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ETHNO-CONFESSIONAL MARKERS OF RUSSIAN IDENTITY IN THE 17TH–18TH-CENTURY SIBERIA: CHURCHES WITH BARREL ROOFING
ARCHAEOLOGY, ETHNOLOGY & ANTHROPOLOGY OF EURASIA Archaeology Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 43/3 (2015) 100–106 E-mail: [email protected]
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ETHNOLOGY A.Y. Mainicheva Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia E-mail: [email protected]
ETHNO-CONFESSIONAL MARKERS OF RUSSIAN IDENTITY IN THE 17TH–18TH-CENTURY SIBERIA: CHURCHES WITH BARREL ROOFING*
A comprehensive architectural, semiotic, and ethnographic analysis of 17th–18th-century Russian churches dedicated to the Mother of God and to the Holy Trinity in Siberia suggests that their architectural structure, speci¿cally, their barrel roo¿ng, became one of the ethno-confessional markers of Russian presence in the newly acquired territories, and a spiritual symbol of the Russian settlement in the region. Keywords: Russian Orthodox churches, ethnic identity, Siberia, Russian North, Russians, ethno-confessional marker, barrel roo¿ng. De¿ning the typical aspects of self-identity of different ethnic groups is closely associated with ethnic and cultural markers represented by a variety of cultural phenomena with ethnic overtones. Of special interest are the phenomena, which rather belong to the realm of reÀection, that is, to the interpretation of a particular cultural phenomenon as a symbolic sign. Self-identi¿cation is often based on interrelated ethnic and religious identities, and shows its specific character in each historical context. The notion of being “Russian” in the Russia of the 17th century implied a speci¿c combination of ethnic origin (Russian by birth), religious affiliation (an Orthodox Christian), and allegiance (a subject of the Russian Tsar). According to these criteria, even the representatives of various ethnic groups who had taken Russian nationality, and had converted to Orthodox *Supported by the Russian Science Foundation (Project No. 14-50-00036).
Christianity, were recognized as Russians. The term “Russian” will be used in the article with this meaning. Religious buildings, which constitute symbolic foci structuring human-made and natural spaces, play an important role in manifesting religious af¿liation. One type of mandatory structure in the towns founded by the Russians on the newly acquired territories in the initial stage of settlement of Siberia was Orthodox chapels and churches, which became the status marker for the identity of Russians as subjects of the Russian State, united by the common confession of Orthodox Christianity. The type of church with the central part or the actual space of the church (katholikon) covered by a special architectural form of a “barrel”, known both from ecclesiastical and civic architecture, stands out from various types of churches built in the region in the 17th–18th centuries. This double-sided roof has smooth curved outlines converging at the ridge at a pointed angle. The “barrel” roo¿ng received especially wide distribution as the top
Copyright © 2015, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved doi:10.1016/j.aeae.2015.11.010
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of the altar part in the wooden tented churches and in some of the cellular churches (churches consisting of one or several rectangular logworks), which indicates its essential importance from the symbolic and semantic point of view. This has triggered the study of a church buildings with barrel roo¿ng, relatively few in number, but undoubtedly very important for the Russian culture. It should also be mentioned that cellular churches belong to the earliest type of Orthodox church in Russia. It is known that wooden cellular churches were built in the late 17th century in the towns of the Middle Angara region (particularly in Ilimsk), including the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God (1679) and the Church of the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple (1673, according to other sources—1693), both with barrel roo¿ng (Kalinina, 2000: 257–258) (Fig. 1). According to the data of the Chorographic Drawing Book by S. Remezov from 1701 (Ibid.: 206), a wooden cellular Church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, which is also likely to have had a barrel roo¿ng if the illustration may be treated with con¿dence, was located in Bratsk. First, it is notable that all three churches were dedicated to the Mother of God. In order to understand how typical the emergence of such beautiful and original church buildings was, we need to address the symbolic meaning of both the dedications of the churches and their architectural forms. Since olden times, in the Orthodox consciousness Rus / Russia has been the “home of the Most-Holy Mother of God” and the country marked by her patronage. According to the tradition, the Mother of God repeatedly came to the rescue in fateful moments of Russian history, and the visitations were marked by her miraculous appearances, and icons that work wonders. The Vladimir Icon several times saved Moscow from the Tatar invasions; the Donskaya Icon played a major role in the historic Battle of Kulikovo; the Kazan Icon was the protectress of the Russian army in 1612, when the Polish invaders were cast out. In the 12th century, Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky introduced the Feast of the Protection of the Most-Holy Mother of God into the Russian Church Calendar, of¿cially marking the idea of patronage of the Mother of God over the Russian land (Agapkina, 2009). The crucial role of the veneration of the Virgin in the Moscow State was described by M.B. Plyukhanova in detail, with numerous references to literary sources and chronicles (Plyukhanova, 1995: 23–62). The Eastern Christian tradition knows over 700 types of iconographic representations of the Mother of God (Uspensky, 2007: 67). Art historians who studied Old Russian icon painting noted that the image of the Mother of God was close to the image of the Savior in terms of its meaning and the place that it took in people’s consciousness and spiritual life (Barskaya, 1993: 30). The role of the Mother of God as a protectress and intercessor before God was recurrently emphasized in hagiography and liturgical poetry (hymnography) as well as in spiritual poetry, such
Fig. 1. The Church of the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple in Ilimsk. Photo from the early 20th century.
