His main work on this theme, "Religious Procession in Kursk Governorate", was begun in 1880 in Moscow, and completed in 1883 in St. Petersburg, where the artist moved in September 1882.

[8][9] In the mid-late 1870s, Repin conceived the idea of creating a series of paintings on the theme of Narodism, a political movement of the Russian intelligentsia in the 1870s.

[13] Ilya Repin and Vladimir Stasov travelled to Europe in the second half of May of that year, visiting Berlin, Dresden, Munich, Paris, Madrid, Venice, and several cities in the Netherlands.

[16][17] Fifteen years later, in 1898, Repin reworked this version, making several changes to the figure of the young woman,[18] whose face was reminiscent of his daughter Nadia.

[16] In his 1948 article titled "New Pages of Repin's Creative Biography", art historian Ilya Zilberstein [ru] discussed the first version of They Did Not Expect Him.

Her revolutionary attire was strikingly similar to that of The Student [ru] in Nikolai Yaroshenko's painting, as both heroines wore plaid with a small cap on their heads.

[21] The model for the exile's mother is thus partly Vera Alexeievna, Repin's wife, and partly Varvara Komarova [ru], Stasov's daughter; that of the child, Sergei Kostytchev [ru], the son of a neighbour, who would later be a renowned biochemist, professor, and academician; that of the young girl, Vera Repina, the painter's eldest daughter; and that of the maid, an employee of the Repins.

Repin left only the characters who, in his opinion, were necessary for the psychological development of the theme he had chosen and for the "coherence of the scenic action" in the final version.

Pavel Tretyakov had decided not to buy the painting[27] after telling Repin that it had many qualities but also flaws; its subject did not interest him, but it seemed to him that it would touch the public.

He is an exile, most likely a member of the Narodnaya Volya, a Russian revolutionary political organisation founded in the nineteenth century, who has returned from a remote region of Russia.

Repin had to choose a head inclination position between the elevation of the hero and the lassitude of the martyr, and he eventually retained a questioning and uncertain expression, where there is also heroism and suffering.

Other details contribute to this, such as the little girl's posture with her unusually curved legs, and the sensitively painted furnishings of an apartment typical of a family of the intelligentsia at the time.

The mother rising from her armchair to meet her son is reminiscent of how scenes from the Gospels, such as the resurrection of Lazarus or the Last Supper at Emmaus, are depicted.

It is also similar to Alexander Ivanov's painting The Appearance of Christ Before the People,[32] and it establishes a link with the theme of guilt, the prodigal son's return.

These are portraits of democratic writers Nikolay Nekrasov and Taras Shevchenko, a Christ on Golgotha, a symbol of suffering and atonement, and a revolutionary intellectual.

It reflects our time without blushing or hypocrisy, and the public appreciated and loved it for that.The painting received a mixed reaction from painter and critic Alexandre Benois.

It is painted in full light on the motif, and its luminous colorism communicates a soft and clear lyricism that softens the drama it represents...

The eye can browse these messages, which are conveyed in traditional painting through the militant's peasant clothing, the tottering pose of the old lady, the expressions on the faces, and the mute participation of Nekrassov and Shevchenko.The artist and art critic Igor Grabar wrote that the paintings They Did Not Expect Him and Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan became "the highest points in Repin's career both in terms of the power of expression and pictorial power".