Musicology Annotation << Back A Century Ago Demchenko Alexander Comprehending the national music of the turning historical period of 1890–1920, it is possible to formulate four fi nal generalizations on the part of the artistic picture of the world, as far as it is possible to interpret it from the positions of the musical art of Russia of that time. First, a radical renewal of life, a cardinal extension of life horizons, which often meant a challenge to the past, a break with it, its overthrow, a breakthrough to a qualitatively new model of the world and man, to a different type of attitude, psychology, motor-emotional manifestations. Secondly, the aspiration to full release and emancipation with overcoming of the developed canons and stereotypes, with refusal of constraining conventions and bans of the previous civilization. Third, the signifi cance, the exceptional inconsistency of what was happening in the art and reality of the beginning of the XX century, which was mainly determined by the action of the general antinomy of this period – the confrontation of the fi nal phase of the previous era and the initial phase of the modern era. And fourthly, the formation of trends of longterm action, much has determined in the way of life and artistic practice of the XX century, including unprecedented scale, severity and diversity of forms of collision of humanism with opposing forces. The analysis allows us to conclude that artistic memory signifi cantly enriches our knowledge of the world and man, and a complete reconstruction of the model of the existence of an era is possible only on the basis of synthesis of generalizations that have socio-historical and artistic pictures of the world. Keywords: musical art of Russia of the 1890s–1920s, final generalizations, reconstruction of the artistic picture of the world. DOI: 10.25791/musicology.1.2025.1410 Pp. 03-15.