The Unknown Russian Empire. Photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky

The album "The Unknown Russian Empire" is dedicated to the inventor, photographer, publisher, and public figure Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky (1863–1944) and his color photographs of pre-revolutionary Russia. 

The leitmotif of the book is the theme of the history of the Russian Empire, the history of the country in the fate and creativity of the master. 

Many negatives, taken "by the highest order" of Nicholas II in the late 1900s – early 1910s, were intended for historical publications, not all of which were realized. The album features photographs in which the artist captured monuments related to the Patriotic War of 1812 and the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov, as well as snapshots of the antiquities of Turkestan. 

Much of what S.M. Prokudin-Gorsky filmed in the Russian regions has become a historical relic and an important illustrative document. 

The photographer managed to capture people and their way of life, which has now been irretrievably lost. 

For the first time, the biography of S.M. Prokudin-Gorsky is presented in such complete form, taking into account the latest discoveries in Russian archives, libraries, and foreign periodicals. 

All archival documents without exception were previously unpublished. 

The author of the text is Natalia Alexandrovna Mozokhina, Candidate of Arts, head of the department for primary accounting and movement of museum items of the State Russian Museum, deputy editor-in-chief of the journal "Philocartia" (Moscow), a member of the Saint Petersburg Club of Postcard History Lovers (SPbKLI0), awarded the medal "For Outstanding Contribution to the Development of Collecting in Russia."