Ed. Community of St. Eugenia
In Russia, the first postcards were issued by the publishing house “Community of St. Eugenia” (also known under another name: “Publishing House of the Red Cross”). The St. Eugenia community was formed under the St. Petersburg Committee for the Care of Sisters of Mercy of the Red Cross with the aim of providing assistance to elderly and sick sisters of mercy. The august patronage of the community was assumed by Princess Eugenia Maximillianovna of Oldenburg, the granddaughter of Emperor Nicholas I (daughter of the Duke of Luxembourg and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna). As the chairman of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Princess of Oldenburg proposed to launch the production of postal envelopes and art postcards (open letters) in order to replenish the treasury of the Community from their sale. The direct work of organizing the publishing house was entrusted to the chairman of the Community, Evdokia Fedorovna Dzhunkovskaya (maid of honor of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna) and secretary Ivan Mikhailovich Stepanov. The publishing house released the first four postcards with watercolors by artist N.N. Karazin in 1898 for the Easter holidays. In the same year, ten watercolor scenes by artists I.E. Repin, K.E. Makovsky, E.M. Bem, S.S. Solomko and others were published. Two editions of these postcards (10 thousand copies each) sold out instantly. Part of the circulation was distributed in the form of sets placed in artistically designed envelopes with the inscription “In favor of the Committee for the Care of Sisters of the Red Cross.” The printing of postcards was carried out in various printing houses: the Institution of Graphic Arts of E.I. Markus, the Cartographic Institution of A.I. Ilyin, the Partnership of R. Golicke and A. Wilborg, the printing houses of I.S. Lapin (in Paris), Bruckman (in Munich) and others. Realist artists actively collaborated with the publishing house, but the Community Publishing House more fully represented the artists of the World of Art association: A.N. Benois, K.A. Somova, M.A. Vrubel, E.E. Lansere, I.Ya .Bilibina, L.S.Baksta. In total, the St. Eugenia Publishing House released 6,410 issues of postcards with a total circulation of more than 30 million copies. After the revolution of 1917, the publishing house of the Community of St. Eugenia was registered as the “Commission of Art Publications of the Community of St. Eugenia.” In 1920, by a special decree, all organizations of nurses of the Red Cross were liquidated. The Community Publishing House came under the jurisdiction of the State Academy of Material Culture under the name of the Committee for the Popularization of Art Publications (CPHI). In 1928, the release of KPHI postcards was banned for ideological reasons. Some old clichés of the Community were transferred to the Graphic Business trust, then to Lenpolygraph. The quality of printing of these enterprises did not stand up to criticism, the products were not in demand, and the business of producing postcards soon died out.
Your Serene Highness Princess Evgenia Maximilianovna Romanova, Duchess of Leuchtenberg, married Princess of Oldenburg (March 20, 1845, St. Petersburg - May 4, 1925, Biarritz, France).
Evgenia Maximilianovna comes from the Oldenburg house of the Dukes of Holstein-Gottorp. She was born on March 20 (April 1), 1845 and was the fourth child and third daughter in the family of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna from her first marriage and Duke Maximilian of Leuchtenberg, Duke of Leuchtenberg from Bavaria. Her paternal great-grandmother was Marie Françoise-Joséphine (née Marie Joseph Rose Taché de la Pagerie), French Empress, first wife of Napoleon I.
After the death of Duke Maximilian (1852), Nicholas I awarded his children the title of Imperial Highness of the Romanovsky Princes. Her childhood and teenage years were spent in St. Petersburg. As a child, daughter Evgenia Maximilianovna and her older sister Maria were raised by Elizaveta Andreevna Tolstaya, who was the famous writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828-1910) cousin. In the winter of 1857, Tolstoy met 12-year-old Zhenya in Geneva. Later in the letter he wrote: “The impression that I have of Evgenia Maximilianovna is so good, sweet, simple and human, and everything that I have heard and continue to hear about her confirms this impression...”
At court, the Duchess of Oldenburg stood out sharply for her extravagance. She almost always wore a semi-masculine outfit—a Thayer suit in light gray or beige.
Since 1868 - married to Prince Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg. In the same year, their son Peter was born. In 1879 she received the Ramon estate as a gift from Alexander II.
