey Mikhailovich Prokudin -Gorsky. From 1903 to 1916, Prokudin-Gorsky managed to take about three and a half thousand amazing color pictures, which made up his unique heritage. Actually, the plan of Prokudin-Gorsky, supported by Emperor Nicholas II, was much more global: to show Russia from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Famous further events did not give these plans to be realized. But even those pictures that Mendeleev’s student managed to take, a genuine ascetic and enthusiast photographs shot at the sunset of the Russian Empire, are the only visual encyclopedia of Russian life on the slope of centuries, the breakdown of the empire today. In order not to violate the author’s intention, the editors considered it appropriate to organize the space of this album, following the logic of text and visual, therefore the commenting text does not always keep up with the wheel steamer of Shaksn, on which Sergey Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky traveled through the vasts of the Russian Empire.
The further the lived, the more convex in memory many events and even small facts are painted in memory and the easier it becomes more correctly understanding their meaning and attributed to them critically. I had to leave for my share in many directions for a long time in many directions, to visit its remote corners, visit areas related to the memory of large historical events and, moreover, do this in completely exceptional conditions, with completely exceptional tasks and capabilities ... engaged for many years scientific and practical photography and photo mechanics and specializing especially in the field of color photography, I was always interested in the possibility of applying it to the tasks of education and training, and, in particular, mainly in teaching the fatherland. Photography, especially in natural colors, is, without a doubt, a valuable manual for teaching fatherland and generally a powerful educational and educational tool.
prof. Sergey Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky
1932