About the Slavic and East European Library Images
All the images included in this page were
scanned from the following book, found in the
University of Illinois library stacks and brought to
our attention by Gil Witte.
"Vesna Krasna: Allegoricheskoe
shestvie ustroennoe na narodnom gulianii v Moskve,
21 maia 1883 M.Lentovskim po sluchaiu sviashchennago
koronovaniia ikh imperatorskikh velichestv."
Risunki F. Shekhtel. 3e ispravlennoe i dopolnennoe
izdanie. Moskva: Tipo-litografiia Fedora Ivanovicha
Neibiurger, 1883.
"Beautiful Spring: An allegorical
march performed during the national festival in Moscow,
on the 21st of May, 1883, directed by M. Lentovski,
on the holy occasion of the crowning of their Imperial
Majesties." Drawings by F. Shekhtel.
3rd corrected and appended edition. Moscow: Tipo-litografiia
Fedora Ivanovicha Neiburger, 1883."
We choose to use these, admittedly whimsical,
images because we feel they exemplify what we
love most about the Slavic world: the strong sense
of (mostly) gentle magic and the festive and carnivalesque
attitude towards life, unhindered by the humdrum
of day-to-day hardships. The pictures also reflect
our hope that the word "Slavic" may in the
future be primarily associated with something more joyous
than economic upheaval and fallen statues of Marxist
idols.
You are, of course, welcome to deconstruct
the distribution of particular images throughout the
page (as in the case of the dragon 'slaying the pest
of expired Internet links', etc.). As a literary
clue to the internal symbolism of the imagery we used,
we offer these quotes from the diaries of the immortal
Leo Tolstoy:
- "My God! My God! What am I?"
25 June/7 July, 1857
-
Christian,
R.F. Tolstoy's Diaries Volume I.
1847-1894. (New York: Schribner,
1985) 138.
-
- "Was alive, am alive, and today is 13 September."
28 August, 1891.
-
Christian,
R.F. Tolstoy's Diaries Volume I.
1847-1894. (New York: Schribner,
1985) 313.
- "It would be well if, on receiving any
stirring impression, one were to grow used to
it, saying to oneself before coming to a decision,
"Shall I not repent?" On sighting
a hare to-day, I attempted to murmur, " I
thank Thee, O Lord!" but failed. The
hour is 10.45." April 22,
1852.
-
Hogarth,
C.J. and A. Sirnis. The Diaries of Leo
Tolstoy: Youth, 1847-1852. (New
York: Dutton, 1917) 156.
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