Evgenia Maximilianovna showed great activity in social and cultural life. She acted as:
- President of the Mineralogical Society
- honorary member of the Charitable Society for the Charity of Intellectual Working Women, created in 1901 to provide assistance to elderly governesses and teachers who served in private and public institutions, “who, due to old age or illness, cannot earn a living through their labor.”
- honorary member of the Society for Assistance to Cripples Studying Arts and Crafts in St. Petersburg (under the august patronage of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna).
- honorary member of the Imperial Russian Automobile Society (IRAO), organized in 1903.
The “Society of St. Eugenia” had its own publishing house; it was one of the first in Russia to publish artistic (illustrated) open letters (postcards). In 1898 they went on sale. Over the 20 years of its existence, the company has produced 6,500 types of postcards with a total circulation of more than 30 million copies. Watercolor images were made by famous artists - I. E. Repin, E. M. Vasnetsov, A. N. Benois, K. E. Makovsky and others. A series of postcards with reproductions from the Tretyakov Gallery, the Rumyantsev Museum, and the Hermitage was published. Sometimes little-known photographers also became authors. Some postcards were with views of Ramoni.
Since 1868 - trustee of the Rozhdestvennskaya women's gymnasium, renamed in 1899 as the Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna Oldenburg Gymnasium, - Lafonskaya street (since 1952 - Proletarskaya Dictatorship Street), 1. (Now in gymnasium No. 157 (Proletarskaya Dictatorship St., 1) is located Memorial plaque.)
April 2, 1870 - became the patroness of the House of Mercy - after the death of her mother, who was its founder in this capacity and under this name and the first sovereign patroness.
from 1894 she became a trustee of the Maximilian Hospital.
During the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905, Evgenia Maximili-anovna headed the Port Arthur “Committee for providing assistance to wounded soldiers and perpetuating the memory of the fallen.” For her activities, she was awarded the Women's Order “For Immaculate Service to the Fatherland in the Field of Charity and Education.”
Since the 1880s, Evgenia Maximilianovna lived on the Ramon estate, not far from Voronezh, granted to her by her uncle, Tsar Alexander II, preferring to live in St. Petersburg during the cold months of the year, where she played a large role in the social and cultural life of Russia. In 1908, the palace became the property of the son of Pyotr Alexandrovich, and Evgenia Maximilianovna moved to permanent residence in St. Petersburg.
Evgenia Maximilianovna had a talent for organizing. A business woman, energetic, widely educated, she launched active economic activities on her Ramona estate, rebuilding it on a capitalist basis: she built her palace in the Old English style (in 1883-1887), reconstructed a sugar factory, transferring it to a diffusion system, machine steam technology, opened a refinery shop (1880-1891), built a “steam candy and chocolate factory” (1900); connected Ramon with the Grafskaya station by railway line (1901); by purchasing land from neighboring landowners, she increased the area of the estate from 3,300 to 7,000 acres, and transferred farming to an 8-field crop rotation; opened a stud farm, carpet workshops, maintained an exemplary two-story canteen for workers, and a dormitory for arriving engineers.
General view of the castle.
Sugar factory workers' canteen.
Monument to donate Ramoni to Princess E. M. of Oldenburg.
In Ramoni, she took care of schools, hospitals and the poor: she opened an elementary school and a hospital (1880).
Ramona Elementary School.
She took the chairman's seat at the celebration of the opening of the Voronezh Provincial Museum in 1896. When the agricultural school was opened in October 1889 in the village of Kon-Kolodez, it established a scholarship for students named after “Her Imperial Highness Princess of Oldenburg.”
With her participation, eleven deer were taken from Europe and released into a fenced area of the forest for the purpose of breeding and organizing hunting for them. Subsequently, they became the founders of the current herd of deer in the Voronezh State Biosphere Reserve.
Hunting "deer" estate.
The central gate of the "Menagerie" cordon.
Evgenia Maximilianovna built the first candy factory in Russia using steam engines, which was called the “Steam Factory of Sweets and Chocolate” and later became the progenitor of the Voronezh confectionery factory. The factory's products were internationally recognized, winning a large number of awards at various world exhibitions.
Wrappers:
The Oldenburgskys, Alexander and Evgenia, took the oath to the Provisional Government. After the revolution of 1917, Evgenia Maximilianovna, paralyzed, spent some time in Petrograd. She was then transported to Finland, and from there to France, where she lived for the rest of her life.
