Genre painting allowed burning questions to be posed in Russian history. They dealt with the fate of individuals, conflict situations, human need and burdans. Different to the basically bourgeois art of French Imressionism the Russian and then the Soviet Working-Class Impessionism created new folk heroes. Thoughtful paintings arose as well as comic ones. The Severe Style of 1960s and 1970s showed expressive and modernist-formal elements.
The thematic subject is always topical, dealing with people and their circumstances, town and village scenes, free time and work. Here the artist writes the chronicle of his period.
The historical painting takes up the themes of stories and happenings, or allows people to appear in the roles intended for them.
