In olden times brigands on the Volga had a battle cry "Saryn na kichku!" It was to warn everybody on the boat to lie down in the highest part of the bows (the kichka) and stay there flat on the deck until after the robbery. These raids for robbery on the Volga were an important source of income for the Cossacks, and they saw them as one way of confiscating illicitly accumulated riches. Sergei Ivanov has painted a scene from one such attack led by Stepan Razin whose figure, full of energy and daring, stands tall in the bows. Razin was the leader of a popular uprising at the time of Alexis Mikhailovich, and it was the largest one during the 17th century.

Ivanov Sergei

Ivanov, Sergei Vasilyevich
1864, Ruza (Moscow Province)– 1910, Moscow
Painter, graphic artist, genre artist, history painter. Studied under Vasily Perov, IllarionPryanishnikov at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1878–1882, 1884–1885) and at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1882–1884). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1881), including international exhibitions in Munich (1892), Prague (1900), Rome (1911). Book illustrator (from 1880s). Academician (1905). Member of the Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions (1899–1903), founding member of the Union of Russian Artists (1903). Taught at the Stroganov School of Art and Industry (from 1899) and Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1900–1910).