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Russian Maslenitsa through Visual Sources before its Transformation into the Winter Festival

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.37816/2073‑9567‑2026‑80‑71‑88
  • УДК / UDC: 316.733:398.3:75.044
  • Publication Type: Research Article
  • For Citation:

    Krapchunov, D.E. “Russian Maslenitsa through Visual Sources before its Transformation into the Winter Festival.” Vestnik slavianskikh kul’tur, vol. 80, 2026, pp. 71–88. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.37816/2073‑9567‑2026‑80‑71‑88 
  • Author 1: Daniil E. Krapchunov
  • Information about the Author 1:

    Daniil E. Krapchunov — Head of the Department of Cultural Studies at MSTU named after K.G. Razumovsky, Title of Associate Professor, Candidate of Sciences in Philosophy, Expert, Institute of Heritage and Contemporary Society; Chief Expert, Center for Sociocultural Projecting "Portrait of a Generation", Russian State University for the Humanities, Miusskaya Sq., 6, 125047 Moscow, Russia.

    ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000‑0001‑7804‑9945 

    E‑mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • Abstract: The holiday that most vividly marks the Russian ethnocultural identity and Russian culture, according to most researchers, is Maslenitsa. Data on the celebration of Maslenitsa in Russia can already be found in the works of 18th century researchers who described the everyday life and holidays of the Russian people. By the 21st century, a vast amount of material about Maslenitsa as part of the cultural code of Russian civilization has been accumulated, however, researchers have not yet paid attention to artistic images of Maslenitsa as a separate source about the forms of its celebration. The author has collected about 680 images of Maslenitsa from the 16th to the 21st centuries. The analysis of the content of these artistic images showed that they can be quite clearly divided into three groups: 250 images of pre‑Soviet Maslenitsa (until 1957), 26 images of Soviet celebrations (1958–1991), and more than 400 images of post‑Soviet or modern Maslenitsa. The paper undertakes the analysis of images from the first group, thanks to which stable forms of celebrating Maslenitsa in pre‑revolutionary Russia, as represented by foreign artists and domestic visual artists who painted Maslenitsa, have been identified. These include, at various times, ice slides, fairs, and booths as elements of the festive city, and horse riding. By the early 20th century, the depiction of Maslenitsa became incredibly popular, but after 1924, it dropped from 50 images per decade to just a few paintings, finally disappearing as a genre by 1958.
  • Keywords: Maslenitsa, visual sources, Russian holidays, Russian culture, ice slides, pancakes, plot‑semantic analysis, paintings, artists
  • Страницы / Pages: 71–88
  • Received: September 20, 2025
  • Approved after Reviewing: April 20, 2026
  • Publication Date: June 25, 2026
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