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Mikhail F. Kazakov, 1733-1812, was
Bazhenov's close collaborator, particularly in the planning of the grandiose
Kremlin palace which Catherine decided not to build. Kazakov graduated from the
Moscow School of Architecture and remained faithful to the ancient Russian
capital. He was less imaginative than Bazhenov, but showed a stronger
inclination for the picturesque and realism in architecture as well as for the
less complex (and less gentle) forms of the Russian variation of classicism,
which he together with Bazshenov founded and spread through Russia.
One of Kazakov's first works was Peter's palace (Petrovskii Dvorets) built in
1775-1782 on the northern outskirts of Moscow, from which Russian monarchs
after Peter the Great, coming from Saint Petersburg, used to start their
coronation procession that would end in the Cathedral of the Assumption in the
Kremlin. The palace received its name not after Peter the Great but after the
nearby Monastery of Saint Peter, on whose land it was built. Its style is a
combination of neo-Gothic and traditional Russian features, borrowed from 17 Th
century church architecture, to which Kazakov added a dome with windows and
several dormers in front, a porch in front of the main entrance which has
pillars in the form of ancient Russian jugs, and a covered balcony on the top
of it. The palace is embellished with white-stone decorative elements applied
on the dark red brick walls. When the Kremlin was set afire, Napoleon moved to
this palace to live in, but had to leave soon when Moscow burned in 1812.
Presently the palace housed an Engineers' Academy.
Kazakov's most important work is the
Senate
Building, formerly the Palace of Justice in the Kremlin, which at present
houses the Council of Ministers and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. It was
built in 1776-1787, on the site of Prince Trubetskoy's palace. Its triangular
form was dictated by the available space, which Kazakov exploited with a
remarkable success. In his mature style he turned to more classical forms, as
seen from his successful construction of the Senate Building, which he crowned
with a dome thereby giving it some majesty. All three facades are simple, and
to a certain degree monotonous, with their long rows of windows and large
pilasters, but they are all fully completed. On the side that faces the Arsenal
Building, this uniformity is broken by the main entrance, which leads to the
interior court and the circular senate hall. Four Ionic columns, two on each
side, carry the pediment above the entrance. Russian architects often treated
all sides of a building with the same care and gave them a finished look. The
interior of the Senate Building is richly decorated, particularly the circular
hall, 88 feet high and 80 feet in diameter. Eighteen Corinthian columns carry
the cupola and divide its interior into the same number of bays, decorated with
base-reliefs depicting major events from the reign of Catherine II ( she is
often shown as Minerva, the patroness of all the arts), and the Russian tsars
and grand-dukes. At the inauguration Catherine was delighted with the new
building, and as a first gesture gave Kazakov her gloves for his wife. Later
she received from her a diamond ring and a considerable pension, in addition to
promotion to a higher rank. This beautiful hall, named after the empress,
served for ceremonies and meetings of the nobility of the Moscow province, but
it also accommodated after the revolution, several (Bolshevik) communist party
congresses, and continues to serve for ceremonies such as awarding high honors
and medals to communist leaders. There where Catherine's throne was once now
stands Lenin's bust. Sic transit gloria mundi!, before moving to Gorki Lenin
had his apartment on the third floor in the Senate building.
In 1774, army general Vasilii M. Dolgorukii commissioned Kazakov to build a
mansion for his receptions and festivities in Moscow. The two-story building
looks very modest from the outside, in sharp contrast with the huge and
magnificent hall inside, lined with Corinthian columns, which can accommodate
almost three thousand people, not to mention other, smaller halls and rooms
which surprise the visitor with their size. In 1785 the mansion was purchased
by the dvoriane of the Moscow province and became known as the Building of the
Noble Assembly, (Dom Blagorodnago Sobrania) and served as their private club
for their meetings, where they discussed their problems and privileges. Not
only Pushkin, Griboyedov, Lermontov, Turgeniev and Tolstoy frequented the club,
but also liberals such as Herzen. After the revolution most of the first
conferences and congresses took place in this building, attended by the new
communist nobility. It is here that top Soviet leaders receive their last
homage before being buried, and both the bodies of Lenin and Stalin lay in
state in the main hall. Before and after 1917 the hall has served often for
concert and ballet performances. As a matter of fact, the first symphony
concert in Moscow took place over a hundred years ago in this building. It now
belongs to the Trade Union, though only in name, and it is officially known as
Dom Soyuzov (The building of the trade unions), though it is popularly called
the hall of columns.
To protect the people who lived in the White Town (Belii Gorod), the name given
to the section of Moscow outside of the Kremlin, and the Kitai Gorod (middle
town taken from the Tatar language), from foreign invaders, during the reigns
of Fedor Ivanovich and Godunov, another fortified stone wall was built around
the entire area. (see Gudonov map) Moscow
continued to grow, and the wall became obsolete. A good part of it was
demolished during the reign of Elizabeth I. Catherine II ordered its complete
elimination, and turned the space where the wall had stood into new avenues.
