Let's dive a little into the history of Russian playing cards. And, oddly enough, one online store will help us with this, which sells, among other things, reprints of ancient maps. These are completely new cards, but released based on sketches that were once released. Link to the site at the end of the post.

The first playing cards in Russia appeared during the reign of Fyodor Ioannovich. But before Peter I, all cards were exclusively imported. And in general they were considered a great sin. Under the reformer tsar, the attitude towards card games (as well as towards alcohol, smoking, coffee, etc.) is changing. Their production even begins in Moscow. But it reached a large scale much later, under Alexander I, who monopolized the production of playing cards. This brought in considerable income, which was used to support the empress’s department, which took care of orphans.

RUSSIAN TAROK

Since the last quarter of the 18th century, tarok was first mentioned among card games in Russia. To play tarok, a very specific deck of 78 sheets is used, including 22 special numbered cards called the Major Arcana. The tarok deck was one of the first to be produced in the card workshops of the Aleksandrovskaya manufactory. The need to issue tarok cards was specifically mentioned in a special regulation in 1819 when the Card Factory was established. In the 30s - 40s of the 19th century, a tarokka deck was the most expensive in the Card Factory's assortment and cost 70 kopecks (8 rubles 40 kopecks for a dozen decks). The production of Russian tarokka cards continued until at least 1855, when they are last mentioned in the Card Factory's "Table of Prices for Various Grades of Cards."

RUSSIAN PLAYING CARDS 1798

They were produced in Russian tax-paying card manufactories.

RUSSIAN PLAYING CARDS 1815

FOR THE KINGDOM OF POLISH

Cards were produced by the Imperial Card Factory specifically for the Polish provinces annexed to Russia at the beginning of the 19th century and were called “Cards Made for the Kingdom of Poland.” The most important differences between these cards are the drawings of German-type card suits, as well as a different composition of card figures, in which there are no queens, but, in addition to the king, there are two more “male” persons - vyshnik and nizhnik (in relation to Russian cards, these were like jack high and jack junior).

GEOGRAPHICAL MAPS OF RUSSIA

Geographic maps were invented and compiled by K. M. Gribanov in 1830. This is the first independent example of cards published at the Card Factory at the Alexander Manufactory in St. Petersburg. Konstantin Gribanov's deck consists of 60 cards, although a standard full deck has 52 cards. This is explained by the fact that the author pursued the goal of creating a thematic geographical deck depicting all the administrative-territorial units of the Russian Empire. In 1830 there were 60 such units. The front side of each card, divided into four parts, shows a playing card, the provincial coat of arms, a local costume and a list of cities in the province. Another feature of these cards is its “back” (reverse side) - on each card it is different and is a geographical map of an administrative unit indicating the distance to St. Petersburg and Moscow

RUSSIAN PLAYING CARDS 1850

A very rare Russian deck produced at the Imperial Card Factory.

SKETCHES BY A.E. BEIDEMAN

In the early 1860s, academician of historical painting Beideman was involved in the creation of projects for new playing cards. A talented draftsman and illustrator, Beideman showed classic literary types in the drawings of this deck. The deck has never been published.

Beideman was also a master of humorous compositions, which is evident in the designs of this deck. A test print was made from the drawings, but the deck was never published.

HUNTING CARDS

The deck of cards was created in 1860 by the court painter of the Russian Emperor Alexander II, Mihai Zichy. All cards depict scenes of the imperial hunt and miniature images of standard playing cards. The deck was intended for the Card Factory, but was not published.

ROAD

A deck produced by the Imperial Card Factory in the 1860s. Artist A.I. Charlemagne.

NEW FIGURES

One of the decks of cards prepared in 1862 by academician A.I. Charlemagne at the request of the Card Factory.

EYES

A deck produced by the Imperial Card Factory in 1870.

2 GRADE

Deck, also released in 1870.

1 GRADE

A deck produced by the Imperial Card Factory in 1875. The quality of drawing is really higher than that of grade 2.

POLISH

The deck has been manufactured by the Imperial Card Factory since 1881. These cards were a collection of images so heterogeneous and unusual that in subsequent years this became the reason for the appearance of various names for it. In Russia this deck was called “Figured”, in Germany Zirkuskarte (Circus Cards), in Italy “Trappola” - after an ancient card game that required a special deck of 36 sheets.

