V. "morning of the streltsy execution
Vasily Surikov's painting "The Morning of the Strelets' Execution" is recognized as one of the best works of this remarkable Russian artist. This masterpiece tells the audience about the controversial and bloody event in the history of the Russian state. A coup almost took place in the country - Peter I's sister Sophia, having enlisted the support of the streltsy army, wanted to remove Peter from the throne and take all the power in the country into her own hands. After exposing the conspiracy and suppressing the rebellion, Peter I made a cruel but necessary decision: to execute the participants in the armed uprising. This is what Vasily Surikov's painting tells about. But the artist, instead of scenes of massacre, shows us the state of mind and morale of the participants in the streltsy execution.
In the central part of the canvas, the artist depicted the archers themselves, led to execution, and their loved ones. Many characters, so carefully traced by Surikov, behave in completely different ways. For example, a well-dressed woman, apparently the wife of one of the archers, raises her hands to heaven in despair, and a little boy buried himself in her clothes - her son. Another woman, out of fear of inevitability, covered her face with her hands. An old woman from grief and powerlessness sank to the ground, next to her something is shouting a little girl in a red scarf.
A variety of emotions are also read on the faces of archers. One resigned to circumstances and hung his head in despair, the other - already elderly - does not believe in what is happening and looks around with an unseeing gaze. The black-bearded archer sits with a stone face - he gathered all his inner strength into a fist so as not to give himself slack and with honor to withstand the severe trials that befell him. And the sagittarius with red hair and a red cap looks directly and with hatred at Tsar Peter I.
Great tension is felt in the pose of Peter himself, sitting on a horse and somewhat towering over the rest of the participants in the action. Great strength and a sense of power emanate from him.
Vasily Surikov's painting "The Morning of the Streltsy Execution" shows the confrontation between the old and the new, tells the viewer that for the birth of something new, the old, outdated, must be destroyed.
Year of painting: 1881.
Dimensions of the painting: 218 x 379 cm.
Material: canvas.
Writing technique: oil.
Genre: historical painting.
Style: realism.
Gallery: State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
In 1877, Surikov was accepted completely independently, without anyone's financial assistance, for his first big picture, "The Morning of the Streltsy Execution". The execution of the archers took place in Moscow in 1698. The diary of the Austrian embassy secretary Korb, an eyewitness to this event, served as the artist's main source of factual information. However, Surikov changed a lot in accordance with his understanding of the meaning of the event.
With a deep artistic and psychological calculation, he depicted not the execution itself, but the minutes that preceded it. This made it possible to represent in the picture each face in a state of the highest tension, which is further intensified with the help of psychological contrasts. Behind the back of the red-bearded archer - "an evil, rebellious", in which "the flame of rebellion is burning" (words of NM Shchekotov), there is a mother crushed by grief, mourning her son doomed to death. Next to the black-bearded archer is his young wife, who is trying to bring him out of his gloomy stupor. A sturdy old man with a lush shock of gray hair put his hand on the head of his daughter, who is sobbing, buried in his knees. Again and again there was a strong contrast between hopeless thought and spontaneous feeling. The archer, standing on the cart, who was already hurrying the soldier, turned sharply away from Peter and bowed deeply before the people, saying goodbye and asking for forgiveness from him. Here and there, the blue uniforms of the Transfiguration are flickering. In their faces there is neither anger nor bitterness, but rather a hidden sympathy for the archers. In the distance, there are curious and indifferent spectators.
But Peter sees everything and is passionate about it. The viewer finds him, following the direction of the gaze of the red-bearded archer. He is on horseback, surrounded by close boyars and foreigners. "His face is terrible." He is the embodiment of angry power. Peter gazes mercilessly at the archers, as at the remnants of a hated past.
However, the artist pushed the king into the depths of the picture. The people became the protagonist. The essence of the canvas is to show that extraordinary, superhuman courage, that invincible spiritual strength that archers are endowed with, ready to meet death. These are truly monumental characters in their indestructible integrity. In the images of archers, created by Surikov, the viewer learns the mighty forces of the people, manifesting themselves in a tragic situation. The image of the agitated crowd of the people, in which every face is noticeable and meaningful - that was the special concern of the artist. “I all the people imagined how worried they were. Like the sound of many waters, ”Surikov said later.
