The Apotheosis of Power of the Soviets by the ‘Far from Modernity’ Artist N.I. Verkhoturov

• Published in: Художественная культура no. 3; pp. 260 - 293
• Main Author: Leskinen, M.V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: State Institute for Art Studies 01.09.2025
• Subjects: civil war in russia; great-russian chauvinism; n.i. verkhoturov; personifications of mother russia; poster of the first world war; visual propaganda
• ISSN: 2226-0072; 2226-0072
• DOI: 10.51678/2226-0072-2025-3-260-293

The article examines the concept, plot, and composition of the lost canvas Power of the Soviets (early 1920s) by the artist N.I. Verkhoturov (1863/1865–1944). The reconstruction of the artist’s idea is based on his own description in the catalogue of the personal exhibition and on a photograph of a fragment of this painting (1927). Verkhoturov was a participant in the first Russian revolution (1905–1907). He became famous as the author of canvases on the themes of revolution and the portrait series The Old Bolsheviks created before 1917; his works were on display in Soviet museums. However, after the personal exhibitions of 1926–1927, he is believed to have abandoned painting, probably due to the devastating criticism of his works of the 1920s, in particular, due to the rejection of the large-scale allegorical painting Power of the Soviets which is discussed in the article. The researcher focuses on three issues. The first one is the significance of the key image preserved on the magazine photograph — the personification of the Soviet power — in its feminine image. The second one is the artist’s choice of the allegorical image of the Soviet Power in a heroic guise and with the characteristic attributes of legendary bogatyrs from the point of view of the visual traditions and types of Mother Russia representations a) in its sovereign incarnation and b) in the image of the Russian Maiden Warrior which formed in Russian art in the late 19th — early 20th centuries. The third one is the possible reasons for the sharp rejection of N.I. Verkhoturov’s last paintings by Soviet critics in which they saw ‘Great Russian chauvinism’.