Abstract
After the Russian aristocracy was emancipated from obligatory service to the state in 1762, the Russian noble estate came into its own. For the decree pushed the aristocracy into, and gave it the freedom to devote itself to the development of the family manor estate located in the rural countryside. Location, geographic-environmental place, and both natural and shaped architectural landscape, in their combined totality, were crucial components of identity formation because it is in this context where the lived experience occurred. The “layout” of the place, the natural and shaped features of the environment, is where life was experienced. It shaped a particular kind of identity consciousness in Russia, one which was deeply rooted in the attachment to the family estate at the local level, the province at the middle level, and Russia at the macro level. My paper is part of a larger research project regarding the history of Simbirsk Province in Russia. I discuss a number of estates from that region to 1) illustrate the distinctive characteristics of the Russian estate, and 2) point to some of the hermeneutics of life on the noble manor estate. That is, how the noble estates in that province were shaped according to the eclectic architectural principles of the time, and how they, in turn, shaped the consciousness or, can we say, mentalité, of the inhabitants that lived there. This hermeneutic framework is key to understanding the geographic political economic social culture order in Russia during the Imperial period (1721-1917).
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Russian architecture landscape organization construction identity formation