TOP GRADE

A deck produced by the Imperial Card Factory in 1897. Artist Karazin.

M.O.MIKESHIN. SKETCH OF PLAYING CARDS

Project of playing cards for the Imperial Card Factory by the famous Russian sculptor and artist M.O. Mikeshina was built in 1890. The project was made “in Russian taste,” which was very fashionable at that time, and includes sketches of the halves of 12 figured cards, that is, all the figures of an ordinary card deck, made in the form of characters from Russian fairy tales. The deck project was demonstrated at the All-Russian Exhibition of Printing, held in 1895 in St. Petersburg, and received very flattering responses there. But the cards were never put into circulation due to “heaviness and lack of freedom of style,” as written in “The History of Russian Art,” edited by I. Grabar.

RUSSIAN STYLE

The "Russian Style" deck is one of the most successful card projects in Russia. Repeated attempts to create decks in the Russian national spirit had previously been unsuccessful. The drawings of this deck were based on the costumes of the participants in the famous “Historical” ball, held in the Kremlin in January 1903. Those present were dressed in Russian costumes from the 17th century, and Emperor Nicholas II wore the costume of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.

NEW STYLE

The first deck with these designs was released in 1911 under the name "New Style". When reissued in 1935, this name was retained in the price lists of the State Card Monopoly. In the post-war period, since 1964, the deck was produced under the name “Preference” and consisted of 32 sheets.

FANSY

The deck was released in 1910. The drawings were created by an artist from the famous German card factory Dondorf and were very similar to the drawings of the "Mittelalter" deck.

ROCOCO

The original deck was released in 1911. In the 1930s, an export version of the deck was developed and produced - with Latin indices and a silver-plated cut. In the post-war period, card designs were long used for reduced-sized solitaire decks.

HISTORICAL

A deck of playing cards first published by the Imperial Card Factory in 1911 under the title "Historical". The deck began to be produced again in 1930, including in an export version - with Latin indices. The figured cards show representatives of ancient civilizations - Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek and Norman.

Matreshin Alexander - Panorama of the Kremlin

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839-1881) - Dawn on the Moscow River from the opera "Khovanshchina"

Matreshin Alexander Valentinovich, born in 1956, is a Soviet and Russian artist.
He graduated from the art department of the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography and worked in the field of book illustration for more than ten years. The artist's works are in many museums and private collections.

“On March 24, 1798, by Imperial decree, the right to brand and sell playing cards throughout the Russian Empire was forever given to the Orphanage, a charitable institution for the care of orphans. The Board of Guardians of the Orphanage began to farm out the right to brand, earning from this considerable funds that went towards “maintenance of orphans.” The tax-paying system existed for more than 20 years - from April 1, 1799 to January 1, 1820. During the entire period, five card buy-outs took place, each for a period of four years. The tax-paying system caused a rapid increase in the number of cards produced. Already in the ninth year. action of farming, in 1807-1808, almost 2,300,000 decks of all types were made. Cards were made as.
in both capitals in large factories, and in remote cities by small card masters who took certificates for their production from farmers.

The factory began production of new premium decks based on sketches by a German artist, an employee of a famous card factory
B. Dondorf in Frankfurt am Main, whose name was kept in the strictest confidence. Four decks were released and remained in production for many decades.
The release of new cards required a significant improvement in the quality of their production. The decks were printed in 16 colors using the chromolithography technique by the best master of the Card Factory, Michael. One of the released decks, called “Russian Style,” allowed us to say that playing cards in a truly national spirit finally appeared in Russia. This deck is notable for the fact that the sketches for it were created under the influence of an album of photographs of the imperial charity ball of 1903, costumed in the style of the 17th century. This version is supported by the extraordinary similarity of the Queen of Clubs to the appearance and costume of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, and the Queen of Hearts to Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna.
The figures of the kings are represented by the king with an orb in his hand (king of hearts) and the boyars of the time of Alexei Mikhailovich. The ladies are shown in festive clothes: rich townswomen in ferezis and platens, peasant women in embroidered sundresses with soul warmers. Jacks are young falconers and archers with weapons and birds of prey in their hands. The design of the usually modestly decorated aces turned out to be very successful. On each ace, the sign of the card suit is placed on a round shield framed by ancient weapons and hunting attributes. The sign “In favor of the Imperial Orphanage” is also made in the form of an old pendant seal.”