as the apocryphal “Descent of the Virgin into Hell”, which emerged in the Byzantine Empire and became widespread in Old Rus. In its Russian version, Maria is horri¿ed by the view of the sinners being tormented in Hell; she mourns over them and asks God to relieve them from suffering (Mainicheva, 2000: 35–36). In one of the Marian Stichera of the Orthodox divine service, the Mother of God is called “Joy of all who sorrow, and intercessor for the offended, feeder of the hungry, consolation of travelers, harbor of the storm-tossed, visitation of the sick, protection and intercessor for the in¿rm, staff of the old age”. The “Jerusalem Scroll” of the 17th century says that every person has three mothers: “The ¿rst mother is the MostHoly Mother of God, / the second mother is the moist earth / the third mother is the one who has the sorrow of childbirth. / If the Most-Holy Mother of God / does not give Her help, / Nothing can be born live on earth: / Neither animals nor birds / Nor it is possible for the humans to be. / And if the Most-Holy Mother of God / does give Her help, / Every creature can be born live on earth: / Animals and birds, and the humans can be…” (Fedotov, 1991: 32). The extensive notes of Archdeacon Paul of Aleppo, who traveled to Russia with his father, Patriarch Macarius, in the middle of the 17th century, provide good illustration of the attitude of the Russians towards the Mother of God. Paul repeatedly mentioned that the inhabitants of Russian towns, “when the endearing name of the Mother of God is pronounced... beat their heads against the ground, kneeling and making bows due to their love of the endearing name of the Virgin”, “they make kneeling and prostrations, especially when they hear ‘It Is Truly Meet’ or when the name of the Mother of God
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is mentioned” (Pavel Aleppsky, 1897: 109, 163). Paul of Aleppo also noted that “above the gates of towns, castles, and forti¿cations there is invariably an icon of the Lady on the inside and the icon of the Lord on the outside...” (Ibid.: 109). This tradition also persisted in Siberia: the icon of Our Savior Not Made-By-Hands hung above the gates in the tower of Yenisei Ostrog of the 17th century, “and the icon of the Mother of God of the Sign hung on the other side. Thus, those who would enter or exit the Ostrog had to honor the Lord and His Most-Pure Mother. In this way Yeniseisk was protected by the Lord and the Mother of God” (Gennady Fast, 1994: 12). It is worth recalling that the first stone church of Old Rus, built by Prince Vladimir in Kiev, the capital of Rus at the time, and called “the Church of the Tithe” was dedicated to the Mother of God and her Dormition. In Moscow, which later became the capital of Rus, four out of nearly ten churches in the territory of Kremlin were dedicated to the Mother of God: the Church of the Deposition of the Robe of the Most-Holy Mother of God and the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God “na Senyakh” as well as Annunciation and Dormition Cathedrals bear protective symbolism and encompass the essential stages in the wonderful life of the Mother of God from her birth to her repose. The architecture of these stone churches is triumphant and majestic; one of its main structural techniques is covering the main space with gables, which in wooden architecture have acquired the form of barrel roo¿ng. Materials of diocesan reference books published in the early 20th century also speak for the popularity and signi¿cance of revering the Mother of God in Russia. Thus, the materials from Siberia show that out of 625 altars in the Tobolsk Diocese, 34 was dedicated to the Protection of the Most-Holy Mother of God, 17—to the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, 14—to the Dormition of the Mother of God, 12—to the Icon of the Mother of God of the Sign, 11—to the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple, and 11—to the Nativity of the Mother of God. One church, built in the 17th century and still extant in the early 20th century, had the altar in the name of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. In the 19th century, there appeared new dedications, to the Icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow” (six), to the Icon of the Mother of God “Quick Listening” (two), and in the 20th century— to the Icon of the Mother of God “Soothe My Sorrows”. Thus, over a hundred altars were dedicated to the Mother of God, which amounted to about 1/6 of all consecrations (calculated according to (Spravochnaya kniga..., 1913)). The best decorated churches in large Siberian towns of the 18th–19th centuries were dedicated to the Mother of God and became the main buildings structuring the urban space. These include the Church of the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple (1743) in Tobolsk (Ibid.: 6), the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother
of God (1834–1845) in Kurgan (Ibid.: 76), the Church of the Protection (1771) in Turinsk (Ibid.: 98), as well as two-story Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God (1845–1861) (Kratkoye opisaniye..., 1916: 5–7), the Church of the Protection (1784–1795), and the Church of the Annunciation (1795–1831), built on the place of the Church of Protection in the middle of the 17th century, in Krasnoyarsk (Ibid.: 12–13). In addition to the altars in the name of Ascension, St George, and Trans¿guration, twostory Church of the Ascension (1789) in Tyumen had the altar consecrated in the name of the Nativity of the Virgin (Spravochnaya kniga..., 1913: 163). The Cathedral of the Resurrection (the “old” Cathedral) (1759–1773) — ¿rst stone building in Krasnoyarsk, among other altars had the altar in the name of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God (Kratkoye opisaniye..., 1916: 10–11). The mere fact that these churches were built of stone speaks of their high status. Although the architecture of the churches, particularly those where the main altar was dedicated to the Mother of God, shows the use of gables, none of the churches had barrel roo¿ng over the main space, typically used only in wooden architecture. Northern Russian tradition dominated in Siberian architecture at the initial stage of settlement in new territories (Sibir..., 2014: 5), and it makes good sense to turn to the sites of the Russian North in the search for barrel roo¿ng in wooden ecclesiastical buildings. Some churches are well known, since they have been studied by the restoration architects, and information about them is published (Zabello, Ivanov, Maksimov, 1942: 80, 86). Such sites include the Church of the Holy Trinity at the Elgomsky churchyard in Karelia, built in 1714 (Fig. 2). This impressive wooden church of the cellular type has a tripartite structure, consisting of refectory, katholikon, and altar. The refectory has a roof “on two sides”; the katholikon and the altar are covered by barrel roo¿ng along the axis of the structure. The barrel of the katholikon is crowned by an impressive cupola with a powerful drum. A special feature of the altar area is its two-partite structure. The chapel in the village of Nizhniye Markomusy (Arkhangelsk Region) has a logwork with a remarkable widened top (poval), surrounded by an open gallery on the northern, southern, and western sides. To the west, there is a porch with the small superstructure of the belfry. The chapel is crowned by a graceful cupola on a powerful barrel roo¿ng (Fig. 3). L.G. Shapovalova has managed to locate almost all Northern Russian wooden church buildings with barrel roo¿ng, even those, which are little known in our time (2006). One of them is a two-story Church of the Annunciation (1719) in the village of Pustynka located in the middle reaches of the Onega River. The church marked the beginning of a portage of many miles to the Emtsa River, which connects the Onega and the Dvina Rivers. Barrel roo¿ng covers the entire central part of the church and is located along the east-west axis. The
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Fig. 3. The chapel in the village of Nizhniye Markomusy in Plesetsk District of Arkhangelsk Region. View from the northwest.
Fig. 2. The Church of the Holy Trinity (1714) at the Elgomsky churchyard in Karelia.
Siberian parallels are represented by the Ilimsk Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and possibly the Church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God in Bratsk (Fig. 4). Currently, the Ilimsk church is a part of the Architectural and Ethnographic Museum “Taltsy” in the outskirts of Irkutsk (Fig. 5, 1). Thus, Shapovalova is wrong in claiming that the Church of the Annunciation was the only church with barrel roo¿ng preserved in Russia. It is also possible that, in its form, the Church of the Kazan Icon is a direct replica of the chapel from the village of Nizhniye Markomusy (Fig. 5, 2). The Shapovalova’s list also mentions the Church of St John the Baptist (late 17th–early 18th century) at the Pochozersky churchyard on Kenozero, the Church of the Annunciation (1639) in Troitskaya Volost on the Dvina River, the Church of the Trans¿guration (1690) at the Olkhovsky churchyard, the church with the unknown dedication (¿rst half of the 18th century) in the Spaso-Ozersky Hermitage in Kargopol Uyezd of Olonets Guberniya, and the winterized Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God (after 1673) in Kirillo-Chelmogorsky Monastery in Kargopol. The church structures were also built with barrels located across the main axis along a north-south direction; for example, the Church of the Dormition (1691) in the village of Cherevkovo (formerly, Solvychegodsk Uyezd of Vologda Guberniya, presently, Krasnoborsky District
Fig. 4. The Church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God in Bratsk. Reconstruction by A.Y. Mainicheva and A.N. Kulakov.
