1905–1922
The Russian Revolution
In 1917 Russia's tsar was overthrown in the February Revolution, and in October the Bolsheviks under Lenin seized power. A civil war followed, and in 1922 the Soviet Union was formed. The revolution changed Russia, and for most of the 1900s it also shaped world politics.
Why artists painted it
Artists were part of the revolution. Posters, banners and bold new styles were used to explain the new world, while painters like Kustodiev recorded the crowds in the streets.
The Bolshevik · Boris Kustodiev, 1920
The Bolshevik
Boris Kustodiev · 1920
👁️ Painted at the time
A huge worker holding a red flag strides over the crowded rooftops of a Russian city in this symbol of the Bolshevik revolution.
The Manifesto of 17 October 1905
Ilya Repin · 1911
👁️ Painted at the time
Crowds joyfully wave flags and red banners in the streets after Tsar Nicholas II promised civil rights and a parliament in October 1905.
Demonstration on October 17, 1905 (study)
Ilya Repin · 1906
👁️ Painted at the time
Ilya Repin's lively early study for his painting of the crowds celebrating Tsar Nicholas II's October Manifesto of 1905, with swirls of red flags.
The Pogrom of the Winter Palace
Ivan Vladimirov · 1917
👁️ Painted at the time
Soldiers and workers rush into the Winter Palace, the home of the Russian government, on the night of October 25, 1917, when the Bolsheviks seized power.
Lenin's Funeral
Isaak Brodsky · 1925
👁️ Painted at the time
Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution, lies in his coffin surrounded by red flags and officials in January 1924.
Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge
El Lissitzky · 1920
👁️ Painted at the time
A red triangle slices into a white circle in El Lissitzky's famous poster, a symbol of the Red Army defeating the White Army in the Russian Civil War.
Soviet Propaganda Poster, 1920
Stepan Mukharsky · 1920
👁️ Painted at the time
A Soviet poster of 1920 uses bold colors and cartoon figures in the style of the revolution's propaganda posters, which taught people about the new government in a country where many could not read.
Before October 1917, After October
Stepan Mukharsky · 1920
👁️ Painted at the time
A poster compares life before October 1917 and after it, using simple pictures so that everyone could understand the Bolshevik message.
Bloody Sunday, 1905
Wojciech Kossak · 1905
👁️ Painted at the time
On January 22, 1905, soldiers fired on peaceful workers marching to the Winter Palace to ask the tsar for help, killing and wounding many, an event that started the Revolution of 1905.
Red Square
Kazimir Malevich · 1915
👁️ Painted at the time
Malevich's Red Square, made in 1915, is one of the first pictures with no objects at all, a bold new art for a country about to remake itself.
Suprematist Composition: White on White
Kazimir Malevich · 1918
👁️ Painted at the time
Malevich pushes his revolution in art as far as it goes: a white square on a white ground, painted the year after the revolution.
Black Square (1915)
Kazimir Malevich · 1915
👁️ Painted at the time
Malevich's Black Square, shown in 1915, announced that painting could start from zero, just as Russia was about to.