Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky was born in Vladimir Oblast, Russia in 1863. Combining his work in chemistry with art, he pioneered color photography by taking three photos in succession through red, green and blue filters that would become a composite color photo.
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Gorsky’s photo of Leo Tolstoy would gain him fame among the royals, and he would soon receive funding to document Russia in color for Tsar Nicholas II from 1909 to 1915.
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Gorsky’s work captured the diversity of the Russian Empire’s citizens, from rural peasants to royalty.
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A zindan, or prison, in Bukhara, of modern day Uzbekistan. Zindans were typically built underground. Source: Wikimedia
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A couple wearing traditional clothing poses for Gorsky in Dagestan.
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Gorsky was granted special access to restricted areas of the Empire. Here, he photographs a nomadic Kyrgyz family on the steppe.
Source: Wikimedia
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A Jewish teacher instructs his students in Samarkand, an intellectual and economic hub on the Silk Road. Samarkand is a highly diverse city, home to Tajiks, Persians, Arabs, Jews and Russians.
Source: Wikimedia
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Russian children relax on a hillside near White Lake, in northern European Russia.
Source: Wikimedia
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Shortly after his rise to power, Emir Khan of Bukhara posed for a portrait for Gorsky. Bukhara was a vassal state of the Russian Empire in Islamic Central Asia. The emir fled to Afghanistan after the Red Army sacked the city and abolished his dynasty.
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Gorsky captures storks building a nest on what is most likely a mosque in Bukhara.
Source: Wikimedia
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A fabric merchant poses among his wares on the Silk Road, which stretched from China and India to Central Asia, the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
Source: Tmora
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Gorsky documents travelers with their camels near Sulukta in modern day Kyrgyzstan.
Source: Tmora
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Gorsky catches himself in this photo on the right in 1912 at Chusovaya.
Source: Kuriositas
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A Turkmen man crouches with camel laden with packs in Central Asia.
Source: Blogspot
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A young girl in traditional garb poses in what was referred to as Little Russia, now known as Ukraine.
Source: Blogspot
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Gorsky also catalogued buildings, houses and nature for his project, including this church in Nyrob.
Source: Blogspot
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The Assumption Monastery in Pereiaslavl-Zalesskii display the peaked domes common in Russian church construction.
Source: Blogspot
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View of the Shakh-I Zindeh mosque in Samarkand as the sun sets. Currently, just over 11% of Russians identify as Muslim.
Source: Blogspot
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Gorsky also photographed members of upper class society.
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Sart woman wearing a paranja in Samarkand, which is now part of Uzbekistan.
Source: Public Domain
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Gorsky sits to the right of two guards for the Murmansk railway.
Source: Wikimedia
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A bureaucrat in Bukhara poses in a brightly colored robe for Gorsky.
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A Kurdish mother sits with her children in Artvin, now part of northeastern Turkey.
Source: Trash Russia
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A Georgian woman dressed in regal attire poses on a rug in the forest.
Source: Trash Russia
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Gorsky had the ability to capture both the strength and vulnerability of the peasant class without being judgmental. His photos are an eye-opening glimpse into an empire on the verge of revolution and war.
Source: Trash Russia
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Peter Vedenisov was a pianist with an interest in color photography. He made color autochromes on glass that he could project onto a wall.
Source: English Russia
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Vedenisov worked primarily with aristocratic families, particularly the Kosakovs, and managed to capture a different style of life from the peasants of the Russian Empire.
Source: English Russia
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The Kosakovs were friends of the Vedenisovs. Here, the women and children of the family pose.
Source: English Russia
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A Crimean patriarch sits for a photo, wearing an eye patch.
Source: English Russia
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A Crimean woman of wealth poses in a garden, surrounded by opulent flowers.
Source: English Russia
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Vedenisov lived for years in Yalta and captured pictures of ships in the port. A resort town, Yalta sits in Crimea, a now disputed area of Ukraine.
Source: English Russia
31 Imperial Russia Photos That Reveal History In Stunning Color
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Imperial Russia, one of the largest empires that the world has ever seen, thrived from 1720 all the way until 1917. It stretched across three continents, encompassed diverse lands and people, and crushed Napoleon when he was reckless enough to attempt to conquer it.
But, ultimately, the Russian Revolution of 1917 would put an end to Imperial Russia, bringing a long era of history to a close. During the imperial period, Russia had waged wars, conquered surrounding lands, and produced some of the most well-known, and highly feared, monarchs in modern history.
Leaders like Catherine the Great and Tsar Alexander II brought Imperial Russia to the forefront of global power and helped shape history in ways that can still be felt today. However, at the same time, these monarchs presided over a system that kept many in poverty, put upon by a system that propped up a fortunate few.
Finally, in 1917, two revolutions dismantled the monarchy, swept the communist Bolsheviks into power, and closed the book on the Russian Empire. Soon, much of what existed before the revolution would be no more.
But not long before everything changed, two photographers, Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky and Piotr Vedenisov, managed to capture life as it was lived by the people of Russia before the revolution — and they did it in full color.
These photos show farmers, families, houses, places of worship, and altogether reveal a Russian way of life that would soon be lost to history. See some of the most stunning and eye-opening color photos that Produkin-Gorsky and Vedenisov ever took in the gallery above.
For more of Russia in color, check out this video montage that features Gorsky and Vedenisov's handiwork:
A former associate editor for All That's Interesting, Leah Silverman holds a Master's in Fine Arts from Columbia University's Creative Writing Program and her work has appeared in Catapult, Town & Country, Women's Health, and Publishers Weekly.
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Sims, Susan. "31 Imperial Russia Photos That Reveal History In Stunning Color." AllThatsInteresting.com, December 9, 2014, https://allthatsinteresting.com/imperial-russia-color. Accessed February 20, 2025.