Based on Wikipedia materials. Read more about the estate in Ramoni by following the link
The Stroganov Palace of the Russian Museum is hosting an exhibition dedicated to the activities of the publishing house of the Community of St. Eugenia, which belongs to the most interesting phenomena of Russian culture of the Silver Age
The Stroganov Palace of the Russian Museum is hosting an exhibition dedicated to the activities of the publishing house of the Community of St. Eugenia, which belongs to the most interesting phenomena of Russian culture of the Silver Age. The community of St. Eugenia was actively involved in charity work and collaborated with such artists as A. N. Benois, I. Ya. Bilibin, E. E. Lanceray, K. A. Somov, L. S. Bakst, M. V. Dobuzhinsky, F. Bernshtam, D. I. Mitrokhin, G. I. Narbut, Z. E. Serebryakova, A. P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, etc. In total, the exhibition presents about 300 works, including books, guidebooks, “open letters”, drawings and watercolors.
The Russian Museum has a unique collection of so-called “Open Letters” (postcards), sketches and proof prints of the publishing house; most of the book editions of the Community of St. Eugenia ended up in the museum’s collection almost immediately after publication.
The community of St. Eugenia was part of the “St. Petersburg Trustee Committee for the Sisters of the Red Cross” under the Main Directorate of the ROKK (Russian Red Cross Society), headed since 1887 by the granddaughter of Emperor Nicholas I, Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna of Oldenburg (1845–1925), who invested in charity considerable personal funds. It was in honor of the heavenly patroness of the princess that the Community, which consisted of sisters of mercy and was called upon not only to support the elderly and often mendicant sisters of mercy, but to prepare a worthy replacement, was named.
The community needed money to build a hospital, maintain a shelter for elderly nurses, and run preparatory courses for nurses. Funds for charity came from private individuals and from auctions and art exhibitions held by the Community. Since 1896, the Community of St. Eugenia began publishing activities, including the production of “open letters” - illustrated postcards, among which reproductions of works of fine art, primarily Russian, occupied a large place. This undertaking not only turned out to be the most successful way to receive charitable funds, but became a noticeable phenomenon in the cultural life of Russia at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.
The first products - envelopes dedicated to Easter 1896, had a modest design: the sign of the Red Cross and the inscription “For greeting cards. For the benefit of the Community of St. Eugenia.” A year later, artists E. P. Samokish-Sudkovskaya, V. V. Suslov, N. V. Sultanov joined in the design of the envelopes.
In 1898, the first series of 10 “open letters” was published, the authors of watercolors for them were famous artists: I. E. Repin, K. E. Makovsky, N. S. Samokish, E. M. Boehm and others. Issued in 10 000 copies each, the postcards in this series were such a success that the circulation had to be repeated.
The 1900s were years of prosperity, largely due to the competition dedicated to the 200th anniversary of St. Petersburg, thanks to which strong ties were established with the artists of the World of Art. Invited to the competition jury, Alexander Benois was actually the head of the publishing house. Actively collaborating with the publishing house of the Community L. S. Bakst, A. N. Benois, I. Ya. Bilibin, M. V. Dobuzhinsky, I. E. Grabar, E. E. Lansere, G. K. Lukomsky, K. A Somov, A.P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva and many others worked for almost symbolic remuneration, or even for free.
Thanks to high patrons, in 1903 the Community was allowed to sell postcards at Red Cross kiosks at many railway stations and marinas throughout Russia. The circulation of one postcard reached 10,000 copies, and some of them were reprinted up to 5-6 times. The total number of open letters over the 20 years of its existence, starting in 1898, amounted to more than 30 million copies. All of them were made with high printing quality. More than 6,400 postcards are dedicated to significant events in the life of the Russian state, statesmen and the royal court, and also reproduce the best works of Russian and foreign art. Postcards bearing the Community stamp depict 3,000 landmarks in 200 geographic locations around the world. Among the performers of these view postcards are I. Ya. Bilibin and A. N. Benois, as well as famous photographers: A. Pavlovich, K. Bulla, K. Gann, P. Radetsky, S. Prokudin-Gorsky, V. Svetlichny.