Cards "Russian style"

These cards are probably familiar to almost everyone: they were issued many times during the Soviet years. At home I have two decks of these small format cards with backs of different colors in one box - a gift version from the mid-50s of the last century. And my grandmother had the same pre-revolutionary cards, but of a standard size.

Below are given for comparison, mentioned in the monograph by E.N. Grigorenko, photographs of the Grand Duchesses Ksenia Alexandrovna - sister of Nicholas II (queen of hearts) and Elizaveta Feodorovna - sister of Nicholas II's wife, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (queen of clubs).

There really are similarities, first of all, in the costumes: very characteristic kokoshniks on both ladies. You can also catch similarities in faces if you really want to.

The Internet is simply flooded with comparisons of representatives of the Russian nobility who attended the famous imperial ball in 1903 with pictures on the “Russian Style” cards. Of all that I happened to see, the most consistent with reality seems to be the fact that the King of Hearts was copied from a portrait of Emperor Alexander III, who could not be at this ball, since he died in 1894.
The costume of the card king differs from the uniform of Emperor Alexander Alexandrovich, but this is not surprising, because all the kings in this deck are dressed in costumes stylized as the clothes of Russian tsars and boyars of the 17th century.

Nikolai Gustavovich Schilder (1828-1898) - Portrait of Alexander III

- “Solemn Coronation March” (1883), written on the occasion of the coronation of Alexander III
USSR Symphony Orchestra
Conductor - Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov

Monomakh's hat

They also compare portraits of the Grand Dukes Mikhail Alexandrovich - brother of Nicholas II and Andrei Vladimirovich - cousin of Nicholas II with jacks of clubs and jacks of diamonds, respectively.
If we talk about the similarity of costumes, then, apart from the fabric and colors, the men's suits and headdresses of the Russian boyars of the 17th century were not much different from each other. Unless Andrei Vladimirovich was considered the prototype of the Jack of Diamonds, since at the ball he was dressed in the costume of the Tsar’s falconer, and the Jack of Diamonds had a mechanical falcon in his hands, indicating that, they say, this fellow is a falconer. And if we talk about the portrait resemblance of the Grand Dukes to the jacks of cards, then, apart from the mustache, for the life of me, I personally don’t find any similarity. This can be clearly seen if you look at photographs of the Grand Dukes in a larger format. But, since two royal relatives became card prototypes, then we can assume that these two royal relatives also became them.

Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) - Polonaise from the opera "The Night Before Christmas"

Conductor - Evgeny Svetlanov

As a lyrical digression.
The Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich mentioned here, the grandson of Emperor Alexander II, in the mid-20s of the last century, while in exile, married the well-known ballerina Matilda Feliksovna Kshesinskaya.
Matilda Kshesinskaya is known for the most part not as a ballerina, although she was a Russian prima, but because three Grand Dukes of the House of Romanov hovered around her. First it was the future Emperor Nicholas II - even before his engagement to his future wife. Then Matilda Feliksovna was the de facto wife of Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, the grandson of Emperor Nicholas I. At the same time, she had an affair with another Romanov, Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich.

At all times, exalted fools dreamed of a prince, if not on a white horse, then at least on an ugly black jeep, but not everyone got even the ordinary Ivanushka the Fool, because today princes, alas, are an elusive nature. And Matilda Feliksovna had three princes. And not just any stray Holsteins or Hessians, but the Romanovs themselves!

While this story was hanging around unfinished for almost two months, on July 14, 2016, a new article about card prototypes appeared on the Internet From the king to the ball! , which LiveJournal immediately grabbed for quotes.

What was new, in comparison with previous publications, was, firstly, the comparison of the king of spades from the “Russian Style” deck with the portrait of Tsar Ivan the Terrible from the painting by Alexander Dmitrievich Litovchenko (1835-1890) “Ivan the Terrible Shows Treasures to the English Ambassador Horsey.”

