Imperial Academy of Arts - in The Soviet Union

In The Soviet Union

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Imperial Academy passed through a series of transformations. It was formally abolished in 1918 and the Petrograd Free Art Educational Studios (Pegoskhuma) created in its place; this was renamed the Petrograd Svomas (Free Art Studios) in 1919, the Petrograd State Art-Educational Studios of the Reconstructed Academy of Arts in 1921, Vkhutein in 1928, the Institute of Proletarian Fine Arts in 1930, the Russian Academy of Arts in 1933, and the Academy of Arts of the USSR in 1947. After the move of the academy to Moscow that year, the building in what was then called Leningrad was renamed Ilya Repin Leningrad Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

The national academy has stayed in Moscow. In 1991 it was renamed the Russian Academy of Arts. The old academy's art collection, which included major works by Poussin, David and Ingres, was removed to the Hermitage Museum across the river.

Well-known graduates of Ilya Repin Leningrad Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1930-1950s include: Yuri Neprintsev, Nikolai Timkov, Alexander Laktionov, Piotr Vasiliev, Piotr Belousov, Mikhail Kozell, Gleb Verner ( Isaak Brodsky workshop), Sergei Osipov, Gleb Savinov, Elena Skuin, Genrikh Pavlovsky, Olga Bogaevskaya, Lev Orekhov, Victor Teterin, Ivan Godlevsky, Evgenia Antipova, Evgenia Baykova ( Alexander Osmerkin workshop ), Alexei Eriomin, Nikolai Baskakov, Valery Vatenin, Nina Veselova, Maya Kopitseva, Leonid Steele, Oleg Lomakin, Valentina Monakhova, Nikolai Mukho, Anatoli Nenartovich, Mikhail Natarevich, Semion Rotnitsky, Mikhail Trufanov, Yuri Tulin, German Yegoshin ( Boris Ioganson workshop ), Andrei Mylnikov, Boris Korneev, Anatoli Vasiliev, Nikolai Pozdneev, Rostislav Vovkushevsky, Irina Getmanskaya, Elena Kostenko, Alexander Koroviakov, Victor Otiev, Alexander Sokolov ( Victor Oreshnikov workshop ), Boris Lavrenko, Yuri Belov, Mikhail Kaneev, Nikolai Galakhov, Piotr Litvinsky (Rudolf Frentz workshop).

During the years of the Soviet era, academies were free of tuition as they were financed by the government, but admission was intensely competitive. Many students would continuously apply for sometimes six, seven years in a row to be accepted to the Academy, without success. With twenty available places and thousands of applicants, the competition was brutal.