Gradually, the publishing house developed its own book publishing program. The priority direction was the release of illustrated editions of Russian classical literature and publications introducing readers to the collections of the largest Russian museums and cultural attractions of the country. These are “Guide to the Hermitage Art Gallery” by A. N. Benois (1911), “Artworks of the Hermitage” (1916), pocket guides to famous places in Russia, a series of monographs “Russian Artists”, “1812 in Krylov’s Fables” with illustrations G. I. Narbut (1912), “Mozart and Salieri” by A. S. Pushkin, with three drawings by M. A. Vrubel and book decorations by S. V. Chekhonin.
The Community's printed products were awarded at international exhibitions: the World Exhibition in Paris (1900), in St. Louis (1904), at the All-Russian Handicraft Exhibition in St. Petersburg (1907–1908), the International Construction Exhibition in St. Petersburg (1908) and others.
After the revolution in 1920, the Evgeninskaya community was abolished. Charity as a form of social activity of high society ceased to exist. The publishing house came under the jurisdiction of Glavnauka and continued its activities under the name of the Committee for the Popularization of Art Publications at the State Academy of Material Culture.
Grandma's old albums are a great treasure for those who love retro and just everything from the past. Surely many people paid attention to the unusual Russian postcards of the early twentieth century in these albums - they were all artistically designed and had on the reverse side a sign in the form of a Red Cross and the inscription " For the benefit of the community of St. Eugenia"According to the recollections of people who lived at that time, Russia was literally flooded with these postcards, which simultaneously performed two functions - a cultural and educational function and a charitable function. And all this was again connected with the House of Romanov and in particular with the family of the Princes of Oldenburg.
Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna of Oldenburg
The pedigree of the Oldenburg family is quite extensive and, as it turns out, their family ties extend throughout Europe and Russia. But now we are interested in two names - the name of Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna of Oldenburg and her husband, His Imperial Highness Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg. These two left a noticeable mark on the history of Russia in the field of patronage, mercy and charity.
Princess Romanovskaya before marriage 1863-1868
Princess Romanovskaya Evgenia Maximilianovna, née Duchess of Leuchtenberg, was the third daughter of Duke Maximilian of Leuchtenberg and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, daughter of Emperor Nicholas I. In addition, she was also the granddaughter of Eugene Beauharnais, stepson of Napoleon Bonaparte. Place and date of birth - St. Petersburg, March 20, 1845. Not much is known about her childhood and youth; in principle, it was standard: the girl received a good education, knew languages, and knew how to behave in society.
Prince Alexander Friedrich Constantine or Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg
On January 7, 1868, Evgenia Maximilianovna married Prince Alexander Friedrich Constantine or Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg, who was distantly related to her. It is enough to mention the fact that Alexander Petrovich was, on his father’s side, the great-grandson of Emperor Paul I. Place and date of birth - St. Petersburg, May 21, 1844. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, this married couple was surprisingly harmonious: common interests and common views on life made their marriage happy and long. They also noted their romanticism and some extravagance in their actions and deeds, linking this with their relationship with Paul I. However, doing charity work in Russia has always been considered the lot of extravagant people, somewhat out of this world. Is it not because they have been remembered for so long that in the general mass they are like a ray of light on the horizon of a gray and cruel life?
Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna of Oldenburg reading
Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna Oldenburskaya devoted her entire life to precisely this - good deeds for the benefit of people. The list of her deeds is quite extensive and therefore just a small fragment about her from the reference book "Encyclopedia of Charity St. Petersburg": " She was the patroness and trustee of the Shelter in memory of Maria and Catherine (opened in 1867 at the expense of Prince P. G. Oldenburg in memory of his deceased daughters and in honor of the marriage of his daughter Eugenia; from 1871 - Shelter in memory of Maria and Catherine and George), St. St. Petersburg House of Mercy (1868), Rozhdestvenskaya Gymnasium (founded in 1868 as a pro-gymnasium; since 1899 - a gymnasium named after her; now - school No. 157, Proletarskaya Dictatorship St., 1; a memorial plaque was installed in the school in honor of her), St. Petersburg Imperial Women's School Patriotic Society (1874), Charitable Society at the St. Petersburg City Kalinkin Hospital, Society for the Fight against Contagious Diseases, Society for the Protection of Women's Health in St. Petersburg, Maximilian Hospital (1894), Care of the Poor of the Rozhdestvenskaya Part, St. Petersburg Encouragement Society women's artistic and craft labor. As the chairman of the Ladies' Committee of the Society for the Guardianship of Prisons (since 1869), she took care of the Shelter for arrested children-girls (Evgenievsky Shelter) and the Shelter for women leaving prison, which received her name."