Groups of archers and their families occupy the foreground of the picture. Their grief is depicted with vivid and varied features - wives and mothers, daughters and sons are completely covered by it. Grief destroyed their thoughts, crushed their will. Above this turbulent sea, the figures of the archers themselves rise like unshakable cliffs. They went through the horrors of torture. The inexorable course of events turned them into the protagonists of the historical drama. The last minutes of their lives are running out. But in none of them is there even a shadow of remorse or hesitation. The cause to which they gave their lives placed them above personal and even family interests.
It is remarkable that each image of the painting is based on a portrait image of a real person. Surikov himself talked about who he wrote the red-haired or black-bearded archer and some other characters. But at the same time, they all entered the picture itself, infinitely far from the character - everyday, everyday, - which they had in portrait sketches. Surikov reworked these sketches, raising the images of archers to the degree of typical certainty and significance, to heroic images. We observe a similar creative method in Surikov's work further down to Stepan Razin.
The architectural background of the painting is inextricably linked with its content. The Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed is remarkably depicted, the domes of which are cut off by the upper edge of the picture. This technique strengthens the impression of its monumentality. The silhouette of the cathedral not only unites the entire composition, but, as it were, represents the image of the people themselves, unshakable, eternal. The movement of history takes place at the walls of the temple. “It all seemed bloody to me,” said Surikov. St.Basil the Blessed Gromada, Execution Ground, the towers and walls of the Kremlin enclose the space. There is an immutable historical authenticity throughout the architectural setting. “I interrogated the walls, not the books,” said Surikov.
The painting was created on the basis of a deep understanding of the historical and everyday environment and the artist's touching love for all details. In them, Surikov saw an expression of nationality. He managed to correctly understand the folk character of the architecture of St. Basil the Blessed, the unique originality of its forms and colors. The proportions of the Kremlin towers are subtly felt. A vivid sense of national character is expressed in costumes: for men, women, military, and even in such minor details as arcs, harnesses, carts. Here, some of the details take on special significance. The iron of the wheel rims glistens like silver through the mud adhered to them. And this juxtaposition of the earth, black and viscous, and metal, solid, pure and sparkling, is involuntarily associated with the character of the heroes: their high spiritual qualities, manifested in the course of historical events, sparkle like pure metal. It was not for nothing that Surikov was so loving about this detail, which is not lost in the complex composition of the picture.
"The Morning of the Streltsy Execution" was exhibited at the IX Traveling Exhibition in March 1881. Even before the opening of the exhibition, Repin wrote to Pavel Tretyakov: “Surikov's painting makes an irresistible, deep impression on everyone. All unanimously showed their readiness to give her the best place; everyone has it written on their faces that she is our pride at this exhibition ... Today she is already framed and finally set ... What a prospect, how far Peter has gone! Mighty picture! "
MORNING OF THE STRELETSKAYA PUNISHMENT
Vasily Surikov
The spring of 1881 was belated. In February, the sun warmed up, and in March, cold weather broke out again. But Vasily Ivanovich Surikov walked in high spirits. Stuck! He finished the picture that he had been painting for several years ... The picture, suffered by heart, thought out to the smallest detail ... He even slept badly at night, cried out in his sleep, tormented by visions of execution. He himself later said: “When I wrote Streltsov, I saw the most terrible dreams: every night I saw executions in my dreams. It smells like blood. I was afraid of the nights. You will wake up and be delighted. Look at the picture: Thank God, there is no horror in it ... I have no blood in my picture, and the execution has not yet begun ... I wanted to convey the solemnity of the last minutes, but not an execution at all. "
An exhibition of the Itinerants was to open in St. Petersburg in March, and this was the first painting by V. Surikov to appear on it. The artist V. Surikov has always been fascinated by grandiose plots, which would embody the spirit of the era, which would give scope to the imagination and at the same time would provide scope for broad artistic generalizations. And he was always interested in the fate of the people at the wide crossroads of history.