of Arkhangelsk Region). The church has three main parts; barrels cover the altar and a small quadrangular frame rises above the katholikon. The barrel roo¿ng over the Ilimsk Church of the Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple is also located along the north-south axis (Fig. 1). Note that the churches of the Russian North with barrel roo¿ng in most cases were dedicated to the Mother of God. This is consistent with Siberian materials, according
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Fig. 5. The Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in the Architectural and Ethnographic Museum “Taltsy” (1) and its graphic reconstruction (2). Photograph and graphic reconstruction by A.Y. Mainicheva.
to which the majority of churches of this type were also dedicated to the Mother of God. According to its semantics of form and iconography, the dedication of the church at the Elgomsky churchyard to the Holy Trinity naturally ¿ts the above list of altars. The symbolism of the roo¿ng in the form of the barrel, imitating the form of the onion dome (Kurilov, 1989: 87–90; Mainicheva, 2000: 32) is associated with the basic doctrine of Christianity—the idea of the Triune God, which is one of the most complex and abstract doctrines of Christianity. According to the Eastern Christian iconographic tradition, it was customary to depict three golden stars (the symbol of virginity and of the Holy Trinity) on the robe of the Virgin. In popular Orthodoxy, the Holy Trinity was often linked to the Mother of God, sometimes even acting as her epithet, which gave both notions common ground. In this cultural context, the forms of churches with barrel roo¿ng for a good reason correspond to the dedication of their altars to the Mother of God or the Holy Trinity. Moreover, the analysis of Northern Russian churches from the 16th–early 18th centuries with different types of structural forms shows that the churches dedicated to the Mother of God do have some parts of barrel roo¿ng (except for the altar part); although there are some examples of using barrel roo¿ng in churches with other dedications, depending on the time and geographical region of the structure. For example, in the Church of the Dormition (1674) in the village of Varzuga, the arms of the central square of cross-shaped logwork are covered with tiers of barrels, while logwork additions in the Church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God (1642) in the village of Belaya Sluda have barrel roo¿ng. The Church
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of the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple with four logwork additions (1587) in the village of Sura and the Church of the Mother of God (1726) in the village of Zaostrovie have double barrels, which create a transition to the central octagonal frame covered by tented roof. This list may be continued. The locations of the churches with barrel roofing over the central part are concentrated in the Kargopol area, in the basin of the upper and middle Onega. Many of the ¿rst inhabitants of the Eastern Siberian territories left the European part of Russia exactly from Kargopol, arriving at their new settlement territories via Yeniseisk (Brodnikov, 1994: 9–43). Thus, we may speak not only of the emergence of an original architectural school in Kargopol area in the second half of the 17th century, but also of its impact on Siberian church buildings. However, we need to clarify that the expansion area of churches with barrel roo¿ng in the Middle Angara, just as in the Russian North, is small. Since there are no data on the construction of such churches in other regions, these may be considered to be a de¿nite ethnic and cultural marker of the people originating from the Russian North. It is possible that one or several related carpentry teams worked in the Kargopol area and built churches in Kirill Monastery, at Olkhovsky and Elgomsky churchyards, in the Yamets Hermitage and Pochozero, and the artisans were later transferred to Siberia to build churches in Ilimsk and Bratsk. Unfortunately, documentary evidence of this has not been preserved. However, there are reasons to believe that the choice of stylistic features for the churches may have been related to the preferences
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of the head of the diocese. As we know, the Diocese of Tobolsk and Siberia was established in 1620 by its separation from the Vologda Diocese (Shcheglov, 1993: 63). Prior to the reforms of Peter I, which subsequently led to the placement of people from Ukrainian territories on the highest diocesan positions, Siberian Metropolitans and Archbishops were natives of the Russian North. In 1668, the Diocese of Tobolsk and Siberia received the rank of metropolitan. Its first Metropolitans were Cornilius (1664–1678) and Paul (1678–1691) (Ibid.: 87). Considering the time of construction of the churches in Ilimsk and Bratsk, we may assume that one of them had a direct inÀuence on the choice of form of the church buildings. Without the blessing of the high-ranking clergy, the churches would not have been consecrated. The rejection of building projects for churches with barrel roo¿ng was not likely associated with their structural complexity, since owing to the structure of the barrel, its use made the whole construction cheaper and simpler. Undoubtedly, the construction of such churches required skill and knowledge of special carpentry techniques, but the construction of any kind of church is not a simple process. In addition, most altar parts of church buildings were covered with barrel roo¿ng; curved gables were also used in wooden architecture. Therefore, the carpenters who took over the construction of a church had to possess the necessary skills to construct barrel roo¿ng. Using rafter roo¿ng structures instead of nailless (samtsovaya) roo¿ng, typical for cellular churches with sloping roofs, solved a number of problems in aligning roof elements in their relationship with the walls. Barrels of churches were often covered with shingles: specially hewn, figured wooden plates. In the 17th century, shingles were one of the most common structural elements. A shingle is of small size and is easy to produce, since cheap and easily carved aspen was used for its manufacture. Thus, it follows from the of¿cial contracting records of the 17th century that “peasants had to hew the shingles (notably, not the skilled carpenters but unskilled peasants — A.M.) for roofs. To do this, narrow aspen boards were cut into short planks, which carpenters finished on their own, depending on the location: “the headman’s (starosta) and peasants’ work with timber, planks, and shingles should not be put on hold...” (Milchik, Ushakov, 1981: 41). By contrast, long logs, and planks needed for sloped roofs, were always a problem. For example, if the porch and refectory were connected into a single unit, the longitudinal walls required logs with a length of 12–13 m (Ibid.: 49), which were very bulky and heavy to lift onto the logwork, and it was very dif¿cult to produce planks from them. In the process of their placement on barrel roo¿ng, shingles formed a kind of repetitive ternary element (Fig. 6) providing symbolic correlation with the
general context of religious semantics, associated with the idea of the Holy Trinity (see (Mainicheva, 2015)). It is signi¿cant that, according to the contracting records of the Church of the Annunciation in Troitsky Volost, the originally conceived roo¿ng of the church, with a sloped roof “with two ridges” (they were started, but could not be ¿nished because of the structural problems) was replaced by ogee roo¿ng, “to hurl elevation together as a barrel”. All the necessary details were added: the barrel “...should be made along the entire church to the east”, “…to expand the drums, and the cupolas, and the crosses from that barrel and from the sides”, in other words, to set the domes on the slopes of the barrel (Ibid.: 47–48). “Simple” sloped roofs from the modern point of view were replaced by “sophisticated” barreled structures, not so much for the beauty of the building, but for convenience and advantage of operation. The roof of the church had to be signi¿cantly higher than the one originally conceived, “...and to make the height of the barrel… ¿ve sazhens to the top”. However, it was permitted to make it even higher or lower by half a sazhen, as “it would ¿t...” (Ibid.: 48). For this work, the headman and the peasants promised to pay a ruble to the carpenter “in addition to the previous sum agreed”. The record was made on September 16, 1638, and only in ten days the carpenter “made the upper part into a barrel” (Ibid.: 49). High speed testi¿es to a well-mastered construction technology, and the difference in the payment between the logwork constructions and barreled constructions was small: only one ruble was paid for introducing the changes into the previously agreed design. Thus, it appears that the barrel had a number of advantages and did not present any ¿nancial or structural problems. The chronological limit of the period when churches with barrel roo¿ng were built in Siberia and the Russian North (late 17th–early 18th century) is primarily associated with changes in the ecclesiastical structure,
Fig. 6. Barrel roo¿ng covered with shingles. Photograph by A.Y. Mainicheva.
