1910 in color: A peek into Russia before Communism

Did you see the Seriously Cool web site’€™s remarkable photographs of France in the First World War? The big surprise is that the pictures are in color.

To me, the photos are as if the Internet suddenly gave us a time-travel portal to major historical events. Color pictures of 1917. Who knew?

The photos are real, and they are not colorized. They were taken using an early color film process.

Tsarist empire. That same web site has even older color pictures of Russia, also stunning. These are around 1910, and they also give you the sense you’€™re seeing something you couldn’€™t possibly be seeing.

They’€™re Russia before World War I, before the Red Revolution overthrew Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918). The pictures show us some of Russia’€™s most beautiful churches and cathedrals, usually in the sunshine, often in the most idyllic settings. You wonder if this is old Russia, or the land of Oz.

Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii took the pictures for the tsar.

There is graceful St. Nil Monastery, a study of blue on blue on Stolobnyi Island in Lake Seliger, northwest Russia. There is the ornate Cathedral of St. Nicholas, atop a green hill in rural Mozhaisk, Russia. There is a panoramic shot, with a depth of color, showing us the city of Tbilisi, Georgia, including the Metekhi Cliff on the Mtkvari River.

You can study these pictures and wonder what life was like that distant time in these remote locations. The scenes are so sunny and romantic it’€™s hard to imagine anyone could have been unhappy. Even color film can’€™t record unrest.

What were the Russians and Georgians of 1910 thinking on those green hills and under those blue skies? How many were stirring against the tsar? How many imagined a revolution or what would follow?

And just out of curiosity, what do these places look like today? Send postcards!

Frank Warner

Click here to see the rest of the color photos of 1910 Russia.

Click here to see the color pictures of the First World War.