Deservedly glorified as the greatest artist, Vasily Ivanovich Surikov in the field of historical painting has no equal among Russian artists. Moreover, all over the world it is difficult to name another painter who would have penetrated so deeply into the past of his people and so excitingly recreated it in living artistic images. Sometimes he deviated from the "letter" of the historical source, if it was necessary to express his intention. For example, the secretary of the Austrian embassy in Russia, Johann Georg Korb, in his "Travel Diary to Muscovy" described the execution of the archers ( when Peter I went abroad in 1697, the archers, dissatisfied with his innovations, revolted. Returning, Tsar Peter ordered to interrogate them under terrible torture. Then merciless executions followed, after which the streltsy army was gradually destroyed.), which took place in October 1698 in the village of Preobrazhenskoye. V. Surikov transfers the action of his painting "The Morning of the Strelets' Execution" to Red Square, not only because he needed a specific situation, and in the village of Preobrazhenskoye it was not preserved. The event at the Execution Ground against the background of the ancient Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed and the walls of the Kremlin, according to his plan, acquired great historical credibility.
According to V. Surikov's own admission, the original idea of "Streltsov" arose from the impressions of Siberian life. Her special, peculiar way of life, the vitality of the Old Testament traditions, family legends, original, strong people - all this enriched the artist with such a treasury of vivid impressions, from which he later drew all his life. The artist himself later recalled: “There were powerful people. Strong-willed. The scope is wide in everything. And the morals were cruel. Executions and corporal punishment took place in public in the squares. "
The history of the creation of the painting "The Morning of the Strelets' Execution" begins from the moment when, on his way to St. Petersburg (in 1869), V. Surikov stopped in Moscow for one day. Here he first saw Red Square, the Kremlin, ancient cathedrals. And then, through all the years of study at the Academy of Arts, he carried this cherished idea in order to begin to implement it in 1878. It was in this year that a pencil sketch was made, on which the inscription was made by the hand of V. Surikov himself: "The first sketch of" Streltsov "in 1878". The figures here are barely outlined, still conditional, but those main anchor points have already been made on it, on which the composition of the picture in its final form rests. The composition is divided into two parts: on the left - the archers, on the right - Peter and his entourage, and above all this rise the domes of the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed.
The artist drew inspiration not only from reality. He studied historical sources in great detail, with special attention he read the already mentioned book by I. G. Korb, from which many characteristic details did not escape. So, for example, one of the condemned archers, going up to the chopping block, said to Tsar Peter, who was standing nearby: “Step aside, sir. I must lie here. "
I. Korb also talks about the streltsy wives and mothers, loudly wailing and running after the condemned to the place of execution. He also mentions lighted candles, which were held in their hands by those going to death, "so as not to die without light and a cross." He also cites such a remarkable fact: out of one hundred and fifty sentenced archers, only three obeyed and asked the tsar for pardon ( pardon was given to them). The rest went to their deaths unrepentant and died with calm courage.
However, such an expressive and vivid narration by I. G. Korb served Vasily Surikov only as a canvas for the embodiment of his plan. He treated him freely, often deviated even from the factual side. So, in reality, they were not executed in Red Square by hanging (as depicted in the painting by V. Surikov), in Red Square, the archers were chopped off their heads, and this was already in February 1699. I. Korb in his "Diary" contains descriptions of both executions, but the artist combined them into one plot, changed and interpreted many of the details in his own way. And most importantly, he shifted the focus from the execution itself to the last minutes before the execution. V. Surikov deliberately rejected the spectacle of the massacre, that crude effect that could obscure the true meaning of this tragedy.
True, once V. Surikov tried to write an execution. This was after I.E. Repin said: “Why don't you have a single executed person? You would hang here on the gallows, on the right plane. " “How he left,” the artist recalled later, “and I wanted to try. I knew that it was impossible, but I wanted to know what would have happened. I also drew in chalk the figure of the hanged man. And just then the nanny entered the room - as she saw, she fell senseless and crashed. Even that day, Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov drove in: "What do you want to spoil the picture?" So V. Surikov resolutely refused to "frighten" the viewer.
In the dim light of a gray morning, the silhouette of St. Basil's Cathedral darkens. On the right - the Kremlin walls, near which, guarded by soldiers, there is a road to the gallows visible not far away. Peter the Great - on horseback, implacable and firm in his decision. But his figure was pushed aside by V. Surikov into the depths of the picture, and its entire foreground is occupied by a crowd of people, embarrassed near Execution Ground and carts with tied archers.
