Migrant Farmstead in the Settlement of Nadezhdinsk with a Group of Peasants. Golodnaia Steppe

1905
Among the primary initiators of development in Russian Turkestan was Grand Duke Nicholas Constantinovich (1850–1918), grandson of Tsar Nicholas I, who moved to Tashkent in 1881. There he initiated a vast irrigation scheme to make Golodnaia Steppe (“Hungry Steppe”) a productive area for cotton and wheat. A related goal was to provide arable land to attract settlers from European Russia. Seen here at the settlement of Nadezhdinsk (from the Russian for “hope”) is a group of settlers in front of a stuccoed brick house with a thatched roof. The women and men are finely dressed, with the women in long skirts and scarves. The house is surrounded by young birch trees, which grow rapidly and most likely reminded the settlers of their home region. The image is by Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863–1944), who used a special color photography process to create a visual record of the Russian Empire in the early 20th century. Some of Prokudin-Gorskii’s photographs date from about 1905, but the bulk of his work is from between 1909 and 1915, when, with the support of Tsar Nicholas II and the Ministry of Transportation, he undertook extended trips through many different parts of the empire. In 1911 his travels took him to Turkestan (present-day Uzbekistan and neighboring states), where he photographed architectural monuments as well as Russian development projects.

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Filename: 428.jpg
Copyright: acku Afghanistan
Image Size: 1800x1638 / 768.4KB; 1905 Russian Federation Sverdlovsk Oblast Serov Farmhouses Peasants Trees Men Women Settlement Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Photo WDL 010005
Contained in galleries: RUSSIAN FEDERATION

1905<br />
Among the primary initiators of development in Russian Turkestan was Grand Duke Nicholas Constantinovich (1850–1918), grandson of Tsar Nicholas I, who moved to Tashkent in 1881. There he initiated a vast irrigation scheme to make Golodnaia Steppe (“Hungry Steppe”) a productive area for cotton and wheat. A related goal was to provide arable land to attract settlers from European Russia. Seen here at the settlement of Nadezhdinsk (from the Russian for “hope”) is a group of settlers in front of a stuccoed brick house with a thatched roof. The women and men are finely dressed, with the women in long skirts and scarves. The house is surrounded by young birch trees, which grow rapidly and most likely reminded the settlers of their home region. The image is by Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863–1944), who used a special color photography process to create a visual record of the Russian Empire in the early 20th century. Some of Prokudin-Gorskii’s photographs date from about 1905, but the bulk of his work is from between 1909 and 1915, when, with the support of Tsar Nicholas II and the Ministry of Transportation, he undertook extended trips through many different parts of the empire. In 1911 his travels took him to Turkestan (present-day Uzbekistan and neighboring states), where he photographed architectural monuments as well as Russian development projects.