Art: A Revelation from Old Russia

RUSSIA has some of the world’s most beautiful and unusual churches, but they have mostly remained hidden from the eyes of foreigners. Many of them are outside the big cities to which travelers from abroad were restricted during the long period of Stalinism and the Iron Curtain. Now, however, with Moscow actively courting tourists and their hard currencies, the officially atheistic Communists are not only allowing access to the churches but have actually begun promoting them. The effort signals no change in Communism’s general hostility to religion. Few of the churches are used for worship. They are considered primarily cultural assets and historical links to Russia’s past.

That past is enjoying a revival. While Stalin used the vision of Mother Russia to inspire patriotism and encourage resistance during World War II, Russia’s present leaders have encouraged it to open up the way for a renewed appreciation of Russia’s past glories. During the summer, to the delight of Russian and foreign tourists alike, many of the old wooden churches and onion-domed cathedrals that dot the Soviet countryside were opened to the public. The result was an artistic revelation.

Idiom of Wood. Nikita Khrushchev had had little interest in restoring old monuments, declaring that the money would be better spent on workers’ flats. After his fall from power in 1965, a turnabout in policy occurred and the government began an intensive restoration drive. It formed the Society for the Protection of Historical and Artistic Monuments, an organization that today claims 2,000,000 members, to provide volunteers for restoration work. Last year the Ministry of Culture spent an estimated 5,000,000 rubles (about $5,500,000) on restoration.

Perhaps most startling to the unaccustomed Western eye is the extraordinary wooden architecture of the north. It is a land of forests, and its builders developed an unexcelled skill in fashioning wood. Confronted by the domes and cupolas imported from Byzantium, they adapted these masonry-based forms to an idiom of carpentry that produced a unique style, unmatchable and now un-copyable because it depends on a craftsmanship that no longer exists.

The chief shrine for this northern wooden architecture is the isle of Kizhi in Lake Onega, some 200 miles northeast of Leningrad. There, a dozen wooden buildings—to be joined eventually by 60 additional examples of northern architecture from nearby villages—faithfully re-create a 17th century Russian community, dominated by the 22-domed Church of the Transfiguration.

According to legend, the church was built by a local craftsman named Nestor in 1714. The master builder used not a single nail, but so precisely slotted the beams and joists that the structure has stood without reinforcement for 250 years. Upon the traditional octagonal shape, he laid an exuberance of cupolas and onion-shaped domes. The result was a wondrous aberration, a unique folk image of what a house of God should look like. The legend goes that, upon its completion, Nestor declared: “There never has been, is, or ever will be another church like this.” So saying, he flung his ax into Lake Onega. He was absolutely right.

As a craftsman, Nestor was not alone. Other builders in other villages had developed that community of skill that in certain ages and places produces an integrated style. An example is Kondopoga’s Church of the Assumption, some 30 miles west of Kizhi. Lonely, moving and quietly assertive, the church is a testament to an unknown craftsman’s sense of the shape of his landscape, the wideness of his lake, the hostility of the sky, and his craft as a master of wood.

Close Compendium. Nearer to Moscow, an inquiring tourist can now find and enjoy a compendium of Russia’s best architecture:

> Vladimir, a scenic three-hour journey by car from Moscow, is one of the most popular tourist sights. An important trading center on the Volga River routes in medieval times, Vladimir was named for the prince of Kiev who brought Christianity to Russia in A.D. 988. His emissaries, the story goes, were so taken by the beauty of the Byzantine liturgy and Constantinople’s churches that they urged the prince to adopt that mode of Christianity. Vladimir’s churches reflect the Russian efforts to carry on the Byzantine architectural tradition. The most spectacular is the Cathedral of the Assumption, whose gleaming gold cupola is visible for miles around.

The cathedral was built by a warrior-prince named Andrei Bogoliubsky in 1158. Prince Andrei, seeking to wrest power from the boyars and make Vladimir instead of Kiev the capital of Russia, intended that the cathedral would be not only a metropolitan see but the finest jewel in his kingdom. He lavished much of his treasury on it, importing European architects, stonemasons and carvers as well as Byzantine painters and craftsmen. Though Prince Andrei failed in his fight against the boyars, who succeeded in murdering him in 1174, his majestic monument stood, only to be destroyed by fire a few years later. In restoring it, his brother added four additional domes, creating the distinctive five-dome arrangement that was widely copied throughout Russia. In 1475, Ivan the Great found the white stone structure so beautiful that he instructed the Italian architect Fiorovanti to use it as the model for Moscow’s Cathedral of the Assumption in the Kremlin.

> Novgorod, one of the oldest Russian cities, was settled by Slavic tribes about A.D. 100. Over the centuries it was attacked by Swedes, Livonians, Lithuanians and Norwegians. Still, few other cities preserved so many ancient churches and frescoes. Its architecture, dating from the llth to 15th centuries, is simple and even severe, characterized by perpendicular lines, lack of ornament and few windows. In World War II, Novgorod was once again attacked by foreign forces, this time the Germans, whose destruction was perhaps greater than any before. The Soviet government commissioned Shchusev, the architect who designed the Lenin Mausoleum, to plan the city’s reconstruction, a program that has resulted in the restoration of many churches, including the lovely 14th century Church of the Savior of the Transfiguration. In its dome can be seen the divergence of the Russian from the Byzantine model. Finding Byzantium’s semispherical dome ill-suited to the heavy snow of the north, the church’s original architect replaced it with a bulbous cupola, which eventually developed into the characteristic onion shape. Russian architecture was on its way to finding its own style.

> Suzdal is one of the few remaining Russian towns to have preserved its original layout. Its kremlin (citadel), houses and surrounding fortress-monasteries have been restored to look just as they did in the 17th century. The beautiful 18th century Church of the Transfiguration was moved to its present site from another village. Over the next two or three years, the Soviet government plans to turn the Suzdal area into a new national tourist center, and will build an open-air museum and three new restaurants, as well as restore many other churches, peasant cottages and windmills.

> Rostov was one of the richest trading towns of medieval Russia, exchanging its honey, furs, wheat and beeswax for Scandinavian amber, Arab coins and Volga pottery. Today, it is a favorite stop for Sputnik International Youth Groups, who stay in the famed Red Chamber that once housed visiting czars, including Peter the Great. Its sprawling kremlin is, next to Moscow’s own, the most spectacular in Russia. Forty years abuilding, the Rostov Kremlin incorporates the Metropolitan’s residence, churches, service buildings and princely quarters all into one grand architectural ensemble of striking dimension and originality.

The particular charm and excitement of Russian architecture is its unity in diversity. The strangest flower of Byzantium, it represents a triumph of adaptation in bending an enormously sophisticated style to the harsh honesty of ordinary wood or the rugged realities of stone. It is unique. The outsider can be happy that the Soviet Union has finally come to treasure its Russian past.