20 May. Diaghilev in a letter proposed to form a society which would prove 'that Russian art exists, that it is fresh, original and can bring much innovation to the history of art'. The letter was sent to Alexandre Benois, Leon Bakst, F. Botkin, Apollinarii Vasnetsov, Aleksandr Golovin, Konstantin Korovin, Evgenii Lansere, Isaak Levitan, Sergei Maliutin, Mikhail Nesterov, Vasilii Perepletchikov, Elena Polenova, Valentin Serov, Konstantin Somov, Maria Iakunchikova and others.