By clicking on the picture of the king of spades, you can independently verify the inconsistency of this statement. As for me, then, most likely, the king of clubs plus or minus three camels, as my drawing teacher said, looks like a portrait of Ivan Vasilyevich painted by Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov. It would be a stretch to say that the king of spades is similar to this portrait, but this king has a very vegetarian expression on his face, in contrast to the royal portrait. Yes, in fact, the King of Clubs is also not distinguished by its menacing appearance. A beard and a cap - that's all the similarities.

So the author of the article, a Doctor of Philosophy, a certain Semyon Ekshtut, is either new to materiel, or has weak eyesight, which is confirmed by the following analogies he proposed: headquarters captain, squadron commander of the Cavalry Guard Regiment, adjutant of Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich Alexander Nikolaevich Bezak - jack of spades and the adjutant of the Grand Duke, Admiral General Alexei Alexandrovich, Lieutenant Nikolai Alexandrovich Volkov - the jack of hearts.

Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible (1879)
Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov (1848-1926)

The main factors that unite these cards and their “prototypes” are mustaches and the cut of boyar costumes, which was standard for that time.

From all of the above, we can draw an unambiguous conclusion: the presence of a beard on anyone automatically makes him a prototype of card kings, and what about card kings - even the prototype of Tsar Nicholas II himself!

Those who have not yet grown to have a beard, forced to be content with youthful growth in the form of a mustache, automatically become prototypes of card jacks.

I won’t even consider all the other “analogies” of the author of the article, because he does not take into account that the German artist drew his card characters and their outfits based on photographs of the Russian nobility who were present at the famous ball, and did not copy them one by one.

I remembered an incident: in connection with repairs, I bought adhesive paper, the design of which for some reason was called “Karelian birch”. In general, the drawing suited me, but the name confused me. I asked the seller if a Karelian birch tree looks like this in cross-section, to which he answered philosophically: “It’s a German, why is that tree a big one?” (The German did this, did he even see this tree?)

Deripaska's beard Peskov's mustache

So in the case of maps, since they were drawn by a German artist, then what is the demand for him?)))

This is not one of the 12 chairs made by master Gumbs, but - for a moment - the throne of Russian emperors.)))

These richly embroidered dresses are the same uniform for the ladies-in-waiting of the Russian court, as were the court uniforms for the male persons who were at the court of the Russian emperors, who were popularly called courtiers.

In 1834, Emperor Nicholas I issued a decree introducing a new court dress, complemented by a kokoshnik. It consisted of a narrow open bodice with long sleeves “a la boyars” and a long skirt with a train. Kokoshniks, combined with a low-necked court dress, remained in the wardrobe of ladies-in-waiting until the revolution.

Sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich personally approved sketches with drawings of court dresses and strictly ensured that the ladies who were required to wear this outfit according to the state strictly wore them to official receptions. It’s a pity that there were no television programs “Fashionable Verdict” and “Take It Off Immediately!” at that time; Tsar Nicholas I could well have been the presenter in them.

True, these were dresses stylized as Russian sundresses, for which they were called French sundresses. Not only the cut, but also the color of these dresses was regulated. So the ladies of the State and the ladies-in-waiting were supposed to wear a green velvet outer dress with gold embroidery on the bottom and side, the mentors - a blue dress, the ladies-in-waiting of Her Imperial Majesty - crimson, the ladies-in-waiting of the Grand Duchesses were also crimson, but the embroidery had to be silver , ladies-in-waiting of the Grand Duchesses - a blue dress with silver embroidery.

If the photographs of the two ladies-in-waiting shown here were in color, we would see that both beauties are wearing bright red dresses with gold embroidery. By the way, they both attended the famous ball in 1903 - their photographs at this ball can be seen below.

On the left side of the neckline of the dress, maids of honor were supposed to wear the so-called maid of honor cipher - a gold brooch with diamonds in the form of a capital letter of the name (monogram) of the empress, on whose staff this maid of honor was; or from two intertwined initials of the empress and her mother-in-law, the dowager empress (this sign was called double). The maids of honor of the grand duchesses and princesses also had their own monograms. The composition was crowned with a stylized imperial crown.
The code was supposed to be worn on a blue bow - the color of St. Andrew's ribbon.

