 Yet, while both of his spiritual forefathers employed traditional Russian folklore structures and motives as a template and, while being masters of the 'landscape poetry', could hardly be described as storytellers, Surikov's poems usually had plots and were full of drama, albeit of a simplistic brand, featuring only "strong", straightforward feelings, devoid of emotional undertones.Koltsov and Nikitin prospered at a time when the popularity of classic folklore in Russia reached its peak; Surikov's legacy could be seen as set against the background of its decline, when frivolous and vulgar motifs were debasing folk tradition, now more part of the new proto-industrial culture rather than patriarchal rural Russia.Surikov, with his gallery of lower class urban characters (tailors, manual labourers, homeless people, wanderers) is often regarded as a founder of what later would be termed ''.