High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles Ilya Yefimovich Repin (Russian: Il'yá Efímovich Répin, Ukrainian: Іllya YUhimovich Rєpіn, (5 August 1844, Chuguyev, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire - September 29, 1930, Kuokkala, Viipuri Province, Finland) was a leading Russianpainter and sculptor of the Peredvizhniki artistic school. An important part of his work is dedicated to his native country, Ukraine. His realistic works often expressed great psychological depth and exposed the tensions within the existing social order. Beginning in the late 1920s, detailed works on him were published in the Soviet Union, where a Repin cult developed about a decade later. He was held up as a model "progressive" and "realist" to be imitated by "Socialist Realist" artists in the USSR.