Russian Carpet

Russian Carpet
General information
Name	Russian Carpet
Original name	فرش روسیه، قالی روسیه
Alternative name(s)	Russian Rug
Origin	Russia
Technical information

Russian Carpet or Russian Rug is one of the western rugs that woven in Russia.
In 1991 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics dissolved and was replaced in part by the Commonwealth of Independent Nations. At the present time, it is not clear which of the former republics of the U.S.S.R. will remain within this Commonwealth and which will seek complete independence. Descriptions of some weavings are under separate entries for the republics and other descriptions of weavings are under entries for ethnic groups. See these geographic entries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bessarabia, Caucasus, Georgia, Moldavia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Western Turkestan. See these entries for ethnic groups: Avar, Chechens, Cherkess, Karakalpak, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Tajik, Turkmen, Uzbeks.

History

Russia is a country that extends from Eastern Europe to northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world. Its historical founding can be traced back to the tenth century CE with the adoption of the Byzantine Empire's culture and Christian Orthodox religion. The first Tsar (emperor) of Russia was Ivan IV Vasilyevich (r. 1547-1584), known universally as Ivan the Terrible. He created a centrally administered Russian state and initiated the establishment of the Russian Tsarist Empire. By the nineteenth century, military victories over neighbors, including the Persians and Ottomans, increased Tsarist interests in natural resources and industry in regions such as Bessarabia, Caucasus, Turkestan, and parts of the southern Ukraine. Over the course of several centuries, Russia would expand its territory through exploration, war, and annexation to become the Russian Empire. Historically, the Russian Empire was the third-largest empire, with lands occupied from Poland in Europe to Alaska in North America.
In the fifteenth century, rugs were introduced to Russia through trading with the Vikings. These Scandinavian Rugs, Called Rya Rugs, were necessary as personal protection against the cold climate. Women of the household usually wove Ryas with wool on home looms for use as clothing, bedcovers, and insulation. Animal skins initially served this purpose, but rugs were more efficient because they are lighter in weight and dry more quickly in harsh weather conditions.
During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, carpets were made in Ottoman-occupied Bessarabia. After the region was seized by the Russian Empire in 1812, weavers continued to produce flatwoven workshop carpets with European floral designs and coloration. Bessarabian styles were very popular for the Tsarist palaces and with the Russian aristocracy. By the mid-nineteenth century, Bessarabian carpet production increased dramatically because of market demand and was heavily exported worldwide.
During the early nineteenth century, shawls began to be manufactured in Russian city workshops, an enterprise that was supported by the Empire, wealthy landowners, and nobility. A notable Imperial workshop outside of Moscow called Nadezhda Merlina produced shawls that were fashionable during this period. There is debate about whether these workshops also made similarly designed pile carpets.
For centuries, the Caucasus and Turkestan belonged to Persia, but in 1813 the northern region was transferred to the Tsarist Empire of Russia under the Treaty of Gulistan that was brokered by the British. In 1828, the British again assisted in a second agreement, the Treaty of Turkmanchai, which allowed the Russian Tsar to occupy the rest of the Caucasus. Rugs and carpets from the occupied Caucasus and Turkestan regions were world famous, and their heavy export to Europe and North America provided a great source of income for the Tsarist Empire.
In the neighboring area of Ukraine, carpets were produced on a limited basis. Generally, Ukrainian weavings have a knotted pile with colorations that are similar to Bessarabian flatwoven carpets. The designs of Ukrainian carpets have folk art motifs combined with inspirations from the French Aubusson Carpets and Savonnerie Carpets, the English Axminster Carpet Manufactory and Wilton Royal Carpet Manufactory, and needlepoint styles.
Russian carpets of the early twentieth century, some notably woven in the large region of Siberia in central and eastern Russia, incorporated folk art design elements. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, the Soviet government took control of all phases of the industry and carpet production dramatically decreased. Manufacturing increased after World War II, however, with the surge in global demand for Oriental carpets.
The Pazyryk Carpet, the oldest pile carpet in the world, is housed in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. This historical carpet is named after the Pazyryk Valley located in the Altai region of South Siberia, Russia. It was discovered in 1949 by Russian archeologist Sergei I. Rudenko (1885-1969) inside a tomb located in the valley. The carpet was woven in approximately the fifth—fourth century BCE; the identity of the weaver and where this ancient carpet was made are under debate.

Bibliography

• Abraham Levi Moheban. 2015. The Encyclopedia of Antique Carpets: Twenty-Five Centuries of Weaving. NewYork: Princeton Architectural Press.
• Peter F. Stone. 2013. Oriental Rugs: An Illustrated Lexicon of Motifs, Materials, and Origins. North Clarendon: Tuttle.