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paving the way for many western inÀuences to penetrate into Russian architecture. Changing priorities, both symbolic and esthetic, led to the emergence of other types of church, including churches designed by professional architects following new trends, as opposed to the old traditions of the church style. Similar processes occurred in icon-painting with the influx of iconographies customary to Western European painting (Prokhorova, 2011). The importance of the veneration of the Virgin was not lost, and remained a signi¿cant ethno-confessional marker of the Russians, but its material embodiment in symbolic form underwent significant transformation. Thus, barrel roo¿ng over the central part of the church receded into the past. In addition to the regulatory activities of the government in religious life, a signi¿cant role was played by migration processes resulting in the inÀux of migrants from different regions of the Russian State, and not only from the Northern Russia, to Siberia, thereby creating a polymorphic intellectual and cultural environment saturated with various symbolic and semiotic structures. For the churches with barrel roo¿ng, time and territory for expansion were limited by the historical and genetic features of their emergence, and the narrowing of the meanings of their forms to a regional or even local ones; so they started to be perceived as artifacts of a special architectural school, employing its favorite construction techniques, structural elements and details. Speci¿c ethno-confessional markers naturally appear in a semantically rich architectural space of the settlement, since it expresses the ideas of the community in various ways by correlating architectural forms and their content (visual, functional, ideological, etc.). The churches were the most beautiful and signi¿cant buildings in Siberian towns in the 17th–18th centuries. The churches were something to be proud of, something that strengthened spirituality; they were the sign of the Russian presence in new lands. It is not surprising that assignments for the construction of churches often contained the formula, “as the measure and beauty suggest”. Veneration of the Mother of God found its material expression in icon-painting and in the construction of numerous churches, hierarchically signi¿cant in the spaces of Russian settlements. Veneration of the Mother of God was also an important marker of ethnic and religious identity. In the 17th–18th centuries, churches with barrel roo¿ng became such a material expression. References Agapkina T.A. 2009 Pokrov. In Slavyanskiye drevnosti: Etnolingvisticheskii slovar, vol. 4. Moscow: Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya, pp. 127–128. Barskaya N.A. 1993 Syuzhety i obrazy drevnerusskoi zhivopisi. Moscow: Prosveshcheniye.
Brodnikov A. 1994 Eniseiskii ostrog: Eniseisk v XVII veke: Ocherki iz istorii goroda i uyezda. Krasnoyarsk: Eniseiskii blagovest. Fedotov G.P. 1991 Stikhi dukhovnye: Russkaya narodnaya vera po dukhovnym stikham. Moscow: Progress, Gnozis. Gennady Fast. Protopriest. 1994 Eniseisk pravoslavnyi. Krasnoyarsk: Eniseiskii blagovest. Kalinina I.V. 2000 Pravoslavnye khramy Irkutskoi eparkhii XVII – nachala XX veka. Moscow: Galart. Kratkoye opisaniye prikhodov Eniseiskoi Eparkhii. 1916 Krasnoyarsk: Izd. Eniseisk. tserkovno-istoriko-arkheol. obshchestva. Kurilov V.N. 1989 Iz istorii shatrovogo zodchestva v Sibiri XVII v. In Pamyatniki byta i khozyaistvennoye osvoyeniye Sibiri. Novosibirsk: Nauka, pp. 87–94. Mainicheva A.Y. 2000 Derevyannye tserkvi Sibiri XVII veka: Formy, simvoly, obrazy. Novosibirsk: Izd. IAE SO RAN. Mainicheva A.Y. 2015 “As the measure and beauty suggest”: Traditional principles of geometry in Russian orthodox churches. Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia, vol. 43 (1): 135–143. Milchik M.I., Ushakov Y.S. 1981 Derevyannaya arkhitektura Russkogo Severa. Leningrad: Stroiizdat. Pavel Aleppsky. 1897 Puteshestviye antiokhiiskogo patriarkha Makariya v Rossiyu v polovine XVII veka. Iss. 2: Ot Dnestra do Moskvy. Moscow: (Universitet. tip.). Plyukhanova M.B. 1995 Syuzhety i simvoly Moskovskogo tsarstva. St. Petersburg: Akropol. Prokhorova T.V. 2011 Sibirskiye ikony Bogomateri Mlekopitatelnitsy. Mir nauki, kultury, obrazovaniya, No. 2 (27): 18. Shapovalova L.G. 2006 Kargopolskiye khramy s bochechnym zaversheniyem. In Istoriko-kulturnoye naslediye Russkogo Severa: Problemy izucheniya, sokhraneniya i ispolzovaniya: Materialy IX nauchnoi konferentsii v Kargopole. Kargopol: pp. 204–213. Shcheglov I.V. 1993 Khronologicheskii perechen vazhneishikh dannykh iz istorii Sibiri: 1032–1882 gg. Surgut: Severnyi dom. Sibir i Russkii Sever: Problemy migratsii i etnokulturnykh vzaimodeistvii (XVII – nachalo XXI veka). 2014 E.F. Fursova, A.B. Permilovskaya, A.V. Chernykh et al. (eds.). Novosibirsk: Izd. IAE SO RAN. Spravochnaya kniga Tobolskoi eparkhii. 1913 Tobolsk: Tobol. eparkh. bratstvo sv. velikomuchenika Dmitriya Solunskogo. Uspensky L.A. 2007 Bogosloviye ikony Pravoslavnoi Tserkvi. Moscow: Dar. Zabello S., Ivanov V., Maksimov P. 1942 Russkoye derevyannoye zodchestvo. Moscow: Gosudarstvennoye arkhitekturnoye izdatelstvo Akademii arkhitektury SSSR. Received February 26, 2015.