Wherever possible, the artist strove to find living prototypes of the heroes for his painting. At the same time, of course, he was worried not only about the external similarity of the living model with the character of the picture, but also the internal one. One of the main figures of the work is a passionate, indomitable red-bearded archer, who, through the whole picture, directs a furious gaze at Peter. I. Repin helped to find a model for him, who later recalled: “Struck by the resemblance of one of the archers, who was outlined by him, sitting in a cart with a lighted candle in his hand, I persuaded Surikov to go with me to the Vagankovskoe cemetery, where one gravedigger was a miracle type. Surikov was not disappointed: Kuzma posed for him for a long time, and Surikov, even after the name “Kuzma,” even afterwards, always caught fire with a feeling from gray eyes, a kite-like nose and a thrown back forehead. "
In the picture, this red-bearded archer, as it were, concentrates on himself the indignation and rebelliousness of the entire mass, which in others is manifested more restrained and hidden. He is on the verge of death, but the power of life burns indomitably in him in these last minutes. He pays no attention to his crying wife, he is completely absorbed in the silent challenge that he throws down to Tsar Peter. Gripped firmly like a knife, the candle in his hand casts reddish reflections on a swarthy face with huge glowing eyes, a predatory nose and wide-cut nostrils. Behind him, in silent sorrow, his wife twisted her hands and bowed her head. In the foreground is the mother of the archer: tears have dried up in her eyes, only her eyebrows are broken in pain. His legs are in stocks, his hands are tied at the elbows, but the viewer immediately sees that he is not submissive. Indomitable rage and anger glow in the face of the red-beard, he seemed to have forgotten about the imminent death and even now is ready to rush into battle again.
He walks well, does not stumble,
That quickly looks around at all the people,
That even here the king does not obey ...
Father-mother does not listen,
He will not take pity on the young wife,
He does not get sick about his children.
Holds the candle tightly and the black-bearded archer. In his swarthy face, one can clearly read the confidence in the rightness of his cause. In anticipation of death, he does not notice the sobbing of his wife, who has turned pale from tears: his angry glance from under his brows is also thrown to the right.
The dignified solemnity of the last minutes before death is visible in the face of the gray-haired archer, gray from torture. In boundless despair, his daughter fell to him, on whose fair-haired disheveled head the knotty hand of the old man lay heavily.
The tense intensity of passions on the left side of the picture is contrasted with calmness and indifference on the right side. The central place is occupied by Peter I, whose face is turned to the red-bearded archer. With his left hand, he squeezes the horse's reins - just as imperiously and angrily as the archer does his candle. Tsar Peter is relentless and formidable, he looks sternly and angrily at the archers. Although, even on the faces of some foreign ambassadors, you can see compassion. A foreigner in a black caftan (presumably the Austrian ambassador Christopher Gviriente de Walle) looks pensively at the execution. Calmly dignified boyar in a long fur coat with a sable edge. He is not at all worried about the bright spots on the death row shirts, or the tragic events themselves, taking place in the square ...
Vasily Ivanovich Surikov was a historical painter by the very essence of his talent. History for him was something dear, close and personally experienced. In his paintings, he does not judge and does not pass a sentence, but as if calling the viewer to relive the events of the past, to think about the fate of people and the fate of the people. “This is how harsh and sometimes cruel reality is,” the artist tells us. “Look and judge for yourself who is to blame and who is right.”
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The story of one painting. "Morning of the Streltsy Execution". V.I.Surikov.
HOW THE PICTURE DESIGNED
During this period of his life, Surikov moved to live from St. Petersburg to Moscow. About his personal impressions Surikov wrote: “It began here, in Moscow, something strange with me. First of all, I felt more comfortable here than in Petersburg.
As soon as it began to get dark, I ... set off to wander around Moscow and more and more to the Kremlin walls. These walls became a favorite place for my walks precisely at dusk. And then one day I walk along Red Square, not a soul is around ...
And suddenly in the imagination the scene of the shooter's execution flashed, but it is so clear that even the heart began to beat. I felt that if I write what I imagined, then an amazing picture will come out. "
PERSONAL LIFE
Over the years of work on the painting "The Morning of the Strelets' Execution", great changes have taken place in Surikov's life. He managed to get married, two daughters were born in the family - Olga and Elena. His wife Elizaveta Avgustovna Chare was French by her father, and by her mother she was a relative of the Decembrist Svistunov. They met back in St. Petersburg in the Church of St. Catherine on Nevsky Prospect, where they came to listen to organ music.
