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Share it: Email And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts: 31 Imperial Russia Photos That Reveal History In Stunning Color Was Rasputin Actually The Sanest Man In Pre-Revolution Russia? 32 Russia Facts You Probably Didn't Know 1 of 40 Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii seated with two men in Murmansk. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 2 of 40 The church of Saint Nicholas the Wonder Worker in a work settlement called Nyrob. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 3 of 40 A woman in peasant dress. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 4 of 40 Three peasant girls offer berries outside of their "izba," a traditional log house. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 5 of 40 A view of the mountainside village of Artvin, in Turkey, which Russia occupied until 1917. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 6 of 40 An Armenian woman in holiday attire in Artvin. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 7 of 40 Two Catholic Armenian women from Artvin in traditional dress. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 8 of 40 Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Belozersk, Russia. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 9 of 40 Andreĭ Petrov Kalganov, the foreman at a factory in the town of Zlatoust. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 10 of 40 The village of Kolchedan, in the Ural Mountains 11 of 40 A Bashkir woman in traditional costume. The Bashkir are the indigenous people of the Ural Mountains. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 12 of 40 A church in the town of Vetluga. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 13 of 40 A cross in front of a monastery for women in Staraya Ladoga. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 14 of 40 Church of the Resurrection in Kostroma. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 15 of 40 The courtyard of the Church of the Resurrection. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 16 of 40 Georgian women seated in a park in holiday dress. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 17 of 40 A man leans on a fence in the small village of Paltoga. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 18 of 40 A group of Greek women harvesting tea in Chakva, Georgia. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 19 of 40 Women rake hay in a field outside of the Leushinskii Monastery. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 20 of 40 Peasants working in a hay field near what was then called the Mariinsk Canal System, which links the Volga river with the Baltic sea. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 21 of 40 Woodcutters on the Svir River. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 22 of 40 Portrait of an unknown woman. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 23 of 40 A melon vendor in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 24 of 40 A woman in Samarkand practicing Purdah, a Muslim tradition in which women seclude themselves from the rest of the community by living separately and covering themselves in a full-body veil. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 25 of 40 Two Jewish girls in Samarkand. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 26 of 40 A group of Jewish children with their teacher in Samarkand. 27 of 40 The Emir, a traditional Muslim chief, of Bukhara, Uzbekistan. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 28 of 40 A home near the Sigovets rapids. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 29 of 40 A self-portrait of Prokudin-Gorskii posing by the Suna River. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 30 of 40 A view of the Kovzha River. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 31 of 40 A family on the Svir River. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 32 of 40 A guardhouse on the Volga-Baltic Waterway. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 33 of 40 A monument to Emperor Peter the Great in the city of Lodeynoye Pole. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 34 of 40 A view of the village of Naziya from the river. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 35 of 40 The town of Novaya Ladoga. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 36 of 40 Prokudin-Gorskii rides a railway handcar along with some workers on the Murmansk railway. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 37 of 40 Pinkhus Karlinskii, 84, manning the floodgate in Chernigov, Ukraine, a post he held for 66 years. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 38 of 40 A nomadic Kyrgyz family in Uzbekistan. 39 of 40 A Sunni Muslim man in the Dagestan region of Russia. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress 40 of 40 Like this gallery?

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39 Psychedelic Photos Of Pre-Revolution Russia View Gallery

From 1909 to 1915, photographer and chemist Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii traveled around the Russian Empire, documenting life in its most rural corners. He photographed farms, small villages, and churches, capturing the daily lives of the people he encountered along the way.

And Gorskii didn't travel for the sake of travel, or photography, itself: In this ambitious project, Gorskii pioneered color photography techniques he hoped would educate Russian school children on the history, culture, and modernization of their homeland.

The resulting photos provide a haunting record of an empire on the brink of revolution.

Next, check out 45 haunting photos taken during the last days of the Romanovs, just before the revolution began.