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ETHNOLOGY A.Y. Mainicheva Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia E-mail: [email protected]
ETHNO-CONFESSIONAL MARKERS OF RUSSIAN IDENTITY IN THE 17TH–18TH-CENTURY SIBERIA: CHURCHES WITH BARREL ROOFING*
A comprehensive architectural, semiotic, and ethnographic analysis of 17th–18th-century Russian churches dedicated to the Mother of God and to the Holy Trinity in Siberia suggests that their architectural structure, speci¿cally, their barrel roo¿ng, became one of the ethno-confessional markers of Russian presence in the newly acquired territories, and a spiritual symbol of the Russian settlement in the region. Keywords: Russian Orthodox churches, ethnic identity, Siberia, Russian North, Russians, ethno-confessional marker, barrel roo¿ng. De¿ning the typical aspects of self-identity of different ethnic groups is closely associated with ethnic and cultural markers represented by a variety of cultural phenomena with ethnic overtones. Of special interest are the phenomena, which rather belong to the realm of reÀection, that is, to the interpretation of a particular cultural phenomenon as a symbolic sign. Self-identi¿cation is often based on interrelated ethnic and religious identities, and shows its specific character in each historical context. The notion of being “Russian” in the Russia of the 17th century implied a speci¿c combination of ethnic origin (Russian by birth), religious affiliation (an Orthodox Christian), and allegiance (a subject of the Russian Tsar). According to these criteria, even the representatives of various ethnic groups who had taken Russian nationality, and had converted to Orthodox *Supported by the Russian Science Foundation (Project No. 14-50-00036).
Christianity, were recognized as Russians. The term “Russian” will be used in the article with this meaning. Religious buildings, which constitute symbolic foci structuring human-made and natural spaces, play an important role in manifesting religious af¿liation. One type of mandatory structure in the towns founded by the Russians on the newly acquired territories in the initial stage of settlement of Siberia was Orthodox chapels and churches, which became the status marker for the identity of Russians as subjects of the Russian State, united by the common confession of Orthodox Christianity. The type of church with the central part or the actual space of the church (katholikon) covered by a special architectural form of a “barrel”, known both from ecclesiastical and civic architecture, stands out from various types of churches built in the region in the 17th–18th centuries. This double-sided roof has smooth curved outlines converging at the ridge at a pointed angle. The “barrel” roo¿ng received especially wide distribution as the top
Copyright © 2015, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved doi:10.1016/j.aeae.2015.11.010
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of the altar part in the wooden tented churches and in some of the cellular churches (churches consisting of one or several rectangular logworks), which indicates its essential importance from the symbolic and semantic point of view. This has triggered the study of a church buildings with barrel roo¿ng, relatively few in number, but undoubtedly very important for the Russian culture. It should also be mentioned that cellular churches belong to the earliest type of Orthodox church in Russia. It is known that wooden cellular churches were built in the late 17th century in the towns of the Middle Angara region (particularly in Ilimsk), including the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God (1679) and the Church of the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple (1673, according to other sources—1693), both with barrel roo¿ng (Kalinina, 2000: 257–258) (Fig. 1). According to the data of the Chorographic Drawing Book by S. Remezov from 1701 (Ibid.: 206), a wooden cellular Church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, which is also likely to have had a barrel roo¿ng if the illustration may be treated with con¿dence, was located in Bratsk. First, it is notable that all three churches were dedicated to the Mother of God. In order to understand how typical the emergence of such beautiful and original church buildings was, we need to address the symbolic meaning of both the dedications of the churches and their architectural forms. Since olden times, in the Orthodox consciousness Rus / Russia has been the “home of the Most-Holy Mother of God” and the country marked by her patronage. According to the tradition, the Mother of God repeatedly came to the rescue in fateful moments of Russian history, and the visitations were marked by her miraculous appearances, and icons that work wonders. The Vladimir Icon several times saved Moscow from the Tatar invasions; the Donskaya Icon played a major role in the historic Battle of Kulikovo; the Kazan Icon was the protectress of the Russian army in 1612, when the Polish invaders were cast out. In the 12th century, Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky introduced the Feast of the Protection of the Most-Holy Mother of God into the Russian Church Calendar, of¿cially marking the idea of patronage of the Mother of God over the Russian land (Agapkina, 2009). The crucial role of the veneration of the Virgin in the Moscow State was described by M.B. Plyukhanova in detail, with numerous references to literary sources and chronicles (Plyukhanova, 1995: 23–62). The Eastern Christian tradition knows over 700 types of iconographic representations of the Mother of God (Uspensky, 2007: 67). Art historians who studied Old Russian icon painting noted that the image of the Mother of God was close to the image of the Savior in terms of its meaning and the place that it took in people’s consciousness and spiritual life (Barskaya, 1993: 30). The role of the Mother of God as a protectress and intercessor before God was recurrently emphasized in hagiography and liturgical poetry (hymnography) as well as in spiritual poetry, such
Fig. 1. The Church of the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple in Ilimsk. Photo from the early 20th century.
