The tragedy of Russia's abandoned wooden churchesPublished on openDemocracy (http://www.opendemocracy.net)

The tragedy of Russia's abandoned wooden churches

The tragedy of Russia's abandoned wooden churches Alexander Mozhayev [1] 30 March 2012 Subjects:

Letters from the Russian provinces [2]Internal [3]Environment [4]Culture [5]

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Russia’s wooden architecture, especially its churches, was hardly apriority during Soviet times and now many of the unique old buildings are very close to total ruin. Anew book documents the tragedy in some of the most inaccessible parts of Russia’s north. Thenumbers are daunting, but a tiny ray of hope has appeared on the horizon, which could rescue oneor two of the near-ruins, says Alexander Mozhayev

Richard Davies is a professional architectural photographer, who has worked with Norman Foster andmany other well-known modern architects. His new book, Wooden Churches – Travelling in theRussian North, is, however, only indirectly to do with architectural photography. It actually readsmore like a photo-reportage, with the architectural monuments of the Russian countryside, both pastand present, as the main protagonists. The accompanying text develops this theme of reportage: thetravel diaries of Richard’s companion Matilda Moreton are interspersed with observations fromcultural commentators, writers and so on, both Russian and foreign.

All photos (c) Richard Davies

Richard's enthusiasm for Russian culture began in his childhood with a love for the music ofProkofiev. He began travelling in Russia quite some time ago, in the 1980s. The photographs in thisbook are more recent: they were taken between 2002 and 2010 and are of churches scatteredacross the extremely inaccessible extremes of Russia's northern provinces. According to Richard, itwas the drawings of the famous Russian artist Ivan Bilibin [8], who travelled the same routes a littlemore than a hundred years ago, that prompted him to embark on this adventure.

Wooden churches: some statistics

Over the last 100 years the landscapes of the Russian North have not changed for the better. The

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The tragedy of Russia's abandoned wooden churchesPublished on openDemocracy (http://www.opendemocracy.net)

majority of the churches have either decayed or been transported to open-air museums inArkhangelsk, Kostroma, Novgorod and other major cities. There are no precise statistics for churcheslost in this way, but one has only to look at the authoritative work Russkoye derevyannoyezodchestvo [Russian Wooden Architecture], published in 1942. Of the 70 churches presented in it,just 27 have escaped destruction, 2 are close to death and 7 have been turned into museums.Moreover, with rare exceptions, it is the most impressive churches that have perished.

‘There is nothing more Russian, closer to the people and more profound thanwooden architecture. In stone buildings some foreign influence can always bediscerned, be it Byzantine, Roman, Italian, Dutch, etc., but wooden architecturehas its origins in the very depths of the Russian land and culture.’

It is no secret that conserving historic buildings is, to put it mildly, not a priority for the Russian state.Even in the Moscow region extremely precious monuments are sinking into oblivion, from mediaevalcathedrals to grand, classical manors. But even against this background, the subject of Russia’swooden architecture is particularly dramatic.

This is because there is nothing more Russian, closer to the people and more profound than woodenarchitecture. In stone buildings some foreign influence can always be discerned, be it Byzantine,Roman, Italian, Dutch, etc., but wooden architecture has its origins in the very depths of the Russianland and culture. Until the 18th century, even in the cities only some of the churches, forts, andprincely palaces made of stone; everything else was wood. This was Russian architecture and peoplehad always lived in its lively, warm, creaky and timbered world which is in no way like ours. Now themost distinctive part of Russia's architectural heritage is rapidly disappearing. Over the course ofalmost one hundred years, magnificent churches have burnt down, rotted or been vandalised by thedozens, while houses and cottages without number are disappearing.

