Photog With Friends

Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii seated with two men in Murmansk. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Church Of Saint Nicholas The Wonder Worker

The church of Saint Nicholas the Wonder Worker in a work settlement called Nyrob. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Antique Peasant Dress

A woman in peasant dress. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Peasant Girls

Three peasant girls offer berries outside of their "izba," a traditional log house.Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Artvin Street

A view of the mountainside village of Artvin, in Turkey, which Russia occupied until 1917. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Armenian Woman National Costume

An Armenian woman in holiday attire in Artvin.Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Armenian Women

Two Catholic Armenian women from Artvin in traditional dress. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Church Of Saints Peter And Paul

Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Belozersk, Russia. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Andrei Petrov Kalganov

Andreĭ Petrov Kalganov, the foreman at a factory in the town of Zlatoust.Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Kolchedan Ural Mountains

The village of Kolchedan, in the Ural Mountains


Bashkir Woman

A Bashkir woman in traditional costume. The Bashkir are the indigenous people of the Ural Mountains. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Church In Vetluga

A church in the town of Vetluga. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Assumption Monastery

A cross in front of a monastery for women in Staraya Ladoga.Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Church Of The Resurrection Outside

Church of the Resurrection in Kostroma. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Church Of The Resurrection

The courtyard of the Church of the Resurrection.Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Gerogian Women

Georgian women seated in a park in holiday dress.Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


In Paltoga

A man leans on a fence in the small village of Paltoga.Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Greek Women Harvesting Tea

A group of Greek women harvesting tea in Chakva, Georgia. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Haying At The Leushinskii Monastery

Women rake hay in a field outside of the Leushinskii Monastery.Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Peasants Haying

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


Woodcutters On The Svir River

Woodcutters on the Svir River.Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Head Study

Portrait of an unknown woman. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Melon Vendor Samarkand

A melon vendor in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Purdah Woman Samarkand

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


Jewish Girls Samarkand

Two Jewish girls in Samarkand. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Jewish Teacher Samarkand

A group of Jewish children with their teacher in Samarkand.


Emir Bukhara

The Emir, a traditional Muslim chief, of Bukhara, Uzbekistan.Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Sigovets Rapids

A home near the Sigovets rapids.Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Kivach Waterfall

A self-portrait of Prokudin-Gorskii posing by the Suna River.Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Kovzha Factory

A view of the Kovzha River.Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


On The River

A family on the Svir River. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Ministry Of Communications

A guardhouse on the Volga-Baltic Waterway. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Monument Emperor Peter The Great

A monument to Emperor Peter the Great in the city of Lodeynoye Pole.Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Naziya River

A view of the village of Naziya from the river. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Novaia Ladoga

The town of Novaya Ladoga.Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Petrozavodsk On The Murmansk Railway

Prokudin-Gorskii rides a railway handcar along with some workers on the Murmansk railway.Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Pinkhus Karlinskii

Pinkhus Karlinskii, 84, manning the floodgate in Chernigov, Ukraine, a post he held for 66 years. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


Kyrgyz Family Uzbekistan

A nomadic Kyrgyz family in Uzbekistan.


Sunni Muslim Man

A Sunni Muslim man in the Dagestan region of Russia. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/Library of Congress


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.