as the apocryphal “Descent of the Virgin into Hell”, which emerged in the Byzantine Empire and became widespread in Old Rus. In its Russian version, Maria is horri¿ed by the view of the sinners being tormented in Hell; she mourns over them and asks God to relieve them from suffering (Mainicheva, 2000: 35–36). In one of the Marian Stichera of the Orthodox divine service, the Mother of God is called “Joy of all who sorrow, and intercessor for the offended, feeder of the hungry, consolation of travelers, harbor of the storm-tossed, visitation of the sick, protection and intercessor for the in¿rm, staff of the old age”. The “Jerusalem Scroll” of the 17th century says that every person has three mothers: “The ¿rst mother is the MostHoly Mother of God, / the second mother is the moist earth / the third mother is the one who has the sorrow of childbirth. / If the Most-Holy Mother of God / does not give Her help, / Nothing can be born live on earth: / Neither animals nor birds / Nor it is possible for the humans to be. / And if the Most-Holy Mother of God / does give Her help, / Every creature can be born live on earth: / Animals and birds, and the humans can be…” (Fedotov, 1991: 32). The extensive notes of Archdeacon Paul of Aleppo, who traveled to Russia with his father, Patriarch Macarius, in the middle of the 17th century, provide good illustration of the attitude of the Russians towards the Mother of God. Paul repeatedly mentioned that the inhabitants of Russian towns, “when the endearing name of the Mother of God is pronounced... beat their heads against the ground, kneeling and making bows due to their love of the endearing name of the Virgin”, “they make kneeling and prostrations, especially when they hear ‘It Is Truly Meet’ or when the name of the Mother of God
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is mentioned” (Pavel Aleppsky, 1897: 109, 163). Paul of Aleppo also noted that “above the gates of towns, castles, and forti¿cations there is invariably an icon of the Lady on the inside and the icon of the Lord on the outside...” (Ibid.: 109). This tradition also persisted in Siberia: the icon of Our Savior Not Made-By-Hands hung above the gates in the tower of Yenisei Ostrog of the 17th century, “and the icon of the Mother of God of the Sign hung on the other side. Thus, those who would enter or exit the Ostrog had to honor the Lord and His Most-Pure Mother. In this way Yeniseisk was protected by the Lord and the Mother of God” (Gennady Fast, 1994: 12). It is worth recalling that the first stone church of Old Rus, built by Prince Vladimir in Kiev, the capital of Rus at the time, and called “the Church of the Tithe” was dedicated to the Mother of God and her Dormition. In Moscow, which later became the capital of Rus, four out of nearly ten churches in the territory of Kremlin were dedicated to the Mother of God: the Church of the Deposition of the Robe of the Most-Holy Mother of God and the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God “na Senyakh” as well as Annunciation and Dormition Cathedrals bear protective symbolism and encompass the essential stages in the wonderful life of the Mother of God from her birth to her repose. The architecture of these stone churches is triumphant and majestic; one of its main structural techniques is covering the main space with gables, which in wooden architecture have acquired the form of barrel roo¿ng. Materials of diocesan reference books published in the early 20th century also speak for the popularity and signi¿cance of revering the Mother of God in Russia. Thus, the materials from Siberia show that out of 625 altars in the Tobolsk Diocese, 34 was dedicated to the Protection of the Most-Holy Mother of God, 17—to the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, 14—to the Dormition of the Mother of God, 12—to the Icon of the Mother of God of the Sign, 11—to the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple, and 11—to the Nativity of the Mother of God. One church, built in the 17th century and still extant in the early 20th century, had the altar in the name of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. In the 19th century, there appeared new dedications, to the Icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow” (six), to the Icon of the Mother of God “Quick Listening” (two), and in the 20th century— to the Icon of the Mother of God “Soothe My Sorrows”. Thus, over a hundred altars were dedicated to the Mother of God, which amounted to about 1/6 of all consecrations (calculated according to (Spravochnaya kniga..., 1913)). The best decorated churches in large Siberian towns of the 18th–19th centuries were dedicated to the Mother of God and became the main buildings structuring the urban space. These include the Church of the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple (1743) in Tobolsk (Ibid.: 6), the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother
of God (1834–1845) in Kurgan (Ibid.: 76), the Church of the Protection (1771) in Turinsk (Ibid.: 98), as well as two-story Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God (1845–1861) (Kratkoye opisaniye..., 1916: 5–7), the Church of the Protection (1784–1795), and the Church of the Annunciation (1795–1831), built on the place of the Church of Protection in the middle of the 17th century, in Krasnoyarsk (Ibid.: 12–13). In addition to the altars in the name of Ascension, St George, and Trans¿guration, twostory Church of the Ascension (1789) in Tyumen had the altar consecrated in the name of the Nativity of the Virgin (Spravochnaya kniga..., 1913: 163). The Cathedral of the Resurrection (the “old” Cathedral) (1759–1773) — ¿rst stone building in Krasnoyarsk, among other altars had the altar in the name of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God (Kratkoye opisaniye..., 1916: 10–11). The mere fact that these churches were built of stone speaks of their high status. Although the architecture of the churches, particularly those where the main altar was dedicated to the Mother of God, shows the use of gables, none of the churches had barrel roo¿ng over the main space, typically used only in wooden architecture. Northern Russian tradition dominated in Siberian architecture at the initial stage of settlement in new territories (Sibir..., 2014: 5), and it makes good sense to turn to the sites of the Russian North in the search for barrel roo¿ng in wooden ecclesiastical buildings. Some churches are well known, since they have been studied by the restoration architects, and information about them is published (Zabello, Ivanov, Maksimov, 1942: 80, 86). Such sites include the Church of the Holy Trinity at the Elgomsky churchyard in Karelia, built in 1714 (Fig. 2). This impressive wooden church of the cellular type has a tripartite structure, consisting of refectory, katholikon, and altar. The refectory has a roof “on two sides”; the katholikon and the altar are covered by barrel roo¿ng along the axis of the structure. The barrel of the katholikon is crowned by an impressive cupola with a powerful drum. A special feature of the altar area is its two-partite structure. The chapel in the village of Nizhniye Markomusy (Arkhangelsk Region) has a logwork with a remarkable widened top (poval), surrounded by an open gallery on the northern, southern, and western sides. To the west, there is a porch with the small superstructure of the belfry. The chapel is crowned by a graceful cupola on a powerful barrel roo¿ng (Fig. 3). L.G. Shapovalova has managed to locate almost all Northern Russian wooden church buildings with barrel roo¿ng, even those, which are little known in our time (2006). One of them is a two-story Church of the Annunciation (1719) in the village of Pustynka located in the middle reaches of the Onega River. The church marked the beginning of a portage of many miles to the Emtsa River, which connects the Onega and the Dvina Rivers. Barrel roo¿ng covers the entire central part of the church and is located along the east-west axis. The
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Fig. 3. The chapel in the village of Nizhniye Markomusy in Plesetsk District of Arkhangelsk Region. View from the northwest.
Fig. 2. The Church of the Holy Trinity (1714) at the Elgomsky churchyard in Karelia.
Siberian parallels are represented by the Ilimsk Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and possibly the Church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God in Bratsk (Fig. 4). Currently, the Ilimsk church is a part of the Architectural and Ethnographic Museum “Taltsy” in the outskirts of Irkutsk (Fig. 5, 1). Thus, Shapovalova is wrong in claiming that the Church of the Annunciation was the only church with barrel roo¿ng preserved in Russia. It is also possible that, in its form, the Church of the Kazan Icon is a direct replica of the chapel from the village of Nizhniye Markomusy (Fig. 5, 2). The Shapovalova’s list also mentions the Church of St John the Baptist (late 17th–early 18th century) at the Pochozersky churchyard on Kenozero, the Church of the Annunciation (1639) in Troitskaya Volost on the Dvina River, the Church of the Trans¿guration (1690) at the Olkhovsky churchyard, the church with the unknown dedication (¿rst half of the 18th century) in the Spaso-Ozersky Hermitage in Kargopol Uyezd of Olonets Guberniya, and the winterized Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God (after 1673) in Kirillo-Chelmogorsky Monastery in Kargopol. The church structures were also built with barrels located across the main axis along a north-south direction; for example, the Church of the Dormition (1691) in the village of Cherevkovo (formerly, Solvychegodsk Uyezd of Vologda Guberniya, presently, Krasnoborsky District
Fig. 4. The Church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God in Bratsk. Reconstruction by A.Y. Mainicheva and A.N. Kulakov.
