The Russian Empire’s nationalities depicted in porcelain sculptures (PHOTOS)

Aug 13 2024

The Hermitage

A series of sculptures dedicated to different ethnicities were made in the early 20th century by order of Tsar Nicholas II.

In the early 20th century, sculptor Pavel Kamensky made more than 140 porcelain figurines about 30 cm high. All of them were hand-painted with glaze and dressed in the national costumes of the peoples living on the territory of the Russian Empire. Some were paired, featuring both male and female of the same ethnicity.

The ‘Peoples of Russia’ was the largest series of the Imperial Porcelain Factory and it was initiated by Nicholas II on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov House. For 10 years, from 1907 to 1917, the emperor was given 3-4 sculptures every year on Christmas Eve.

A little more than 70 statuettes have survived and, today, most of them have been included in the collections of the Hermitage, the Russian Museum and the Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg.

Take a look at some of them below.

Buryat

The Hermitage

Samoyed (Samoyedic peoples of Siberia)

The Hermitage

Ostyak woman (modern name of this peoples is Khanty)

The Hermitage

Tungusic shaman

The Hermitage

Bashkir man

The Hermitage

Chukchi man

The Hermitage

Crimean Tatar woman

The Hermitage

‘Velikoross’ ‘[Great Russian’] from Ryazan Province

The Hermitage

Maloruss woman [Woman from ‘Small Russia’, modern Ukraine]

The Hermitage

Woman from Tula Province

The Hermitage

Ainu woman

The Hermitage

Woman from Saratov Province

The Hermitage

Yakut man

The Hermitage

Mingrelian man

The Hermitage

Lezgin man

The Hermitage

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