The Russian Empire: A Portrait in Photographs

Published in 1980 during the cold war, without access to the Russian Archives, even now this book has not been bettered in an English publication to show the breadth and sheer variety within the old Russian Empire between 1855-1914. The author comes from an old Russian noble family and obviously had access to images not normally found in books on Russia in the 19th century as the list of private collections consulted at the front of the book shows. The book is divided into the following sections: St Petersburg Moscow A Vanished World Life on Country Estates The Village Monks and Pilgrims Rivers and Towns Siberia Turkestan The Caucasus and the Crimea The Western Borderlands You see images in this book of a wide variety of things like the Russian Coronation of 1896, various schools in St Petersburg and their students, factories and charities in action, imperial palaces, beggars and family feasts, tribal dress and shamans. It's a world than is very different from today. Towns exist without real suburbs, streets are close to empty in some big towns, poverty is rife and factories spew pollution and mud abounds. If want a wide view of what old Russia was like away from the Aristocratic enclave most books dwell on this book is still hard to go past and it gives you some idea of why the revolution must have seemed like a good idea for those living in poverty in these photographs. Before the Revolution: St. Petersburg in Photographs : 1890-1914

Great book to sit down with a magnifying glass and study the rare photos. Definite must for those who are interested in that period of time.