of Arkhangelsk Region). The church has three main parts; barrels cover the altar and a small quadrangular frame rises above the katholikon. The barrel roo¿ng over the Ilimsk Church of the Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple is also located along the north-south axis (Fig. 1). Note that the churches of the Russian North with barrel roo¿ng in most cases were dedicated to the Mother of God. This is consistent with Siberian materials, according
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Fig. 5. The Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in the Architectural and Ethnographic Museum “Taltsy” (1) and its graphic reconstruction (2). Photograph and graphic reconstruction by A.Y. Mainicheva.
to which the majority of churches of this type were also dedicated to the Mother of God. According to its semantics of form and iconography, the dedication of the church at the Elgomsky churchyard to the Holy Trinity naturally ¿ts the above list of altars. The symbolism of the roo¿ng in the form of the barrel, imitating the form of the onion dome (Kurilov, 1989: 87–90; Mainicheva, 2000: 32) is associated with the basic doctrine of Christianity—the idea of the Triune God, which is one of the most complex and abstract doctrines of Christianity. According to the Eastern Christian iconographic tradition, it was customary to depict three golden stars (the symbol of virginity and of the Holy Trinity) on the robe of the Virgin. In popular Orthodoxy, the Holy Trinity was often linked to the Mother of God, sometimes even acting as her epithet, which gave both notions common ground. In this cultural context, the forms of churches with barrel roo¿ng for a good reason correspond to the dedication of their altars to the Mother of God or the Holy Trinity. Moreover, the analysis of Northern Russian churches from the 16th–early 18th centuries with different types of structural forms shows that the churches dedicated to the Mother of God do have some parts of barrel roo¿ng (except for the altar part); although there are some examples of using barrel roo¿ng in churches with other dedications, depending on the time and geographical region of the structure. For example, in the Church of the Dormition (1674) in the village of Varzuga, the arms of the central square of cross-shaped logwork are covered with tiers of barrels, while logwork additions in the Church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God (1642) in the village of Belaya Sluda have barrel roo¿ng. The Church
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of the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple with four logwork additions (1587) in the village of Sura and the Church of the Mother of God (1726) in the village of Zaostrovie have double barrels, which create a transition to the central octagonal frame covered by tented roof. This list may be continued. The locations of the churches with barrel roofing over the central part are concentrated in the Kargopol area, in the basin of the upper and middle Onega. Many of the ¿rst inhabitants of the Eastern Siberian territories left the European part of Russia exactly from Kargopol, arriving at their new settlement territories via Yeniseisk (Brodnikov, 1994: 9–43). Thus, we may speak not only of the emergence of an original architectural school in Kargopol area in the second half of the 17th century, but also of its impact on Siberian church buildings. However, we need to clarify that the expansion area of churches with barrel roo¿ng in the Middle Angara, just as in the Russian North, is small. Since there are no data on the construction of such churches in other regions, these may be considered to be a de¿nite ethnic and cultural marker of the people originating from the Russian North. It is possible that one or several related carpentry teams worked in the Kargopol area and built churches in Kirill Monastery, at Olkhovsky and Elgomsky churchyards, in the Yamets Hermitage and Pochozero, and the artisans were later transferred to Siberia to build churches in Ilimsk and Bratsk. Unfortunately, documentary evidence of this has not been preserved. However, there are reasons to believe that the choice of stylistic features for the churches may have been related to the preferences
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of the head of the diocese. As we know, the Diocese of Tobolsk and Siberia was established in 1620 by its separation from the Vologda Diocese (Shcheglov, 1993: 63). Prior to the reforms of Peter I, which subsequently led to the placement of people from Ukrainian territories on the highest diocesan positions, Siberian Metropolitans and Archbishops were natives of the Russian North. In 1668, the Diocese of Tobolsk and Siberia received the rank of metropolitan. Its first Metropolitans were Cornilius (1664–1678) and Paul (1678–1691) (Ibid.: 87). Considering the time of construction of the churches in Ilimsk and Bratsk, we may assume that one of them had a direct inÀuence on the choice of form of the church buildings. Without the blessing of the high-ranking clergy, the churches would not have been consecrated. The rejection of building projects for churches with barrel roo¿ng was not likely associated with their structural complexity, since owing to the structure of the barrel, its use made the whole construction cheaper and simpler. Undoubtedly, the construction of such churches required skill and knowledge of special carpentry techniques, but the construction of any kind of church is not a simple process. In addition, most altar parts of church buildings were covered with barrel roo¿ng; curved gables were also used in wooden architecture. Therefore, the carpenters who took over the construction of a church had to possess the necessary skills to construct barrel roo¿ng. Using rafter roo¿ng structures instead of nailless (samtsovaya) roo¿ng, typical for cellular churches with sloping roofs, solved a number of problems in aligning roof elements in their relationship with the walls. Barrels of churches were often covered with shingles: specially hewn, figured wooden plates. In the 17th century, shingles were one of the most common structural elements. A shingle is of small size and is easy to produce, since cheap and easily carved aspen was used for its manufacture. Thus, it follows from the of¿cial contracting records of the 17th century that “peasants had to hew the shingles (notably, not the skilled carpenters but unskilled peasants — A.M.) for roofs. To do this, narrow aspen boards were cut into short planks, which carpenters finished on their own, depending on the location: “the headman’s (starosta) and peasants’ work with timber, planks, and shingles should not be put on hold...” (Milchik, Ushakov, 1981: 41). By contrast, long logs, and planks needed for sloped roofs, were always a problem. For example, if the porch and refectory were connected into a single unit, the longitudinal walls required logs with a length of 12–13 m (Ibid.: 49), which were very bulky and heavy to lift onto the logwork, and it was very dif¿cult to produce planks from them. In the process of their placement on barrel roo¿ng, shingles formed a kind of repetitive ternary element (Fig. 6) providing symbolic correlation with the
general context of religious semantics, associated with the idea of the Holy Trinity (see (Mainicheva, 2015)). It is signi¿cant that, according to the contracting records of the Church of the Annunciation in Troitsky Volost, the originally conceived roo¿ng of the church, with a sloped roof “with two ridges” (they were started, but could not be ¿nished because of the structural problems) was replaced by ogee roo¿ng, “to hurl elevation together as a barrel”. All the necessary details were added: the barrel “...should be made along the entire church to the east”, “…to expand the drums, and the cupolas, and the crosses from that barrel and from the sides”, in other words, to set the domes on the slopes of the barrel (Ibid.: 47–48). “Simple” sloped roofs from the modern point of view were replaced by “sophisticated” barreled structures, not so much for the beauty of the building, but for convenience and advantage of operation. The roof of the church had to be signi¿cantly higher than the one originally conceived, “...and to make the height of the barrel… ¿ve sazhens to the top”. However, it was permitted to make it even higher or lower by half a sazhen, as “it would ¿t...” (Ibid.: 48). For this work, the headman and the peasants promised to pay a ruble to the carpenter “in addition to the previous sum agreed”. The record was made on September 16, 1638, and only in ten days the carpenter “made the upper part into a barrel” (Ibid.: 49). High speed testi¿es to a well-mastered construction technology, and the difference in the payment between the logwork constructions and barreled constructions was small: only one ruble was paid for introducing the changes into the previously agreed design. Thus, it appears that the barrel had a number of advantages and did not present any ¿nancial or structural problems. The chronological limit of the period when churches with barrel roo¿ng were built in Siberia and the Russian North (late 17th–early 18th century) is primarily associated with changes in the ecclesiastical structure,
Fig. 6. Barrel roo¿ng covered with shingles. Photograph by A.Y. Mainicheva.
