The Transformation Of Art Nouveau Architecture In Far East Russia

The question of the spread of a style in architecture today is quite relevant and generates a lot of debate among historians of architecture. Some people talk about "copying" others about "borrowing and changing" of the style. Each side has strong arguments to support its version, and it is sometimes very difficult to refute them. Especially it’s issued at the province cities where different architectural styles usually appeared later then at the central part of Russia. A striking example here is the architecture of the Russian Far East, which in its short period of existence experienced a lot of the stylizations of the Art Nouveau style which came at this territory from the central part of Russia and Manchuria.The purpose of this study is to trace the change of the Art Nouveau style at the territory of the Russian Far East at the period from the1880th till1917th. This time is chosen according to the study of N.P.Kradin and A.A.Artemeva. In their opinion Far Eastern architecture appeared at the same time as at the central part of Russia and died also at the similar period. They are Khabarovsk, Vladivostok and Blagoveshensk.The first chapter is about researching background of the study. Goals and objectives of the study are sated, which takes into account the relevance of the topic and research carried out previously by Russian and foreign historians of architecture. The methods used in research and resource base are showed. The second chapter examines the conditions of the Art Nouveau style background. Firstly, general historical background in Russia (1860th-1880th) is studied. Especially big attention is paid to the development of the capitalism at this period. Economic, social, historical, cultural factors are studied. At this chapter factors affecting the appearance and development of the Far East cities are also described. They are immigration policy, construction of railway, promotion of trade, including the introduction of the Porto Franco (tax-free system), encouragement of foreign capital, development of the industry and development of agriculture. Also general development of the Khabarovsk, Vladivostok and Blagoveshensk is studied. Art Nouveau style features in the Far East of Russia are studied at the third part of the paper. There are such stylistic of the Art Nouveau as Neo-Russian,"brick" art nouveau, constructivism and Neo-classicism can be described. Some of them are decorative and others are rational. At this chapter also showed such characteristic features of Far Eastern architecture as it’s similarity to the "Northern" Art Nouveau of the St. Petersburg. There are such details described as floral motifs, mascarones (masks/faces on the wall of the building), geometric ornament and texture. At the forth chapter studied transformation of the stylistics which was described at the third chapter. All buildings divided according to their functional type such as public, commercial, industrial and utility buildings, educational and residential buildings. They are united into the table according to the year there were build, so we can see transformation of the buildings stylistics clearly.