Russian Academic Education in Arts in the First Half of the 20th Century: an Apology of Tradition and Problems of Modernity

Abstract

This article considers a controversial and diffi cult period in the history of Russia’s oldest art school, currently called the I.E. Repin Institute of Sculpture, Painting, and Architecture. The author mostly draws on previously unpublished archive materials, which until now were little used in art studies. This allows her to more fully evaluate the stages of development of the Russian academic education in arts in the fi rst half of the 20th century.