Portrait of E.A. Surikova, the artist's wife
“Everyone spoke of her as an angel,” recalled her daughter Olga Konchalovskaya. Contemporaries emphasized that she, like her husband, avoided social events, felt uncomfortable in a large society. She lived in the interests of her husband and managed to create home comfort for him. Family happiness was overshadowed only by the poor health of the young wife.
Self-portrait, 1879
The wedding took place on January 25, 1878 in the Vladimir Church in St. Petersburg. From the groom's side, only the Kuznetsov and Chistyakov family were present. Surikov was afraid of his mother's reaction to the news of his marriage to a French woman and did not inform his relatives in Krasnoyarsk about the wedding.
The young people settled in Moscow. The painter plunged headlong into work on the painting "The Morning of the Streltsy Execution". For several years, Surikov did not write anything extraneous. The capturing idea of the painting completely filled all his thoughts.
Sagittarius
This was the name given to the first representatives of the regular troops in Russia. In 1550, the shooters-militiamen were replaced by the streltsy army, which originally consisted of 3 thousand people. In 1632, the total number of archers was 33,775, and by the beginning of the 1680s it had increased to 55 thousand.
In the last decades of the 17th century, Moscow archers became active participants in the political processes taking place in the country, and more than once with arms in their hands opposed the actions of the government (uprising in 1682, riot in 1698). This, ultimately, determined the decision of Peter I to eliminate the streltsy army.
Riot of 1698.
In March 1698, 175 riflemen from 4 rifle regiments that participated in the Azov campaigns of Peter I in 1695-1696 appeared in Moscow, urgently summoned by Princess Sofya Alekseevna. Sofya Alekseevna argued that Peter I was not her brother, which means that during his 2-year trip to Europe, there was a substitution.
An attempt by the Moscow authorities to arrest their petitioners for the conspiracy in Moscow failed. The archers took refuge in the settlements and established contact with Princess Sophia Alekseevna, who was imprisoned in the Novodevichy Convent.
On June 6, the archers displaced their commanders, elected 4 electives in each regiment and headed towards Moscow. The insurgents (2,200 people) intended to elevate Princess Sophia to the throne or, in case of her refusal, V.V. Golitsyn, who was in exile.
The government sent the Preobrazhensky, Semyonovsky, Lefortovsky and Butyrsky regiments (about 4,000 people) and the noble cavalry against the streltsy on June 14, after a review on the Khodynka River, the regiments set out from Moscow. On June 17, ahead of the archers, A.I. Repnin occupied the New Jerusalem (Resurrection) monastery. On June 18, 40 versts west of Moscow, the rebels were defeated.
EXECUTION OF SAGITTARIUS
On June 22 and 28, by order of Shein, 56 "breeders" of the riot were hanged, on July 2 - another 74 "fugitives" to Moscow. 140 people were whipped and exiled, 1965 people were sent to cities and monasteries.
Peter I, who urgently returned from abroad on August 25, 1698, headed a new investigation ("the great search"). In Moscow, executions began on October 10, 1698.
In total, about 2,000 archers were executed, with whips, branded and exiled 601 (mostly minors). Peter I personally cut off the heads of five archers.
The investigation and executions continued until 1707. At the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th century. 16 rifle regiments that did not participate in the uprising were disbanded, and the riflemen with their families were expelled from Moscow to other cities and enrolled in the townspeople.
These events were depicted in the famous painting by Vasily Surikov "The Morning of the Strelets' Execution", which was painted in 1881.
ABOUT THE PICTURE 
Surikov depicts the moment when a group of archers, taken to Red Square (to Execution Ground), awaits execution. They all react differently to the impending doom.
The central plot line of the picture and its main emotional core is the opposition of the archers to the royal tyranny. The most symbolic is the image of a red-bearded soldier. His hands are tied, his legs are shackled, but an implacable gaze flaming with hatred hits the entire space of the picture, colliding with the angry and equally implacable gaze of Peter. 
The architectural design of the canvas is very important. The lonely tower of the Kremlin corresponds to the lonely figure of the tsar; the second, the near tower, unites the crowd of observers, boyars and foreigners into one whole; the even formation of soldiers exactly repeats the line of the Kremlin wall. The artist deliberately moved all the structures to the Execution Ground, using the compositional technique of bringing plans together and creating the effect of a huge crowd of people. The cathedral continues and crowns this human gathering, but the central tent of the Church of the Intercession did not seem to fit into the space: it is "cut off" by the upper edge of the picture and symbolizes the image of Russia, beheaded by Peter I. 
