Editing Viktor Vasnetsov (section)

===Saint Petersburg (1867–1876)===
[[File:Wiktor Michajlowitsch Wassnezow 003.jpg|thumb|left|Self-portrait, 1873]]
In August 1867 Viktor tried to enter the [[Imperial Academy of Arts]], but failed. He succeeded one year later in August 1868.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ярославцева|first=Нина Александровна|title=Виктор Михайлович Васнецов: Письма. Дневники. Воспоминания. Суждения современников|publisher=Iskusstvo|year=1987|location=Moskva|pages=475}}</ref> Already in 1863 a group of fourteen students left the Academy, finding its rules too constraining. This led to the [[Peredvizhniki]] movement of realist painters rebelling against [[Academism]]. Vasnetsov befriended their leader [[Ivan Kramskoi]] during his drawing classes before entering the Academy, referring to him as his teacher.<ref name=brit/> He also became very close to fellow student [[Ilya Yefimovich Repin]].

Viktor, whose name would subsequently be associated with historical and mythological paintings, initially avoided these subjects at all costs. For his graphic composition of ''Christ and [[Pontius Pilate]] Before the People'', the Academy awarded a small silver medal to him. In the early 1870s he completed a large number of [[engraving]]s depicting contemporary life. Two of them (''Provincial Bookseller'' from 1870 and ''A Boy with a Bottle of Vodka'' from 1872) won him a bronze medal at the [[World Fair]] in London (1874).  During this period he also started producing [[Genre works|genre paintings]] in oil. Such pieces as ''Peasant Singers'' (1873) and ''Moving House'' (1876) were warmly welcomed by democratic circles of Russian society.