VLADIMIR PAVLOVICH KRANTZ What forms the essence of the Russian soul?  What is dear to every heart?  That particular warm feeling towards the wide expanse of harvest fields and the modest birch trees in early spring?  The lyrical, contemplative character, which seeks for the response in a simple unpretentious view of native nature? The lyrical landscape is the genre of painting that evokes reciprocal feeling in every Russian, especially if it is done in such brilliant manner as that of Vladimir Krantz.  The life itself made him an artist.  He was lucky not to be forced painting in an official formal manner, glorifying the socialist labor.  The artist simply polished…