The history of our region interested me since childhood. You can say it is in the genes. I have collected a wealth of material on the subject. –Boris Olshansky*

Born on February 25, 1956 in the city of Tambov, Olshanskiy attended the Penza Art College and the Moscow State Institute of Painting of V.I. Surikov. Following his graduation, Olshanskiy began to work in graphics and illustration in Moscow, his talents as an artist were soon noticed and in 1989, he was inducted as a member of the Union of Artists of Russia.

During the beginning of the Perestroika, Olshanskiy began to take an interest in painting and soon applied his interest of the ancient Slavs and their mythology to his work. In 1993, Olshanskiy organized his first personal exhibition, displaying over 300 works, in his time, he would take part in many more exhibitions both locally and abroad.

In recent times, Olshanskiy and his works have faded into obscurity, his most recent painting being from 2006, the artist himself is very rarely heard of nowadays. Despite this, Olshanskiy’s works have shaped the way many view Slavic myths, possibly as much as artists such as Ivan Bilibin or Viktor Korolkov. –Source

It is from heaven that we look closely down upon our great ancestors. And the inevitable judgment of history. For the future of the truth and faith. From disparate historical data and documents rises the Great Russia, which is pre-Christian. With its great history, which is completely rejected and forgotten. Russian legends, epics, traditions, tales – what a grand and colorful expanse of imagination and fantasy art! Thank God, there were great ascetics and great artists: Ryabushkin, Vasnetsov, Nesterov, Surikov, Vasilyev … But few, very few names for such a great and mighty power, working in the field of great and exciting history of Russia. –Boris Olshansky*

"At a Heavenly Meeting" "Glory to Dazhbog" "Volga's Campaign" "Peresvet on the Kulikovo Field" "Kupava" "On the Night of Ivan Kupala" "Night of the Warrior" "The Legend of Sviatoslav" "Slaughter on the Dnieper" "In the Summer of 908: Marching on Constantinople" "Shield on the Door of Tsargarad, the Glory of Rus" "A Holy Place" "Berendei" "Birth of a Hero" "Sorcery" "Rusalka" "Bereginya" "Svarog" "Bylina" "Great Rus" "Ivan the Son of the Widow" "The Shades of Departed Forefathers" "Alyosha Popovich and Yelena Krasa" "Oath of Svarog" "From the Dark Depths of the Centuries" "The Terem of the Tsar in Winter" "An Arcadian Pastorale" "The Rape of Europa" An Étude for “The Goddess Athena [Svetlookaya]” "The Goddess Athena [Svetlookaya]" "Vasilisa Mikulishna: Renowned Ranger" "Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom" "The Sorcerer Vseslavich" "Ballad" "Prophetic Tradition" "Yaroslavna's Lament" "Night of the Nightingale" "Slavic Venus" "Tambov Treasurer" "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters" "Jesus and the Money Changers"

In the years of all-out collectivization all of my glorious ancestors were dispossessed, but, fortunately, not exiled to Siberia. –Boris Olshansky*

The enjoyment of beauty and order, for the pleasure of contemplation, without any practical sense, is perhaps one of the most eloquent arguments in favor of the existence of spirit. Art is well understood to be a source of nostalgia, longing, inspiration, idealism and hope, fighting spirit and escape from the material order so as to rise again to the top for a while.

The artist in question in this case is another Russian painter Boris Mikhailovich Olshansky, born on 25 February (Pisces) 1956 in Tambov, a medium-sized city in western Russia. His mother, a peasant, very traditional and devout, had five children besides him. His father was a war veteran wounded in combat (a bullet from a German sniper came through one cheek and exited through an eye) and enjoyed state support for people of his condition.

Although he grew up during the Soviet era, under which it seemed that the history of Russia began in 1917 with the Bolshevik Revolution, Olshansky writes that “life itself, our mind and our genetic memory, intensely seek the sources of culture and history”.

Appreciate the basic features of Olshansky’s art: Russian nationalism, Pan-Slavism, idealized past, Proto-Slavic and Nordic features, references to the ancient Greeks, Vikings, Byzantines and Ottomans, strong paganizing content without giving up the Orthodox faith, conception of Russia as a retaining wall against the Asian hordes, importance of Nature, total absence of “modern ideals”, etc. Unlike Konstantin Vasiliev, who made ​​some nods to the theme of the “patriotic communist” – Olshansky’s work is totally free of Soviet symbols. –Source*

Self-portrait

*Translated into English via Google Translate and then slightly edited.

More Slavic art with Pagan themes:

The Art of Vsevolod Ivanov

Slavic Mythology: Paintings by Igor Ozhiganov

The Aryan Art of Konstantin Vasiliev