Princess Zinaida Nikolaevna Yusupova - Princess Elizaveta Nikolaevna Obolenskaya -
maid of honor of Empress Maria Alexandrovna maid of honor of Empress Maria Feodorovna
(wives of Alexander II) (wives of Alexander III)

Maid of honor cipher

Adolf Ignatievich Ladurner (1798-1855) - Armorial Hall of the Winter Palace (1838)

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804-1857) - Polonaise from the opera "Ivan Susanin"
State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the USSR
Conductor - Evgeny Svetlanov

The painting by the artist Ladurner depicts groups of guards and court ladies waiting for the start of some official event. All the ladies are dressed according to their uniform.

Ladies who did not have court positions, but were present at official receptions and other ceremonial meetings, were also given a kokoshnik and a standard cut of the dress, although the color and fabric from which these dresses were made could be any - at the discretion of the owner of the outfit.

The shape of the court kokoshniks was quite far from the peasant prototypes, as was the cut of the court dresses. In the second half of the 19th century, diamond kokoshnik tiaras (Russian style tiaras) appeared, which were popular at court.

Maid of honor cipher

Orlov Pimen Nikitich (1812-1865) - Portrait of the maid of honor Anna Alekseevna Okulova in Russian court attire

Orlov Pimen Nikitich (1812-1865) - Portrait of the maid of honor Sofia Vasilievna Orlova-Denisova (1835) in Russian court attire

(1878-1927) - Portrait of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna in sapphire parure (wife of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich - son of Alexander II) (1913)

Note. Parure - (parure - attire, decoration) - a set of jewelry selected by the quality and type of stones, by material or by the unity of artistic design.

A. Malyukov (1836) - Portrait of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (wife of Nicholas I)

Makarov Ivan Kuzmich (1822-1897) - Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna (wife of Alexander II)

Makovsky Konstantin Egorovich (1839-1915) - Portrait of Empress Maria Feodorovna (wife of Alexander III)

(1863-1924) - Portrait of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (wife of Nicholas II)

Tiara in the shape of a Russian kokoshnik

Tuxen Laurits Regner (1853-1927) - Marriage of Nicholas II and Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna

Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov (1855-1914) - Polonaise in memory of Pushkin
State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the USSR
Conductor - Evgeny Svetlanov

Small Imperial Crown

Tiara "Kokoshnik" with pink diamond

The costume ball, dedicated to the 290th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, took place in the Winter Palace in February 1903 - the famous masquerade ball, at which all those present were dressed in Russian royal and boyar costumes of the 17th century.
The ball took place at the end of the Nativity Fast and took place in two stages: on February 11 (24), 1903, a gala evening and concert took place, and on February 13 (26) the costume ball itself.

In 1904, by order of the Imperial Court, albums with photographs of the ball participants were published.
The albums were distributed for a high fee for charitable purposes, primarily among the participants of the ball.

Costumes for the ball were created according to special sketches by the artist Sergei Sergeevich Solomko (1867-1928) with the assistance of historical costume consultants.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) - Polonaise from the ballet "The Sleeping Beauty"
State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the USSR
Conductor - Evgeny Svetlanov

Diamond hat

Fairytale Rus' by Sergei Solomko

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804-1857) - First Song of Bayan
from the opera "Ruslan and Lyudmila"
Bayan - Yuri Marusin
Mariinsky Theater - St. Petersburg

Sergei Sergeevich Solomko, born in 1867 in St. Petersburg, is a Russian artist, watercolorist, and graphic artist. Member of the St. Petersburg Association of Artists.

1883-1887 - studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.
1887-1888 - volunteer at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg.
Late 1880s - began collaborating with art magazines: “North”, “Niva”, “World of Art”, “Jester” and others as an illustrator.
For the publishing house of Alexei Sergeevich Suvorin (1834-1912) he illustrated the works of Pushkin and Chekhov. For the publishing house of Adolf Fedorovich Marx (1838-1904) he illustrated the works of Lermontov and Gogol.

Sergei Solomko was engaged not only in painting, but also in jewelry and costume design: the artist created models for the Imperial Porcelain Factory and collaborated with the Faberge jewelry company.

1903 - the artist executed sketches of ancient Russian costumes for a costume ball in the Winter Palace.
Since 1910, Sergei Solomko lived permanently in Paris.

