Dremliut Plakuchiye Ivi (The Weeping Willows Slumber). sung by Dmitri Khvorostovsky

Dmitri Khvorostovsky sings one of the old Russian romantsy against a backdrop of the art of Natalia Goncharova, one of the leaders of the avant-garde movement in Russia before the tragedy of the Revolution. She, like so many others, emigrated after the catastrophe of the Red victory in the Civil War. She ended her life in France.

Vasili Belyaev. Blessed are the Children. Khram Spasa na Krovi (Church of the Saviour on the Spilt Blood). St Petersburg RF. undated (1890s?)

Blessed are the Children

Vasili Belyaev

undated (1890s?)

Khram Spasa na Krovi (Church of the Saviour on the Spilt Blood)

St Petersburg (Federal City of St Petersburg. Northwestern Federal District) RF

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This mosaic from the Spasa na Krovi in St Petersburg needs no explanation. Indeed, blessed are the children, let them come near, and hinder them not, for it is to such as these that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs. I’d remind certain figures in the Church of some other words of our Lord, if you scandalise one of these little ones, it would be better for you that you had a stone around your neck and be tossed into the sea rather than face me on the last day. I’m quoting from memory, and I’m not aiming at exactness. I don’t believe that I missed the import of Our Lord’s words. There are those who regard purity lightly. Let them not be misled. Our Lord shall forgive, but, only if the fruits of repentance are shown. Why must we live in “interesting times?”

BMD

Valery Fedotov. By the Light of Burning Candles. 2005

By the Light of Burning Candles (Valery Fedotov, 2005)