Everyone knows that at the beginning of the 19th century, Russia began to lag behind Europe in economic and political development . But these lags were offset by a sharp rise in the cultural sphere. Russian culture of the 19th century expressed national identity. It was very much influenced by the Patriotic War with France in 1812.
The Russian state was in dire need of educated, comprehensively developed people. With the advent of capitalism in Russia, this problem became the most urgent, and it served as an impetus to the development of culture. Very often, the government went against a growing industry. The cutting-edge ideas of writers, publicists, and artists were not taken seriously by conservative emperors. The situation was changing rapidly, and very soon the 19th century began to be called the "Golden Age". And the theater, literature and music of Russia became widely known to the Western public.
The artistic culture of the 19th century, under the influence of the ideas of classicism, left a huge number of masterpieces. Paintings were painted by artists in most cases on biblical themes. It was also often possible to meet mythological plots or portraits. Our 19th century culture has presented the stories of two outstanding portrait painters - Orest Kiprensky and Vasily Tropinin. It was they, by the way, who left us some stunningly accurate intravital portraits of A.S. Pushkin. Another famous artist of the 19th century is Karl Bryullov. In 1803, he visited the excavations of the ancient city of Pompeii, which was destroyed by a volcanic eruption. Bryullov painted a picture called "The Last Day of Pompeii", which glorified it throughout Europe. A little later, the painter Alexander Ivanov became famous. About 20 years of his life he devoted to work on the painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People”.
The theater was transformed at the very beginning of the 19th century. On the stage, one could see both the productions of foreign authors, such as Schiller or Shakespeare, and domestic ones. Especially popular with the public was N.V. Puppeteer. He wrote various historical plays. Following them, the audience fell in love with the satirical comedies of Krylov and Fonvizin. Closer to the middle of the 19th century, the theater was greatly influenced by literature. After the permission of Nicholas I , the big premiere of The Examiner (author N. V. Gogol) took place on the stage. Glinka’s opera, The Life of the Tsar, can be called a real breakthrough.
Russian culture of the 19th century is especially significant in literature. Classicism is gradually replaced by sentimentalism, and then romanticism. Romanticism began to be divided into progressive and conservative. The main figures of this trend of literature: Küchelbeker, Ryleyev, Davydov, Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, Baratynsky, Zhukovsky. Also, the great Russian writers Lermontov, Pushkin, Gogol sometimes wrote their works in the traditions of romanticism. Next comes a new stage of literature - realism. Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin is considered to be the founder. With the publication of his Eugene Onegin, this stream of literature is considered dominant. “The Captain's Daughter”, “Boris Godunov”, “The Bronze Horseman” are the most popular realistic works of Pushkin. The true treasures of the “Golden Age” can be called “Woe from Wit” by Griboedov, “Dead Souls” by Gogol and “Hero of Our Time” Lermontov. The work of great writers and poets such as Nekrasov N. A. Turgenev I. S., Dostoevsky F. M., Tolstoy L. N. falls on the second part of the 19th century, from that time the development of symbolism, one of the brightest streams of literature, began.
19th-century European culture also experienced changes at this time. The main role here was played by politics. But the culture of the 19th century in Europe was very different from the domestic one. Imperialism dictated its demands to Europe. At this time, the development of theater and literature slowed down somewhat, but a new era of European philosophy began.