Pseudo-Russian Style

From Moscowiki

In 1830s an eclectic style marched into Russian architecture "dethroning" Classical style. This new trend known as Pseudo-Russian style was orientated towards Early-Russian architecture, using its ornamental motives and compositional techniques. There were two main streams in Pseudo-Russian style. The first one, so called Russian-Byzantian style, appeared in 1840s combining features typical for Early-Russian and Byzantian architecture. It was officially supported by the government and Russian Orthodox Church as it embodied the idea of Russia being the main spiritual successor of Byzantium.

Architect Konstantine Ton did his best trying to design something as solemn and pompous as this theory. As a result Moscow is a proud owner of a gigantic Cathedral of Christ the Saviour (1839-83) and the Great Kremlin Palace (1837-49).

The second stream, known as the "democratic" version, was quite popular in 1870s. What was "democratic" in this style is an active usage of ornaments typical for Russian traditional embroideries and wood-carvings. First this style was applied in wooden houses ("Pogodinskaya izba", architect N. Nikitin), later flamboyant buildings of stone looking like palaces from Russian fairy-tales appeared as well (Moscow Duma, 1890-92, State Historical Museum, 1874-1882, Politechnical Museum, GUM).