Vladimir Stasov

St. Petersburg-born Russian critic Vladimir Stasov championed folk-creativity as the ground of modern cultural and civic development in the Russian Empire. He embraced the Russian Empire’s multiethnicity and not only welcomed aesthetic creativity by all of the empire’s constituent peoples but actively enjoined artists and composers of various ethnic backgrounds to collect and respond to the folk traditions of “their people” as a contribution to Russian imperial cultural life. Not himself Jewish, Stasov extended this outlook fully to Russia’s Jews, becoming among other things a patron of sculptor Mark Antokolski and consultant for the construction of the Grand Choral Synagogue, one of the great “Oriental”-style synagogues of the age. Developing a close friendship with the Gintsburg family, Stasov coproduced L’Ornement Hebreu (Hebrew Ornament) with David Gintsburg.