Journeys through the Russian Empire

WILLIAM CRAFT BRUMFIELD Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky traveled throughout Russia prior to the Revolution, photographing churches and mosques, railways and monasteries, towns and remote natural landscapes. His images are now archived at the Library of Congress. William Brumfield has recreated Prokudin-Gorsky’s journeys and photographed those same sites today and the photos are laid out side by side int his new book – a testament to two brilliant photographers whose work prompts and illuminates, monument by monument, questions of conservation, restoration, and cultural identity and memory.

In terms of its circumstances, Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky’s final expedition was also his grimmest. With the outbreak of World War I on July 28, 1914, Russia underwent a draconian transition to a war footing. For ProkudinGorsky this would mean an increase in travel restrictions and a lessening of financial and logistical support. Yet, unexpectedly, support was renewed in 1916 when he received a commission to photograph construction during the summer along the new railroad to the northern ice-free port of Romanov-on-Murman (now Murmansk), which was to serve as a depot for allied war materiel shipped to Russia forces. The strategic project lasted from 1914 to the spring of 1917, when the rail link was connected to Petrograd.

Although Prokudin-Gorsky’s primary purpose was to photograph construction related to the railroad, he also photographed the area’s few towns and their churches. Among the towns was Petrozavodsk (“Peter’s factory”), founded in September 1703, just four months after St. Petersburg. In the first image in this chapter, the panoramic view toward the northeast, taken from Golikovka Station, includes the white churches and administrative buildings of the central part of town, as well as the area of wooden houses to the southwest of the Alexandrovsky Factory, whose red metal roofs are just visible.

The largest church is the Cathedral of the Descent of the Holy Spirit. To its right is the factory Church of Saint Alexander Nevsky. Beyond are the towers of the Resurrection Cathedral and the Church of Saints Peter and Paul. In the background is the view across to the other side of Petrozavodsk. Most of the historical architecture that Prokudin-Gorsky photographed was destroyed in the Soviet period and during battles in 1944.