Morning of the Streltsy Execution

Vasily Surikov completed this monumental history painting in 1881, depicting the mass execution of rebellious streltsy guards in 1698. The condemned men await death in Red Square while their families weep around them. Peter the Great watches from horseback, having crushed the rebellion that threatened his reforms.

The enormous canvas (218 × 379 cm) established Surikov as Russia's greatest historical painter. He researched the event exhaustively, capturing the psychological tension between defiant rebels and grieving families. Now at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, a cornerstone of Russian Realist art.