Greeks Mitrofan Borisovich (1882-1934)

Master of battle painting, MB Greeks played a significant role in the development of Russian art. Being a supporter of the realistic traditions of Russian school of painting of the XIX century., He was a promoter of the nascent formal style of the era - the socialist realism.

The childhood and youth of the future of the artist held at the Don. At first, he is engaged in drawing on their own, and in 1898 he entered the Odessa Art School. After his graduation in 1903, the Greeks successfully passed exams to the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, where in 1905-07. studies in painting workshop I. Repin , and after the departure of the last of the Academy goes into battle workshop A. F. Roubaud . During his studies, he participated in the work of the famous panorama of his teacher - "Defense of Sevastopol" (1907) and "The Battle of Borodino" (1911).

In 1911, the Greeks perform competitive work "The oxen in the plow," for which received the title of artist. Since 1912 he has been serving military service, and from the beginning of the First World War is on the German front.

In 1917, the Greeks demobilized due to a serious illness. For a time he worked as a teacher in Novocherkassk, where he created his first pictorial series on the defeat of the Whites - "Wander", "Kornilovites" (both 1919) and "Les Miserables. Kornilov's Retreat" (1922). Along with the song "The entry Regiment Volodarsky in Novocherkassk" (1920), these paintings initiated Soviet battle painting, the leitmotif was not a reflection of their military operations as such, but those new, romantic, in the opinion of the artist, the ideas for which fought the Red Army . Hero of these paintings speaks not a person but a revolutionary element, "materialize" in the mass of the Red Army, the armed people of the judging her story.

The absence of cold rationality and picturesque theatricality and anti-militarist orientation early work Grekova, deep truth of the image harsh realities of war makes it a successor of democratic traditions of art B. Vasily Vereshchagin .

In 1923, the artist completes the painting "In the squad to Budyonny", which had some success in the military leadership of the Red Army. This small canvas with the image of the only character that made perfect sense and compositional conciseness, which will characterize all further work Grekova.

Works written in the following years, begins to dominate the dynamics of the strong, passionate impulse, sharpness and composition at the same time acquire a greater depth. At the end of 1920. they are "Tachanka." machine gun to move forward "," "Taking Novocherkassk" (both 1925), "Red parts occupy farm" (1926), "The cavalry attack" (1927), "The Battle of Egorlikskaya" (1927-29) . The whole system of these paintings imbued with a romantic revolutionary spirit expressed in the swift, swirling movement of people and masses of air, that's why Grekovskaya "Tachanka" has become a symbol of the civil war.