Russian Neoclassical Revival was a trend in Russian culture, most pronounced in architecture, that briefly replaced Eclecticism and Art Nouveau as the leading architectural style between the Revolution of 1905 and the outbreak of World War I, coexisting with the Silver Age of Russian Poetry. It is characterized by a merger of new technologies (steel frame and reinforced concrete) with a moderate application of classical orders and the legacy of the Russian Empire style of the first quarter of the 19th century.
The Neoclassical Revival school was most active in Saint Petersburg, and less active in Moscow and other cities. The style was a common choice for luxurious country estates, as well as upper-class apartment blocks and office buildings. However, it was practically non-existent in church and government architecture. Neoclassical architects born in the 1870s, who reached their peak activity in 1905–1914 (Ivan Fomin, Vladimir Shchuko, Ivan Zholtovsky), later became leading figures in the Stalinist architecture of the 1930s and shaped the Soviet architectural education system.
Origin of the style
Background
In early 20th century, Russian architecture (at least in Moscow)Brumfield, 1991, ch. 5, analyzes the difference in Moscow and Saint Petersburg architectural and social landscapes. was dominated by "diverse and protean"Brumfield, ch. 6 Style Moderne, a local adaptation of Art Nouveau. This style peaked in 1900–1904, and manifested itself in the denial of classical order, flowing curvilinear shapes, floral ornaments and expensive artwork. High costs and exterior novelty limited this style to upper-class mansions, retail stores and middle-class apartment blocks. Many upper-class clients, especially in Saint Petersburg, rejected Style Moderne and insisted on traditional, neoclassical designs fitting their image of old gold. Art Nouveau never reached the "universal" status: the Church relied on Russian Revival tradition, while the charities and the majority of homeowners used the economical "red brick" eclecticism. Muscovite Neo-Grec of the 1870s–1880s was nearly forgotten, with the sole exception of Roman Klein's Pushkin Museum (1898–1912).Sedov, 2001 Meanwhile, numerous Empire style cathedrals, public buildings and private mansions of the Alexandrine period that shaped central squares of Russian towns remained a nearly omnipresent, impressive statement of classicism, associated with the glorious age of the Napoleonic Wars and of Russian poetry.
In 1902, two years before Bloody Sunday, when Saint Petersburg was preparing to celebrate its bicentennial anniversary. Alexander Benois, a vocal anti-Modernist activist of the Mir Iskusstva group, defended the classical tradition of Saint Petersburg, rejecting both Art Nouveau and "official" Russian Revival, arguing that the classical city must return to its roots. In the same year, Evgeny Baumgarner specifically criticized Otto Wagner: "In leaning toward the utilitarian, he falls into an obvious absurdity. Proposing that the contemporary architect "come to terms" with the statement nothing that is not practical can be beautiful, he lowers the architectural art, praised with such feeling, to the level of an applied craft... the theory of Professor Wagner proposes aesthetic suicide. The human soul requires architectonic beauty just as human vision requires good illumination."Brumfield, 1991, ch. 2
Development
Practicing architects followed Benois; for example, in 1903 Ivan Fomin, a successful 30-year-old enthusiast of Art Nouveau, switched to purely Neoclassical, Palladian architecture and returned from Moscow to Saint Petersburg to practice neoclassicism on its own territory; his studies of early 19th-century architecture, culminating in a 1911 exhibition of historical architecture, were followed by a wide public interest in classical art in general.Brumfield, 1991, ch. 6, praises Fomin as "the architect responsible for reappraising the Russian Empire style" while Borisova and Sternik reduce his role to that of one of many. The conceptual statement of Neoclassicism – and the term itselfIn Russian tradition, Neoclassicism refers specifically to 20th-century art. The style of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, including the Empire style, is named simply Classicism. – were further developed in 1909 in Apollon magazine by Benois and Sergei Makovsky.
The new style took over specific niches, starting with nostalgic country estates and upper-class downtown apartment buildings. By 1914 it also became the preferred choice for schools and colleges. In Moscow, all new cinemas of the period were built in Neoclassical style, continuing the old theatrical tradition.Sedov, 2006 Neoclassicists celebrated victory: "Classical tendencies in architecture have replaced the sinuously agitated, 'temperamental', and riotously 'dashing' modernistic efforts of architects like Kekushev, as well as the simplified structures faced with brilliant walls of yellow brick of architects like Schechtel."Brumfield, 1991, ch. 6, cites a 1909 article by Lukomsky in Apollon. Note that by 1909 Kekushev had practically quit his professional career and disappeared from the public. This time, the concept shifted from preservationism toward shaping a new, wholesome art, opposed to all diverse styles of the 19th century. "There was a difference, but not a leap, and here lies the subtlety of understanding the problem of neoclassicism."Borisova, Sternik, p. 18
Denial of Art Nouveau
A common concept of Soviet art critics linked Neoclassical Revival to the social shock of the Russian Revolution of 1905; this concept, narrowed to architecture and refined further by W. C. Brumfield, treats Neoclassicism in the architecture of 1905–1914 as a professional reaction against Art Nouveau. Russian society, shaken up by the 1905 revolution "dismissed Art Nouveau as ephemera of fashion" and settled for moderation in architecture. By the end of hostilities, moderate Neoclassicism emerged as an ethically acceptable alternative to extravagance of the past. Prior to 1905, Saint Petersburg architects completed 30 buildings in Neoclassical Revival style (about 5% of extant Neoclassical buildings). Five years, 1905–1910, added 140 new buildings. By 1910, Saint Petersburg reached an equilibrium between Neoclassical Revival and Art Nouveau (in terms of new buildings launched and completed).Kirikov, p. 413 Ivan Fomin specifically praised the universal, easy-to-reproduce set of classical rules, consolidating the profession: "When the style was being formed, all the masters in the capital and the provinces worked toward the same end, not fearing to imitate one another. And in this is the guarantee of strength."