1916 - worked on orders from the Commission involved in the creation of a museum of the First World War, at whose request he painted portraits of holders of the Order of the Russian Expeditionary Force in France.

In France, Solomko created theatrical costumes: in particular for ballerinas Anna Pavlova and Matilda Kshesinskaya.

1925 - took part in the creation of the Russian Art and Industry Institute in Paris.

Sergei Sergeevich died in 1928 in the “Russian House” in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois. He was buried in the local cemetery.

Note. "Russian House" is a nursing home, originally intended for first-wave emigrants from Russia.

The Last Ball - documentary (2011)
Director - Boris Liznev

All the kings of the House of Romanov

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804-1857) - “Glory” - finale from the opera “Ivan Susanin” (Life for the Tsar)
Orchestra and Choir of the Mikhailovsky Theater (6 March 2013, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg)
Conductor - Alexey Karabanov

Great Imperial Crown

In February 1903, a costume ball took place. The main requirement for those invited was to appear in costumes from the 17th century.

The Queen of Clubs and her prototype - Princess Elizabeth Fedorovna.

Check what deck of cards you have in your drawer at home. It is quite possible that it is this one! Probably each of us has seen this deck of cards (“Russian style”)- in Soviet times, these cards were among the most common. There is nothing unusual about them at first glance; we are so accustomed to these drawings that we probably didn’t even pay attention to the clothes of the card characters. This is the strange thing: the prototypes for the kings and ladies in this deck were not proletarians and collective farmers, but participants in the last costume ball at the Romanov imperial court in 1903.

The Queen of Hearts and her prototype - Princess Ksenia Alexandrovna.

In February 1903, a costume ball took place. The main requirement for those invited was to appear in costumes from the 17th century. The luxurious celebration in the Winter Palace of St. Petersburg went down in history as the most famous and grandiose ball of the reign of Nicholas II and as the last court ball of Imperial Russia. Photographers captured all the famous participants in this event, which made it possible to recreate these images in playing cards.

All 390 guests of the imperial ball were dressed in the style of courtiers of all stripes, boyars and boyars, archers and townswomen, governors and peasant women of the pre-Petrine era. The sketches of the costumes were developed by the artist Sergei Solomko, and they were sewn by the best tailors of the Russian Empire.

The maps were created based on photographs collected in the “Album of a costume ball in the Winter Palace.” The clothes of the kings, jacks and queens on the playing cards completely repeated the costumes of the participants in the masquerade ball. The aces depict shields surrounded by ancient Russian weapons and armor.

In 1911, German craftsmen from the Dondorf factory developed sketches for the cards, and in 1913 they were printed in St. Petersburg at the Alexander Manufactory. The release of the deck called “Russian Style” was timed to coincide with the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty.

After the revolution, the manufactory was closed; in 1923 it resumed work and again began producing cards based on pre-revolutionary sketches. Later, Soviet illustrator Yuri Ivanov copied the “Russian Style” cards from the original deck for offset printing.

"RUSSIAN PLAYING CARDS (The Story of a Factory)"

"Russian playing cards"("The History of One Factory") - an illustrated catalog-album dedicated to the activities of the St. Petersburg Card Factory (later, the Color Printing Plant) in the period from 1817 to 2001. Almost all series (images) of playing cards issued during this period of time are collected Petersburg and outlines the history of the formation and development of the factory. The book-album “Russian Playing Cards” was published in a limited edition - the first study in our country dedicated to the history of one of the most interesting types of applied graphics. It is especially pleasant to note that a famous collector took part in the creation of the book. playing cards Evgeny Grigorenko. In addition to aesthetic value, the album “Russian Playing Cards” is, as stated earlier, “of great interest not only for specialists, but also for a wide range of readers. For example, from the book you can learn that during the Great Patriotic War.” During the Patriotic War, the Soviet command used playing cards in propaganda. To produce a special “anti-fascist” deck in besieged Leningrad in the winter of 1942, a handful of specialists who had previously worked at a card factory were assembled. In difficult conditions, without sleep or rest, they manually printed anti-fascist cards. Soon, they were loaded onto planes whose route lay behind the front line and scattered in areas where enemy troops were concentrated. To this day, only two decks of “anti-fascist cards” have survived. The figures on them are caricatures of Nazi figures: Kings - Hitler, Mussolini, Horthy, Mannerheim; Jacks - Goebbels, Himler, Ribbentrop, Goering...

