dr. Elena Opolovnik, Moscow RUS
THE WOODEN ARCHITECTURE OF RUSSIAN ARCTIC REGIONS
The Arctic regions of Russia are the vast spaces of land which are
spreading northwards of the 66th parallel, from the west to the east. They are the Northern facade of Russia, majestic and spiritual in the old days...
A beauty and a harmony, reigned in old Russian Arctic towns from the very beginning, were the direct reflections of all the best, which was concentrated in the wooden architecture of Russia. On the far lands, which are difficult of access even now, where the trees more thick than a finger, are not growing, the integral architectural ensembles were constructed. Beautifully crowned churches were dominating over a desert silence of the Arctic region. By the power of expression and their artistic qualities they
were not yielding to the churches built in the regions of Russia rich of wood. The eighteen-domed Cathedral of the Resurrection in Kola (1684), being a prototype for the famous twenty two-domed Cathedral of the Transfiguration at Kizhi (1714), is a bright example. The Cathedral in Kola was ruined by the English in 1854.
The history of Russian Arctic regions, their past and present, could be a mankind's "book of memory" by right. It has many wonderful and many terrible pages in the life of long-suffering Russia. And as it is known, one learns from one's mistakes. In case if they are not fatal, of course.