RUSSIA has now a popular war-picture done by one of the most famous of
her artists, Nesterof. It appeared during the past winter, and prints
of it are now exposed in every city, postcard reproductions on every
book-stall in Russia. It shows a wounded Russian officer standing
beside a Russian sister of mercy. He is in khaki, and is decorated with
the Order of St. George; she in white hospital dress. Both faces are
marvellously expressive of suffering--the woman seems drowned in past
suffering, and yet aware of the immensity of suffering that yet must
come. The man has the vision in his eyes that makes it all worth while.
Her face is one of faith, his of vision. Together they express the
ideal relationship of a man and a woman, he fighting the great fight,
living life as it ought to be lived, she supporting him with her faith
and her love.
Nesterof when he was yet a boy began to paint frescoes in churches, and
has painted in his time many a wonderful Madonna and Child. In this
picture where he has descended to paint just a woman and a man in the
midst of daily life you may see a sort of suggestion of the Mother and
Child, a reflection of some other composition, of some Russian Madonna
and leaping Babe. Here also the man is really a child, though his eyes
have the knowledge of the ideal and the quest, and the woman’s face has
purity and love and foreknowledge of the suffering that must come.
The background of the picture is Russia, the green forest of pines
and firs, the melancholy placid lake, the wan white church with its
swelling coloured dome. Russia is in the background. Russia bore them,
and their hearts yearn towards her.
So it can be a popular Russian war picture and be hung on many walls
and looked into and loved in this strange year of grace 1916.
The words printed below are the famous lines of the poet Khomiakoff:
The _podvig_ is in battle:
The _podvig_ is in struggle:
The highest _podvig_ is in patience,
Love and prayer.
I leave the word _podvig_ because, as I wrote in my chapter explaining
the word in “Martha and Mary,” it is difficult to render it by any
one word in English. But it is one of the most important words in the
Russian language. Here possibly the nearest word is “trial.” It means
a noble deed, an act of faith, a noble battle against fearful odds, a
great sacrifice or act of renunciation, a shaming of the devil, a bold
religious affirmation. Volumes might be written on it. The acts of the
anchorites and hermits are _podvigs_. St. George killing the dragon
performed a _podvig_. The seven champions of Christendom would in
Russia be the seven _podvizhniks_ and their heroic exploits _podvigs_,
but there we have not a word. For performing _podvigs_ Russian soldiers
are decorated. But, as Nesterof tells us in his picture, there are the
greatest for which there is no decoration.
The greatest _podvig_ is in patience,
Love and prayer.
The sound of these Russian words is so beautiful in the original tongue
that inevitably after you have read them you go on murmuring them till
they are yours--a possession of the heart:
_Podvig yest ee f srazhenie:
Podvig yest ee f borbay:
Veeshy podvig f terpenie,
Liubvy i molbay._
This is not absolutely correct transliteration, but I have written in
the hope that it maybe easier to say.
This picture is true for Russia and will be valuable long after peace
has come as a historical witness of the spirit of the time. In the war,
despite all its ugliness and accidentoriness, human nature is revealed
as more beautiful, more daring, also more tender. The Russians have
this picture, and we also have the reality. There is a strong spiritual
life manifest among us. It is manifest in the faces of the soldiers and
in the life of their anxious and loving women they leave behind. Will
not some one paint it for us?