Russian Revival

The Russian Revival style is the generic term for a number of different movements within Russian architecture (pseudo-Russian style, neo-Russian style, Russian-Byzantine style/Byzantine style (Russian: псевдорусский стиль, неорусский стиль, русско-византийский стиль)) that arose in second quarter of the 19th century and was an eclectic melding of pre-Peterine Russian architecture and elements of Byzantine architecture.

The Russian Revival style arose within the framework that the renewed interest in the national architecture, which evolved in Europe in the 19th century, and it is an interpretation and stylization of the Russian architectural heritage. Sometimes, Russian Revival style is often erroneously called Russian or Old-Russian architecture, but the majority of Revival architects did not directly reproduce the old architectural tradition. Being instead a skillful stylization, the Russian Revival style was consecutively combined with other, international styles, from the architectural romanticism of first half of the 19th century to the modern style.

Like the romantic revivals of Western Europe, the Russian revival was informed by a scholarly interest in the historic monuments of the nation. The historicism resonated with the popular nationalism and pan-Slavism of the period. The first illustrated account of Russian architecture was the project of Count Anatole Demidov and French draughtsman André Durand, the record of their 1839 tour of Russia was published in Paris in 1845, as Album du voyage pittoresque et archaéologique en Russie. Durand’s lithographs betray a foreigner’s sensitivity to the seeming otherness of Russian architecture, displaying some curiously distorted features, and while they are, on the whole, fairly accurate representations, the folios that he produced belong to the genre of travel literature rather than historical inquiry. The attempt to discern the chronology and development of Russia’s building begins in earnest with Ivan Snegirev and AA Martynov’s Russkaya starina v pamyatnikakh tserkovnago i grazhanskago zodchestva (Moscow, 1851). The state took an interest in the endeavour by sponsoring a series of folios published as Drevnosti rossiiskago gosudavstva (Moscow 1849-1853, 6 vol.) depicting antiquities and decorative works of art. By this time the Moscow Archaeological Society undertook research on the subject, formalising it as a field of study. A series of triennial conferences was instituted from 1869 to 1915, and its reports included studies of the architecture of the Kievian Rus' and early Moscow periods. Perhaps the Society’s most significant achievement was the publication of the Kommissii po sokhraneniiu drevnikh pamyatnikov in 6 volumes between 1907 and 1915. Also the St. Petersburg Academy of fine Arts commissioned research from VV Suslov in the form of his two multi-volume works Panyatniki drevnyago russkago zodchestva (1895–1901, 7 vol.) and Pamyatniki drevne-russkago iskusstva (1908–1912, 4 vol.). With the application of positivist historical principals the chronology of Russian architecture was firmly established by the time of the publication of that definitive 6-volume survey of Russian art Istoriya russkogo isskustva (1909–1917), edited by Igor Grabar, the appearance of the final volume was, however, interrupted by the revolution.

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