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paving the way for many western inÀuences to penetrate into Russian architecture. Changing priorities, both symbolic and esthetic, led to the emergence of other types of church, including churches designed by professional architects following new trends, as opposed to the old traditions of the church style. Similar processes occurred in icon-painting with the influx of iconographies customary to Western European painting (Prokhorova, 2011). The importance of the veneration of the Virgin was not lost, and remained a signi¿cant ethno-confessional marker of the Russians, but its material embodiment in symbolic form underwent significant transformation. Thus, barrel roo¿ng over the central part of the church receded into the past. In addition to the regulatory activities of the government in religious life, a signi¿cant role was played by migration processes resulting in the inÀux of migrants from different regions of the Russian State, and not only from the Northern Russia, to Siberia, thereby creating a polymorphic intellectual and cultural environment saturated with various symbolic and semiotic structures. For the churches with barrel roo¿ng, time and territory for expansion were limited by the historical and genetic features of their emergence, and the narrowing of the meanings of their forms to a regional or even local ones; so they started to be perceived as artifacts of a special architectural school, employing its favorite construction techniques, structural elements and details. Speci¿c ethno-confessional markers naturally appear in a semantically rich architectural space of the settlement, since it expresses the ideas of the community in various ways by correlating architectural forms and their content (visual, functional, ideological, etc.). The churches were the most beautiful and signi¿cant buildings in Siberian towns in the 17th–18th centuries. The churches were something to be proud of, something that strengthened spirituality; they were the sign of the Russian presence in new lands. It is not surprising that assignments for the construction of churches often contained the formula, “as the measure and beauty suggest”. Veneration of the Mother of God found its material expression in icon-painting and in the construction of numerous churches, hierarchically signi¿cant in the spaces of Russian settlements. Veneration of the Mother of God was also an important marker of ethnic and religious identity. In the 17th–18th centuries, churches with barrel roo¿ng became such a material expression. References Agapkina T.A. 2009 Pokrov. In Slavyanskiye drevnosti: Etnolingvisticheskii slovar, vol. 4. Moscow: Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya, pp. 127–128. Barskaya N.A. 1993 Syuzhety i obrazy drevnerusskoi zhivopisi. Moscow: Prosveshcheniye.
Brodnikov A. 1994 Eniseiskii ostrog: Eniseisk v XVII veke: Ocherki iz istorii goroda i uyezda. Krasnoyarsk: Eniseiskii blagovest. Fedotov G.P. 1991 Stikhi dukhovnye: Russkaya narodnaya vera po dukhovnym stikham. Moscow: Progress, Gnozis. Gennady Fast. Protopriest. 1994 Eniseisk pravoslavnyi. Krasnoyarsk: Eniseiskii blagovest. Kalinina I.V. 2000 Pravoslavnye khramy Irkutskoi eparkhii XVII – nachala XX veka. Moscow: Galart. Kratkoye opisaniye prikhodov Eniseiskoi Eparkhii. 1916 Krasnoyarsk: Izd. Eniseisk. tserkovno-istoriko-arkheol. obshchestva. Kurilov V.N. 1989 Iz istorii shatrovogo zodchestva v Sibiri XVII v. In Pamyatniki byta i khozyaistvennoye osvoyeniye Sibiri. Novosibirsk: Nauka, pp. 87–94. Mainicheva A.Y. 2000 Derevyannye tserkvi Sibiri XVII veka: Formy, simvoly, obrazy. Novosibirsk: Izd. IAE SO RAN. Mainicheva A.Y. 2015 “As the measure and beauty suggest”: Traditional principles of geometry in Russian orthodox churches. Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia, vol. 43 (1): 135–143. Milchik M.I., Ushakov Y.S. 1981 Derevyannaya arkhitektura Russkogo Severa. Leningrad: Stroiizdat. Pavel Aleppsky. 1897 Puteshestviye antiokhiiskogo patriarkha Makariya v Rossiyu v polovine XVII veka. Iss. 2: Ot Dnestra do Moskvy. Moscow: (Universitet. tip.). Plyukhanova M.B. 1995 Syuzhety i simvoly Moskovskogo tsarstva. St. Petersburg: Akropol. Prokhorova T.V. 2011 Sibirskiye ikony Bogomateri Mlekopitatelnitsy. Mir nauki, kultury, obrazovaniya, No. 2 (27): 18. Shapovalova L.G. 2006 Kargopolskiye khramy s bochechnym zaversheniyem. In Istoriko-kulturnoye naslediye Russkogo Severa: Problemy izucheniya, sokhraneniya i ispolzovaniya: Materialy IX nauchnoi konferentsii v Kargopole. Kargopol: pp. 204–213. Shcheglov I.V. 1993 Khronologicheskii perechen vazhneishikh dannykh iz istorii Sibiri: 1032–1882 gg. Surgut: Severnyi dom. Sibir i Russkii Sever: Problemy migratsii i etnokulturnykh vzaimodeistvii (XVII – nachalo XXI veka). 2014 E.F. Fursova, A.B. Permilovskaya, A.V. Chernykh et al. (eds.). Novosibirsk: Izd. IAE SO RAN. Spravochnaya kniga Tobolskoi eparkhii. 1913 Tobolsk: Tobol. eparkh. bratstvo sv. velikomuchenika Dmitriya Solunskogo. Uspensky L.A. 2007 Bogosloviye ikony Pravoslavnoi Tserkvi. Moscow: Dar. Zabello S., Ivanov V., Maksimov P. 1942 Russkoye derevyannoye zodchestvo. Moscow: Gosudarstvennoye arkhitekturnoye izdatelstvo Akademii arkhitektury SSSR. Received February 26, 2015.