Vasily Surikov and the artistic life of the city of Tomsk before the revolution

The article focuses on the artistic life of the Siberian provincial city of Tomsk in its pre-revolutionary period of the beginning of the 20th century and the signif cance of the artist Vasily Surikov in its early days’ progress. Being a native of Siberia, Vasily Surikov was important for the artists of this region in general and the city of Tomsk in particular. In the Tomsk press of this period the name of the artist Vasily Surikov is common. The authors of the articles wanted to see him standing at the origins of the new Siberian school of painting and focused on the Siberian theme of his works. Name Vasily Surikov came up in the Tomsk press and although in connection with the many years of discussion about the need to establish a school of painting and sculpture in the city. It can be said that the artist was a kind of symbol for the Tomsk clerisy, an authority, appeal to which gave weight to the utterance and could make listeners to the townsfolk and of cials on whom the life of any given artistic project depended.