Russian architecture

The Kremlin, for many years synonymous with Russia's government, stands above the Moskva River, surrounded by a wall 2.2 km/1.5 mi long. From left to right the buildings are: the Grand Kremlin Palace (built 1838-49), the 15th-century Cathedral of the Annunciation, the Tainitskaya Tower, the Archangel Cathedral (burial place of several tsars, including Ivan (IV) the Terrible), and the Ivan the Great Belltower, for many years the tallest building in Moscow.

Set in the heart of the Kremlin, the golden domes of the Cathedral of the Assumption (Uspenskii Sobor). The church, the most important of those in the Kremlin, was the venue for the coronation of rulers. Built in 1475-79 by the Italian architect Aristotele Fioravante, it is based on traditional Russian designs.

Red Square in the Moscow winter. The domes of St Basil's cathedral can be seen clearly in the centre background. St Basil's was built between 1555 and 1560 on the orders of Russia's Ivan the Terrible.

St Basil's Cathedral in the Red Square, Moscow. Constructed between 1555 and 1561, the cathedral was originally built to commemorate the capture of Kazan - the capital of the Tatar khanate of Kazan - by Ivan the Terrible, in 1552.

The Saviour Tower of the Kremlin, Moscow. The tower is 70 m/230 ft high, and is the most magnificent of the Kremlin towers. It was built in 1491 by the Italian architect Pietro Antonio Solari.

The architecture of Russia.

15th-18th centuries There was little architecture of note in Moscow until 1477, when Italian architects and craftsmen directed by Aristotile Fioravanti of Bologna were imported to rebuild the Cathedral of the Dormition. He decided to follow the Russian fashion, though utilizing Italian methods of building. Other Italians designed the Palace of Facets in Moscow, and rebuilt or remodelled the Kremlin in 1485-92, producing a picturesque medley. In the Cathedral of St Basil the Beatified 1555 and in most other churches of the 16th century the Russian plan, with numerous domes, continued to be followed.

When the new city of St Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great in 1703, the architects chiefly employed were the Russian Zemtsov; the Italians Michetti and Trezzini (who designed the Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul, 1714); the German Schadel; and the French architect Le Blond. The style of the layout and of the buildings followed Renaissance rather than Byzantine tradition; and under the Empress Elizabeth (ruled 1741-62) the leading architects in St Petersburg were Italians: Rastrelli (designer of the Winter Palace, 1754) and Rinaldi. Elizabeth's successor, Catherine the Great, likewise employed an Italian, Quarenghi, as well as the Russians Bazhenov, Kazakof, and Starov; and also a Scot, Charles Cameron, from 1779 onwards. His work for her included royal palaces and public buildings, many of which were destroyed in World War II.

19th century As in eastern Europe, there was a Greek Revival during the first quarter of the 19th century, and revived classicism persisted up to the middle of that century. The leading Russian architect of that period, Thon, designed the Church of the Annunciation at St Petersburg and the huge Cathedral of St Saviour at Moscow (1838-83, in Lombard-Byzantine style), both since destroyed. Zakharov's Admiralty in St Petersburg (1806) is the most distinguished surviving neoclassical building.

20th century Most of the architecture of the period 1850-1917 was undistinguished, often shoddy in execution, and a medley of all styles. At the time of the Revolution young architects were following the leaders of the suprematist and constructivist artistic movements, and the new Modern Architecture was at first given official encouragement, producing the advanced architectural concepts of the twenties (Lissitzky, Tatlin, Vesnin). In 1932 national classicism triumphed, a situation which lasted until the sixties. Notable buildings erected since the twenties include the Palace of the Soviets by Yofan, the Red Army Theatre by Alabyan, the Meyerhold Theatre by Schusev, the Lenin Library by Shuko, the Military Academy by Rudner and Munz, the Dynamo Aquatic Station by Morchan all in Moscow; the flats for War Veterans by Simonov in Leningrad; the Lenin Dam, by Vesnin; and the State Theatre at Novosibirsk, by Greeuberg.

Buildings since World War II vary in style from the stark and advanced functional architecture of Western Europe to a vague striving after a new and distinctive national style. Thus the offices of Pravda, by Golossov, have an excess of glass-surface most unsuited to the severe Russian climate; while the enormous Hotel Moscow, the State Theatre at Batum, and the Metro stations suffer from over-ornamentation, gaudy colouring, and various forms of decoration too lavishly applied.

Other important examples of Soviet architecture are the Nizami Museum at Baku and the Sanatoria at Sochi.