Before the attack. At Plevna

One of Vereshchagin's defining Russo-Turkish War paintings, 'Before the Attack. At Plevna' (1881) captures the terrible suspension before battle — Russian troops massed and waiting before the Bulgarian town of Plevna (Pleven), which resisted three major Russian assaults in 1877 before finally falling after a five-month siege. Vereshchagin was present at Plevna and witnessed the catastrophic losses firsthand. His brother Sergei was killed in one of the failed assaults. The painting shows not triumph but dread: the ordinary men who would momentarily be ordered into killing ground. Its presence in the Tretyakov Gallery confirmed it as a canonical anti-war statement. Vereshchagin's Balkan series provoked intense controversy in Russia, with military officials accusing him of demoralizing the army. He responded publicly that he painted what he saw, and nothing more.

The composition is structured around waiting — horizontal masses of figures rather than dynamic movement. Vereshchagin uses a cool grey-green palette appropriate to an overcast battlefield morning, with the crowded middle distance creating a density of human presence that emphasizes collective fate over individual heroism.