The rumor about "Holy Russia" spread very quickly, even before its final completion. And this caused a serious change in the artist's life.
A lot of people came to see his work. But one day a special guest appeared on his doorstep — a tall, beautiful girl dressed in a simple black dress. It was one of the class ladies of his daughter Olga, Ekaterina Petrovna Vasilyeva. They greeted each other, and in restrained words she expressed her desire to see the painting, which she had heard about from Countess Konovnitsina.
Nesterov took Ms. Vasilyeva to the studio and opened the canvas. For a long time she looked at the "Holy Russia" in silence. The guest liked the painting very much, and Mikhail liked the guest herself.