Prince Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg
Her husband's name is also in this encyclopedia and this is what is written about him there: " Following in the footsteps of his father and mother, he devoted considerable energy to social activities. Every year he allocated 3,000 rubles from his personal funds. for the maintenance of the Shelter in memory of Mary, Catherine and George, which opened in 1868 on the day of his wedding. He was a trustee of the House of Charity for the Mentally Ill of Emperor Alexander III (1870), the Imperial School of Law (1881), the Shelter of Prince Peter of Oldenburg (1881), the Tsarskoye Selo Sanatorium for Children (1901), and the patron of the Society of Music Teachers and Other Musical Figures (1900). Honorary member of the Free Economic Society (1873), the St. Petersburg Mineralogical Society and the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg (1890), the Society for Relief to Victims of a Fire Disaster in St. Petersburg (1898), the Military Medical Academy, the Imperial Russian Technical Society, the Assistance Society moral, mental and physical development of young people "Mayak", the XI Congress of Russian Naturalists and Doctors in St. Petersburg (1901), a number of other public and charitable organizations in St. Petersburg and the province. In 1881, after the death of his father, he replaced him as trustee of the Holy Trinity Community of Sisters of Mercy. In 1886, he created the Pasteur station for rabies vaccination, and in 1890 he contributed to the creation of the Institute of Experimental Medicine on the basis of the community, Russia’s first research institution in the field of medicine and biology (now the I.P. Pavlov Institute), and became its patron. . For the research carried out in the laboratories of this institute, I. P. Pavlov received the Nobel Prize in 1904."
Reverse side of postcard and monogram with the Red Cross from the publishing house of the Community of St. Eugenia
But let's return to our postcards with the Red Cross. This was also the case of the Oldenburgskys. The history of the appearance of these postcards is quite interesting: while vacationing in the south one day, the famous artist Gabriel Pavlovich Kondrashenko met on his way a former sister of mercy, a participant in the Russian-Turkish War. The poor woman was actually a beggar and told the artist that this is how many of those women who were in the war and saved the wounded lived. Russia simply forgot about them. Returning to St. Petersburg, Kondrashenko told his colleagues about this meeting and proposed organizing an exhibition and sale of paintings. In 1881, such an exhibition was held in St. Petersburg, the entire proceeds from which went to the fund of poor sisters of mercy. And a year later, the Community of Sisters of Charity of St. Eugenia was established - the “Eugene Community”. Any community of that time had its own patron or trustee, and this was Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna of Oldenburg.
Stamps in favor of the Community of St. Evgenia
The community of St. Eugenia was part of the “St. Petersburg Trustee Committee for the Sisters of the Red Cross” under the Main Directorate of the ROKK (Russian Red Cross Society) and consisted of sisters of mercy who not only helped the unfortunate, but also prepared themselves a worthy replacement. And in order to be able to build hospitals, shelters and help those in need, money was needed, so it was decided to publish postcards and use the proceeds from their sale for charitable purposes. The authors of the stories were famous artists - I. Bilibin, N. Benois, L. Bakst, G. Narbut, K. Somov, Z. Serebryakova, as well as famous photographers - K. Gann, A. Pavlovich, K. Bulla, P. Radetsky , S. Proskudin-Gorsky and many others. The publication of cards began in 1898 and continued even in the first years of Soviet power.
One of the postcards with a portrait of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna published by the Community of St. Eugenia
In 1900, at the personal request of Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna of Oldenburg, the highest permission was given to the Eugene Community to publish and distribute in Russia, as a monopoly, open letters with portraits of any members of the imperial family. At the same time, they had to bear the sign of the Red Cross and the inscription “In favor of the community of St. Eugenia.” This monopoly lasted until May 1910 and was abolished by Emperor Nicholas II.
A small selection of postcards from the publishing house of the Community of St. Eugenia
