Photos from early 1900 Russia

[TopperHarley]

These photos are really neat. High quality colour shots from the early 1900s in Russia.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/0 ... y_ago.html

[albertdesalvo]

Those are very cool!

[Brown Bear]

Thanks for posting the pics. One of the best threads to appear on this sight for a long time!

[partsboy]

I must agree with all. This is a great post and the photos are fantastic. i wonder if someone will have the same vision and post some of our era's photos?

[AMM]

Excellent!

Gotta love technology.
Hypothetically, how cool would it be if we found some pictures, or video from even further back (1000 years or so)?Lets say WWIII nukes everything back to the stone age, and somehow a few hard-drives survive. Those ape-like mutants who eventually figure out a way to access the info (which will most likely consist of +90% porn) will be shitting brix.

[albertdesalvo]

This Prokudin-Gorskii guy was a genius! Thank you, TopperHarley, for making us aware of his work. It's amazing the things you discover on Avcanada.

The Library of Congress website has much more on the subject, including a detailed description of how Prokudin-Gorskii produced the shots, and how the LOC made the digital renderings we see now. Fascinating stuff.

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/

[into the blue]

Thanks for the pictures. What a discovery, especially since I was born in Russia! The quality is simply astonishing - way better than a lot of amateur digital shots that I see on the web these days. I traveled quite a bit during my 15 years of life in that country and, believe me, there are a lot of places in Russia that virtually haven't changed over the course of the century. They did, however, become somewhat gloomier and dirtier after 70+ years of communism. Actually, the period of the Russian history that these shot portray (1909-1912), dare I say, was the brightest and the most promising time the country would ever see. And then WWI began...we all know the rest of the story.

[HS-748 2A]

Sure some sour looking women in those though..

[niss]

Them commie bastards had colour photos in 1900s when the rest of us were using black and white that took 20 minutes to take? With that kind of technology they'll be flying over here any minute now taking colour photos......is that what you want? WELL? IS IT?

You just sold out your country topper harley. You go practice goosestepping and saying comrade while I go hide in the mountains.

They'll never get me!

WOLVERINES!!



Better Dead then Red.

[albertdesalvo]

Sure some sour looking women in those though..

You'd look sour too if you had to live on beet soup. Blecchh...

[HS-748 2A]

borscht~!

[xsbank]

Very interesting - fascinating people. Thank you.

[Pat Richard]

What a remarkable look back at Russia at the height of Tsarism. The pics are simply amazing, and I found myself looking for giveaways(parked car, motorcycle, etc) more than few times, thinking it might be faked somehow.

Truly does take one back in time.

Thanks!

[iflyforpie]

Really eye opening.

My grandfather was born in Russia (present day Ukraine) in 1921 to a kulak family. This was in the middle of the Russian Revolution. A couple years after he was born, soldiers of the Red Army demanded quartering in the family household. Very distrusting of Kulaks (seen as class enemies, even though most weren't wealthy) they designated who would do each job--wood cutting, chores, etc. My great-grandmother was chosen to cook the meals. Well, she couldn't cook (she could never cook) and the soldiers were convinced that she had poisoned them. The leader took his sword and cut her cheek as a warning and left (the story ended there). She died in 1986 but I still remember seeing that scar on her cheek.

After that, they emigrated to Mexico and then Canada. The events that followed under Stalin proved their move to be providential...

[flyinthebug]

Great post, great pics! Thanks for posting.

[racingrob]

Got to agree - great pics

[Expat]

borscht~!

Borscht is good, compared to "уха" Usha fish soup, made during the Soviet war, of a single fish, and sometimes none, potatoes, and 50 pallons of water. How these guys survived the starvation, I don't know...
I tried it!!!