By 1914, Revivalists had clearly won, but their victory was not universal. A large share of intellectuals despised the Empire style as a symbol of the slavery and militarization of the Alexandrine period. Ilya Repin publicly condemned it as a lust for luxuries of "the filthy Arakcheyev period, and all the harshness of living suffered by millions, which are now free" ().Borisova, Sternik, p. 31, cites Repin's article in Novy Journal dlya vsekh (Новый журнал для всех), N 32, 1911.
Alternative to eclecticism
Contemporary domestic authors dismiss the concept outlined above as an oversimplification.Kirikov, p. 374; Borisova and Sternik, p. 16 Reaction against Art Nouveau did exist, but was only a secondary, tangential factor behind Neoclassical Revival. Statements by Benois in 1902 and 1909 targeted the ideology of eclecticism in general.Borisova, Sternik, pp. 15–16 Neoclassicism of the early 20th century extended far beyond denial of a rival style, pretending to create a wholesome realm of art in all its forms. This viewpoint is indirectly supported by the fact that there was no clear-cut boundary between two styles. Art Nouveau artists, starting with Otto Wagner and Gustav Klimt, relied on Greek heritage. Neoclassical architects followed the same Gesamtkunst approach to interior and exterior finishes, and relied on the work of the same craftsmen and factories. Architects (Fyodor Schechtel) and painters (Mstislav Dobuzhinsky) created pure examples of both styles. Despite the magazine critique, various forms of Art Nouveau persisted until the Russian Revolution of 1917, which halted all construction altogether.
Neoclassical projects in Saint Petersburg emerged when Art Nouveau was still in its infancy, years before the 1902 magazine campaign. The Russian Ethnographic Museum was established in 1900, the Petrovskaya Embankment in 1901, and the Public Library in 1896.Kirikov, pp. 371, 374
The importance of clients and their tastes, which is emphasized in the traditional conception, is also disputed. Architects were not simple contractors; many were also wealthy property developers, betting their own money (Roman Klein, Nikita Lazarev and Ernst Nirnsee). They were part of a wider movement in arts, led by writers and painters who, unlike architects, were not bound by investors. The artists themselves changed the tastes of general public.Borisova, Sternik, p. 81
Contemporaries clearly identified revival of the Empire style as a part of a larger trend seeking the way out of the apparently insoluble crisis of the fin de siècle; Art Nouveau and decadence in general were perceived as the least of threats. As Nikolai Berdyaev stated in 1910, "Modern age joins the ranks of Goethe ... a clear reaction against mounting catastrophes – the catastrophe of Nietzsche and his Übermensch, the catastrophe of Marx and his socialist judgement day, and the catastrophe of falling into abyss of decadence."Borisova, Sternik, p. 27, citing Berdyaev's article in Utro Rossii, February 27, 1910
Style defined
Reposession of simplicity
Depending on the function of the building, purity of the style varied from refined Palladian legacy in luxury mansions to superficial, shallow decorations of utilitarian apartment blocks. All these buildings share one feature: "Repossession of Simplicity. Geometry of basic shapes, clean surfaces... returned the integrity and monumentality that was lost in second half of 19th century" ("Обретение простоты... геометризация объемов, очищение плоскости возвращали архитектуре черты слитности, монументальности, утраченные во второй половине 19 века"Kirikov, p. 378).
Pure revival of the Empire style was limited to temporary exhibition projects and suburban and country mansions, where abundant land allowed low but wide symmetrical layouts. Rarely, as in the case of Vtorov's mansion, the same approach was reproduced in downtown residences or in public buildings (Museum of Ethnography in Saint Petersburg). Typical Saint Petersburg construction projects of that period already passed the 5-story mark, unheard of in early 19th century, and needed careful adaptation of Neoclassical spirit to the new scale. Early attempts at mechanical, superfluous attachment of columns and porticos to ordinary apartment blocks failed; by 1912 the problem was resolved, most notably by Vladimir Shchuko. His Markov Apartments suggested two ways of handling the scale: either by use of the giant order, with pilasters running the whole height of the building, or by adaptation of earlier Palladian motifs; both relied on expensive natural stone finishes and modern structural engineering. The result "combined classical elements in a monumental design that is neither historical nor modern. Shchuko developed a style appropriate for contemporary urban architecture, one that provided material evidence of the classical values."
Fragmentation of the movement