Vasily Ivanovich Chapayev

Portrait of Russian communist Cossack. Out of a poor peasant family, he fought in the Civil War against the White Armies. He met his own death while fighting. He became then a hero for the post-revolutionary Russia. Revolutions always need their own heroes, and a dead one is no danger at all for the men in power once the fight is over. Songs and novels were composed on his biography. Portraits were painted, even post stamps were printed. As a popular hero, here he is portrayed in monochrome, all shades of the very same grey, with his horse and rifle. A nonreligious icon of the times right after his own.