In his hands he squeezes a candle with a tongue of flame flying up. If you look closely, you will see that the manner of holding it resembles a knife.
He fixed a hawkish gaze full of hatred and anger at Peter, not paying any attention to the mother mourning her rebellious son. 
Tsar Peter and his entourage are opposed to the entire mass of the Strelets. He is sitting on a horse. His gaze is angry and merciless. He is motionless, like a statue on a pedestal. The figure of Peter is somewhat arbitrary. 
As conceived by the artist, Peter is the personification of the new Russia, an autocrat, inexorable and merciless in the extermination of everything that hinders the development of the country. He gave the order, and the soldiers of the Preobrazhensky regiment, without hesitation, lead the convicted archers to the execution. 
A black-bearded archer in a red caftan draped over his shoulders is in a state of gloomy daze. A Sagittarius with a shock of gray hair, in a white shirt, consoles a sobbing daughter who is buried in his lap, gives the transforming soldier a candle and bravely awaits the inevitable. 
Archer's wife sketch. 
At a distance from him, the archer stood up to his full height on the cart, defiantly turned his back to Peter and said goodbye to the people according to the Russian custom - an earthly bow. One archer is already being led to execution. 
Farewell to the baby-son and his wife, screaming in frenzy with grief, broke his strength: his legs give way, his head fell on his chest, his arms hung down; the caftan and hat are thrown into the mud, the candle that has fallen from the hands is burning out, barely smoldering. None of the archers ask for mercy. 
The closest thing to the viewer (in the center of the picture) are two old women and a girl in a red scarf, sitting on the ground. They cry for compassion, beg for help. But nothing can stop the impending execution, the movement of history is inexorable.
The people are the main character in history - the artist brings the paintings to the fore. 
The foreigners depicted on the right are quietly watching what is happening, but then they will be horrified to describe how the Russian autocrat personally acted as the executioner. Peter personally cut off the heads of five rebels and one clergyman who blessed the revolt with an ax, and executed more than eighty archers with a sword.
The tsar also forced his boyars, who did not know how to handle an ax and inflicted unbearable torment on the condemned, to participate in a cruel reprisal. Surikov read about all this in the diary of the secretary of the Austrian embassy Korb, an eyewitness to the events.
But there are no bloody scenes in the picture itself: the artist wanted to convey the greatness of the last minutes, and not the execution itself. Only a lot of red details of clothing, as well as the crimson silhouette of the Intercession Cathedral, towering over the same condemned archers and their families, reminds the viewer of how much blood was shed on that tragic morning.
In "The Morning of the Strelets' Execution" (and then in the painting "Boyarynya Morozova") Surikov perfectly used the colors and forms of folk art of Ancient Russia. Before that, no Russian artist had delved into the treasury of Russian folk art with such grateful love.
The artist deliberately changed the time of the execution of the archers. It is known that the autumn executions of 1698 took place in the village of Preobrazhenskoye. The execution in Moscow took place in the winter in February 1699, and in the picture it is not a winter, but an autumn landscape. 
The artist made a lot of preparatory life sketches for the painting. So, the archer with a black beard was written from his uncle Stepan Torgoshin; the gray-haired archer is an exile who lived in a settlement in Krasnoyarsk; a red-bearded archer with an eagle-eyed - the grave-digger of the Vagankovsky cemetery (according to the artist, Kuzma "was an evil, rebellious type"). Painted arches and carts, archer's clothes, women's dresses and scarves - all this was preliminarily worked out and sketches. 
All architectural buildings are symbolic. The Kremlin tower reflects the figure of Peter, lonely in this crowd, the nearby tower becomes iconic for figures of onlookers, boyars and foreign guests. The soldiers, stretched out in a clear line, stand like the wall of the Kremlin.
St. Basil's Cathedral seems to unite a huge crowd of people, and the dome of the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos is cut off at the top of the picture. It is noteworthy that critics consider him a symbol of decapitated Russia. Ten other domes become symbols of lighted candles, one of which once inspired Surikov.
