The Virgin Lands

Perhaps the most chronicled subject of the 1950s was the agricultural project known as the Virgin Lands. Members of Russia's communist youth group, the KomSoMols, were sent with agricultural specialists and artists to central Asia and western Siberia where land had never before been cultivated. With great sensibility and abounding patriotism, life in the Virgin Lands was painted by hundreds of artists. Into a New Life: Virgin Lands, by Erikh I. Rebane captures the anticipation of a young woman about to embark on an adventure full of unknowns. Virgin Land artists tended to be drawn to the events of life as lived under these unique and trying circumstances. Celebrations of marriage and friends gathering in the fields were typical subjects of the time and offered oppportunities for artists to employ impressionist techniques as they experimented with sunlight and color. Sunset in Siberia by Parchomenko shows the desolate, yet beautiful new frontier.