TO THE ORIGINS OF “RUSSIAN STYLE” OF 19TH CENTURY ARCHITECTURE: BETWEEN EAST AND WEST

The article is dedicated to the earliest stage of revival of national Russian aesthetics what took place in course of general “historical” trend of XIX. One of the main questions was connected to the foreign origins of style of Russian medieval arts and architecture. There was no the common opinion on this subject between Russian art-historians and archeologists. However this dispute got especial pungency thanks to the book written by famous French architect, restorer and resercher Eugene Emanuel Viollet-le-Duc and published in Paris in 1877 (the Russian edition appeared a little later). French author tried to show what despite of having Byzantian source Russian art during the Middle Ages received strong Oriental infl uences — at fi rst from Persia and Caucasus, and afterwards from Middle Eastern countries and even from India. This theory has broken up Russian art-historians' community more evidently. Ones (e.g. Count S. Stroganov and Professor F. Buslaev) protested against the attempt “to push out Russia from Europe”, simultaneously others (e.g. V. Butovsky) were grateful to Viollet-le-Duc for his underlining of Russians' difference from Europeans and gave a respect to him.