Kazimira Zgletta, who would become a doctor.
Peasant Women in Church, end of 1911-beginning of 1912.
Oil on canvas, 75 × 97.5 cm.
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
While he lived with his family and then started one of his own, Kasimir was closest to his mother who encouraged his artwork. Throughout his life. he came to her for encouragement and criticism. His father, on the other hand, was critical of his choice of art for a career. But even as his father pushed Kasimir toward more practical application of his drawing talents, he still found time to sketch with the boy.
When his father died in 1904, Malevich took the train to Moscow with the idea of entering the Moscow College of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Because of poor academic grades, he failed to be accepted many times between 1905 and 1907 and finally returned to Kursk to continue painting in a neo-Impressionist style. On top of his striving to become a full-time artist, Kasimir had to cope with the 1905 Revolution.
On 22 January 1905 a priest led a crowd of workers to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to petition Czar Nicholas II. To quell the disorder, troops fired on the crowd, killing many and achieving the predictable result of bloody strikes, savage riots, assassinations, naval mutinies and peasants rushing about in blind fury. At about this same time, the Russian Army was being badly beaten by the Japanese, displaying to the world the corruption and disorganization of the Russian Officer Corps. Out of this hellish turmoil came a manifesto from the Czar granting the establishment of the Russian Duma – an elected representative body – civil liberties and the appearance of democracy. Not satisfied with half a loaf, the Duma split into the Octoberist Party, who went along with the Czarist manifesto, and the opposing Constitutional Democratic Party, who formed a workers’ council to compel adoption of reforms. Once again, to prevent disorder, Czarist troops arrested or shot everyone in sight who embraced the workers’ council.
Kasimir, meanwhile, was trying to feed himself, keep a roof over his head and live in a dry place where he could set up his easel. Malevich wrote in his 1918 biography, describing his grim lifestyle:
“The commune was, beyond any doubt, a hungry bohemia. I looked like a true villager with my appetite, but it was unnecessary for me to buy bacon and garlic daily. The commune collected money for broth bones and artist Ivan Bokhan went to buy them. Butchers asked him, ‘For dogs or for people?’ and it embarrassed him very much. The broth was cooked often. Sometimes the commune ate in a canteen at school. The dinner was not expensive, only twelve kopeks for buckwheat porridge with butter or beef fat and borscht with meat.
In such conditions I worked. It was impossible to say that was easy, but nevertheless I worked. I dreamed about holding out till spring and then going to Kursk to earn some money again for autumn, painting sketches all summer long, and eating like a human being.”
Outside the closed world of the school and commune, blood and thunder raged up and down the streets as troops hunted down strikers and other malcontents. The artists found themselves having to take measures to survive the depredations. Malevich described the situation:
“The Revolution of 1905 happened. There were disturbances on the streets. I stood at my easel and continued to paint. The pressure rose. Fedociya (a cook) was our main informer. She informed us of any events from a group of the “Black Hundred”. (Author’s note: According to Lenin, the Black Hundreds championed the preservation and formal restoration of autocracy under the sceptre of their adored monarch. Their determination to defend the present Czar’s government at all costs very often united them with the Octoberists.)[6]
Province, 1911. Gouache on cardboard, 70.5 × 70.5 cm. Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
Man Carrying a Bag, 1910–1911.
Gouache on cardboard, 88 × 71 cm.
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
The Gardener, 1911.
Gouache on cardboard, 91 × 70 cm.
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
On the Boulevard, 1911.
Gouache on cardboard, 72 × 71 cm.
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
“A students’ dormitory in an Engineering Technical School was located near our commune. Fedociya had connections with the dormitory (a janitor) and the nearest neighbourhood janitors who informed her secretly about any horrific preparations by the Black Hundred (‘Tonight they will cut students, and could seize the commune too.’). We began some preparations: we dragged all plaster casts, a huge David and all Venuses, all benches and chairs and barricaded doors and windows. Then we moved to the upper floor and blocked a passageway on top. The owner of the house, artist Kurdyumov, showed us the secret passageway through which it was possible to pass, in case of attack, from one house to another and then down to the street (the house of the commune was located in a courtyard).
My behaviour began to irritate one member of the commune, the artist Antonov. A nice guy, he scolded at me that I painted while it was necessary to go out onto the streets. He was thin and really tall (because of his height he had no room to swing when he took an axe). Blaming me, he sat on a floor with his legs tucked under himself, drank vodka and nibbled a broth bone which was all cartilage and tendons. Brandishing this bone, he forced me to go onto the streets.
The pressure rose. One evening we did not turn the lights on. Another student appeared among us and I got acquainted with him. That was Cyril Shutko and he informed us about the course of the revolution. I went to the city on Tver Street. At Leontyevsky Lane I was surrounded by members of the Black Hundred. I was dressed in a hat, a coat with a collar, and a black shirt; I had long hair.
‘Wait, a socialist!’ one of them called out, and some Finnish knifes flashed. I calmly asked, ‘Do you have a cigarette?’
Then I immediately scolded them with a familiar profanity. One gave me a cigarette. I took it and put in my mouth and searching for a match, scolded them more and walked away. (I did not smoke at all).
Then I returned to Lefortovo, to the commune. That was a very disturbing night; we could clearly hear shots. Fights began in the morning. Many members of the commune disappeared. Antonov quarrelled with me, took an axe with which he practised before preparing for a fight and went onto a street. He took a cab and ordered the driver to drive him to the Red Gate (on the barricades). We found out later that the police arrested him in a nearby lane.
I got a “bulldog” (a British Webley, five chamber, break-top revolver, two – inch barrel, 450 calibre) and bullets. This was a true war. I joined a group who had pockets full of bullets and different types of revolvers. Some other “hunters” joined this group. We went to the Red Gate and there was a fight. Then we returned to the Sooharevskaya Tower. We, and some other members of this group, were placed at Sretenskoj Street for observation. Fences cracked and we began to pile up a barricade. The evening came soon. We noticed that soldiers had moved across Sretenka. The soldiers quickly approached. A command was heard and the soldiers presented their guns at the ready. We spread the word along the barricade. In a moment a silent command spread at our side and we fired.
Even though the soldiers were prepared, they did not expect such
V. I. Lenin,