Not knowing what to do with the bricks and stones of the remains of the old
wall, the governor of Moscow, Zakhar Grigorevich Chernishev, decided to build
himself a mansion. It was erected in 1782 and though it is not certain, the
design for it was ascribed to Kazakov. A few years later Chernishev sold the
mansion to the government, and it has since become the official residence of
Moscow governors. The residence has since been remodeled and enlarged several
times. After the revolution the residence became the city hall, and with the
increase in bureaucracy an annex was built behind it in the thirties; finally,
in 1945, it received another floor. So very little, if anything, is left from
Kazakov's time.
The Golitsin Hospital in Moscow is one of most successful of Kazakov's
achievements. He built this very large building in 1796-1801 for the Golitsin
family, which wanted to commemorate Prince Dimitri M. Golitsin by offering
Muscovites a modern hospital. Its classical features include an Ionic colonnade
and a dome under which there originally was a chapel with four smaller cupolas
on its sides. The hospital could be easily taken fro a contemporary Russian
countryside palace.
Starov, Bazhenov, and Kazakov not to speak of foreigners who continued to
journey to Saint Petersburg, and contribute even more to the change of styles,
dominated architectural trends in Russia during the last third of the 18th
century. As teachers or by means of the buildings they designed they kept
influencing younger generations of architects for at least three more decades.
From the moment Peter the Great introduced his reforms, which became mandatory
for everybody, it was clear that Russia would have to give up drawing
inspiration from her traditional sources, and turn toward Western Europe. It
was indeed surprising how quickly young Russian architects turned their backs
on their own creation, the Russian style, that it took centuries to form. There
are moments in life when foreign taste, or what is considered fashionable or
just simply practical, easily imposes itself over the traditional and sometimes
over the beautiful. Traditionalism and originality were sacrificed for the sake
of modernization and Europeanization. An imitation is seldom as valuable as the
original, and since Peter's time, Russian architecture has continued to copy
the West and, with only a few exception, to lag behind it. On the other hand,
Russians had the opportunity to see for themselves in their own country a
series of various European styles that followed one after the other, from
baroque to neo-Gothic and classic, often mixed with Russian ingredients.
Some Russian students who studied abroad must have heard about Palladio's
buildings, but many Russians learned about his style when N. A. Lvov,
1751-1803, translated Palladio's Architectura" into Russian. His influence
on several generations of Russian architects was tremendous, and Russians could
see for the first time beautiful Greek orders, curved colonnades that join the
main building to outbuildings, pavilions, rotundas, domes and porticos, ponds
and gardens - an ideal composition for the Russian countryside..With their
enormous space, the undisturbed tranquility of their landscape and a gift for
the picturesque, Russian architects produced many successful architectural
ensembles worthy of Palladian traditions. Kazakov particularly did much to give
Moscow her new classical appearance. There are many churches and buildings that
are ascribed to him, in Moscow and in the country, though sometimes not with
adequate proof. The important thing is that the style he launched was carried
on by many in and around Moscow.
After ceasing to be the capital, Moscow was forgotten for many years. It
regained considerable importance after the Charter of the Nobility of 1785 gave
the dvoriane many privileges without personal obligations towards the state.
Freed from their previous compulsory services, many dvoriane left Saint
Petersburg and built their new residences in Moscow or around it. Construction
activity redoubled after Napoleon's army was chased out of Moscow and lasted
almost until the abolition of serfdom. Rich merchants and landowners were quick
to copy the nobility and new palaces and mansions mushroomed everywhere. Their
size, beauty, inside luxury, etc. usually varied in accordance with the wealth
of the proprietor, but their style and set-up were basically the same. The best
spot was first chosen for the mansion, separating the inner complex from the
rest, was obligatory, forming the "Cour d'honeur," between the gate
and the mansion. The rich put colonnades around the "Cour" and had
outbuildings next to the gate, housing the servants and sometimes having guest
rooms, kitchen etc. Mansions very seldom had more than two stories. The first
floor was reserved for living room, library, dinning room, reception hall etc.,
and usually was the best furnished and decorated. Bedrooms were on the second
floor, and the guest-rooms if there was no comfortable space for them in the
outbuildings. The size of the garden, which could include pavilions, ponds,
fountains etc., depended again on the means of the landlord. The desire for
imitation was not without aesthetic abuses. Some local architects were not
qualified enough and to compensate for their professional shortcomings and
satisfy the cheap taste of some of their clients they indiscriminately used
columns, pilasters, domes, etc. Among some very impressive mansions there were
also many of the type that Gogol described in his "Dead Souls."
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