After 1917

Before the revolution, practically the only threat to ancient churches came from heavenly fire or thegross illiteracy of the local priests, but the situation changed after 1917 with the arrival of aggressivestate atheism. Under Lenin, the authorities made some attempt to distinguish between real culturalmonuments and ‘the bits and pieces of our accursed heritage’, but by the end of the 1920svandalism had become a Young Communist virtue, and even an area of creative endeavour.Mayakovsky, Yesenin and Mariengof, the best poets of their time, all managed to distinguishthemselves with their cynical, blasphemous pranks. Then, in the 1960s, came a second wave ofdestruction, broadly following the logic of ‘Gagarin has been to outer space and hasn't seen anyone:there’s no God, so religious art is a lie.’ Richard's book contains a particularly telling selection ofanti-religious cartoons and leaflets of those times.

‘The Russian mentality has developed to understand "old" as something that is outof date… Some years ago, the abbot of a monastery was asked why he hadknocked down the porch of his 300-year-old church, and he replied as honestly ashe could: "Because it was old!"’

However, to ascribe the problem solely to the upheavals of the 20th century does not tell the wholestory. When foreign delegations arrive in Moscow, they often ask: ‘Your city is nearly one thousandyears old, so why are there hardly any buildings built before the 17th century?’ The reply to thisquestion is that medieval Moscow was a wooden city. ‘So, please show us at least one medievalwooden dwelling.’ But there are none, not only in the capital, but throughout the whole of Russia!There’s a derelict cottage [9] in Uglich, which seems to have been built at the end of the 17th

century, and in Moscow there was until recently a log-house from the era of Peter the Great (twoyears ago it was put on the scrap heap). That’s all.

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The reasons for this are complex and manifold, but for some reason the Russian mentality hasdeveloped to understand ‘old’ as something that is out of date — from the Old Testament,unsanitary. Some years ago, the abbot of a monastery was asked why he had knocked down theporch of his 300-year-old church, and he replied as honestly as he could: ‘Because it was old!’

Richard has again reminded us of one of the most serious problems of our culture, a problem whichhas become quite literally immediate and urgent. The presentation of his book, held in Moscow'sArchitecture Museum at the beginning of March, developed into a rather lively discussion betweenhistorians, restorers, public figures and officials of the Church, who had come from various cities.One of the priests also said that collecting photographs of relics and blasphemous cartoons in onebook might not be the best of ideas. The juxtaposition is indeed a hard one, but you cannot ignorethe facts and these pages will remain very closely connected in Russian history.

The way forward

We are left with the traditional Russian question: what is to be done? When we talk about themisfortunes of wooden monuments, we are used to acknowledging the fact of a continuing tragedy,like climate change or other natural disasters: this year another churchyard burnt down, anothertented roof collapsed. The experts may have managed to rescue another church from the dyingvillage and put it into a conservation area, but no matter how many of these areas are created, thewasteland continues to expand around them.

There is, however, now a real reason to be optimistic. One of the major trends of public life in Russiaover the past two to three years has been an increase in volunteering: people have stopped waitingfor help from the state and started to take upon themselves the work and responsibility of arrangingtheir living space. This year has seen a bold volunteering experiment to save a wooden building. Agroup of Muscovites has organised at their own expense the restoration of a beautiful large wooden house [10], discovered in the woods on the edge of Kostroma region. Indeed, it was during the visitof some British expert restorers, organised by activists (of the ‘Russian Church’ association) that Iwas first introduced to Richard Davies.

Enthusiasts need support and, most particularly, information. On behalf of my colleagues, I shouldlike once more to thank Richard for his heroic work and to hope that his book will soon be translatedand published in Russia.

Wooden Churches - Travelling in the Russian North is available direct from the publisher [11] and at Amazon.co.uk [12]

View the discussion thread. [13] $(document).ready(function(){ $("div#contentgrid").removeClass('grid-8');$("div#contentgrid").addClass('grid-6'); }); About the author

Alexander Mozhayev is a graduate of the Moscow Architectural Institute, with a specialty inarchitectural restoration. He is activist of the Arkhnadzor Moscow preservationist society.

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