PICTURE FEATURES
The number 7 is symbolic for the picture: 7 candles are burning, 7 archers who will be executed, 7 chapters of St. Basil's Cathedral. The candle that fell into the mud is also symbolic - this is the soul trampled by Peter.
Tsar Peter was not as cruel and fanatical as Surikov wrote him. It is reliably known that when the morning of the execution came, he offered each of the 150 archers a pardon, but with further reference.
Only three of them understood the value of life and peace of their loved ones, and the king gave them this. The rest walked to the scaffold, proudly raising their heads and looking with fury at young Peter.
There is one more moment in "The Morning of the Strelets' Execution" - it is beautiful with a special deadly beauty. The canvas is rich in bright outfits, costumes of archers and Kremlin towers. It is like a reflection of the fact that even after the death of many people, the rest will live, passing on the stories about Peter and the archers from generation to generation. 
All of Surikov's work is characterized by an amazing concern for those who come to look at his paintings: “I had an idea so that the viewer would not be disturbed, so that there was peace in everything ...”, - he said about his “Sagittarius”. Despite the horror of the transmitted historical event, the artist tried to portray the tragedy of human destinies as discreetly as possible.
No outwardly pretentious showiness and theatricality, no axes brought up, hands raised to the sky, bloody clothes, gallows and severed heads. Only the deep drama of the nationwide grief.
I don't want to turn away from this picture with a shudder, on the contrary, looking at it, you become more and more immersed in details, empathize with its heroes, acutely understanding the cruelty of that time.
The painting "The Morning of the Strelets' Execution" was exhibited at the Ninth Traveling Exhibition in March 1881. Even before its opening, Ilya Repin wrote to Pavel Tretyakov:
“Surikov's painting makes an irresistible, deep impression on everyone. All unanimously showed their readiness to give her the best place; everyone has it written on their faces that she is our pride at this exhibition ... Today she is already framed and finally set ... What a prospect, how far Peter has gone! Mighty picture! "
Tretyakov immediately acquired this brilliant historical work for his collection, paying the master eight thousand rubles.
Vasily Ivanovich Surikov Morning of the Strelets' execution. 1881 Oil on canvas. 218 by 379 cm State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
Surikov was born and raised in Krasnoyarsk, in a family belonging to the old Cossack families, who conquered Siberia with Ermak. In these harsh lands, where people are used to relying only on themselves, ancient customs and Old Believer canons are still preserved. The innate ability for constant struggle was reflected in the color and the choice of subjects in his paintings.
After graduating from the St. Petersburg Academy, he moved to Moscow, where he received a lucrative order to participate in the design of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
His memoirs: “... But most of all I was captured by the Kremlin with its walls and towers. I myself do not know why, but I felt in them something surprisingly close to me, as if it had been well known for a long time. As soon as it began to get dark, I ... set off to wander around Moscow and more and more to the Kremlin walls. These walls became a favorite place for my walks precisely at dusk ... And then one day I was walking along Red Square, not a soul was around ... And suddenly the scene of the shooter's execution flashed in my imagination, and it was so clear that even my heart was beating. I felt that if I write what I imagined, then an amazing picture will come out. "
He began work on the painting in 1878, and on March 1, 1881, it was presented at the exhibition of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions.
This picture is about the change of eras.
The most important acting characters are not archers and not Peter, but a girl with a red scarf on her head (the image of a new, emerging in the blood of Russia), who clenched the wrist of one hand into a weak fist, and with the fingers of the other hand touches the shoulder of a seated woman whose feet (a symbol of a crossroads ) are placed in different directions; and a grieving old woman, whose dark clothes define the tragic flavor, of the whole picture. (The image of Russia leaving). The continuation of the development of the image of young Russia - Peter with his associates and the pointed towers of the Kremlin. The development of the image of the former Russia - the archers who are fading into oblivion. This old Russia is beautiful and majestic, like the churches of St. Basil's Cathedral.
A lot of research has been written about the picture, I just want to add that this picture is about the opposition of power to freemen, ice to flame, cold sovereign power to rebellious souls (the image of burning candles).
In the crowd, among the watching people crowding on the steps of Execution Ground, Surikov also captured his image. In the portrait, he defines himself, most likely, as a neutral to the events of the everyday life writer. His pity is on the side of the archers and the outgoing antiquity, but in the picture there is also no censure of the emerging new Country.
Materials used.