During the reign of Catherine the Second and finally under Alexander the First, it was introduced state monopoly for the production of playing cards. Income from the production of cards went to the maintenance of the Department of Empress Maria, caring for orphans. The production of cards was launched at the state-owned Alexander Manufactory, where the Imperial Card Factory began operating in 1819. A distinctive feature of Russian playing cards was their original design, which compared favorably with the decks of European card factories. The themes of the drawings of kings, queens and jacks often reflected the events of modern cultural life of the Russian Empire. For example, the famous “Russian Style” deck, which many Russians still play today, was created in 1911 based on the national costumes of the 17th century, shown during the famous “Historical Ball” in the Kremlin. The prototype of the King of Hearts was the Russian Emperor Nicholas II himself, and the ladies were Empress Maria Feodorovna. This tradition continued during Soviet times. On the 1925 deck, the figured cards are dressed in the costumes of the peoples of the first Soviet republics: Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and Transcaucasia.

In the early years of Soviet power, the popularity of playing cards was also widely used in political propaganda. In 1934, the production of “anti-religious” playing cards began, on which clergy of various faiths were printed in a satirical form. An export version of the “anti-religious” deck was also produced, which was supplied abroad, which caused numerous protests from the Vatican and religious leaders. Among other things, playing cards were used for educational purposes: in 1927, a deck was published - instructions “Rifle”, intended for illiterate soldiers of the Red Army.

However, the most widespread and popular cards for more than 150 years remain the well-known cards “ Satin"- says Evgeniy Grigorenko. - But few people know that the drawings of these maps were created in 1862 by academician of painting Adolphe Charlemagne. Moreover, it must be said that other famous Russian artists did not shy away from drawing playing cards. It is enough to name such names as the most popular graphic artist of the early twentieth century, Ivan Bilibin, and the creator of the “Millennium of Russia” monument, Vladimir Mikeshin. Unfortunately, the card factory “Color Printing Plant” in St. Petersburg, unable to stand the test of time, ceased its almost two-century existence in 2004. However, the traditions of Russian card artists and graphic artists in modern Russia are continued by small printing enterprises in different regions of the country.

Have you ever wondered who is depicted on playing cards? Most likely you haven’t noticed, but one of them even has Emperor Nicholas II himself.

It is known that the sketches for the “Russian Style” cards were developed at the German card game factory of the Dondorf company (Frankfurt am Main) in 1911.Two years later, in 1913, the cards were printed at the Imperial Card Factory (until 1860 - the Alexander Manufactory).

Since 1819, this factory carried out a monopoly production of playing cards in the Russian Empire: the import of cards from abroad was strictly prohibited, thereby eliminating any competition.

Unauthorized production of cards by private individuals was prosecuted by law and entailed confiscation of production tools and manufactured cards and a fine of 100 to 500 rubles (Article 1351 of the Penal Code).

If in 1901 the factory produced 5,460 thousand decks, then already in 1912 - over 12 million. A dozen decks cost the factory about 98 kopecks, and were sold, depending on the type, at prices ranging from 5 rubles 50 kopecks to 12 rubles.

After the revolution, the card factory was closed for several years, but already in 1923 it began its work again and began producing cards based on pre-revolutionary sketches.

Prototypes of the famous Russian Style card deck danced at a costume ball in 1903

MARKED CARD

On the back of the card was a picture of a pelican feeding children the meat of its heart. This allegorical sign was accompanied by the inscription: “He feeds his chicks without sparing himself.” It was understood that the government does not think at all about its own benefit, but cares exclusively about the welfare of orphans.

It was believed that the government turns the income received from the sale of cards into income for the Orphanage and its minor pets - orphans and foundlings.

Gambling card players were convinced that they were helping children with their destructive passion. In the story “Interesting Men” by Nikolai Semenovich Leskov, one of the characters says this: “... and so as not to get bored, they sat down to “cut” under the evening bell, or, as they said then, “to work for the benefit of the Imperial Orphanage.”