Irkutsk: Architectural Heritage in Photographs

Irkutsk: Architectural Heritage in Photographs has recently been published by "Tri Kvadrata" publishers in Moscow with the support of the Kennan Institute. This book is devoted to the rich architectural heritage of the Irkutsk territory, one of the primary areas of Russian settlement in eastern Siberia. The text and photographs are by William Craft Brumfield, one of the leading western specialists on the history of Russian architecture, professor of Slavic studies at Tulane University in New Orleans, and honorary fellow of both the Russian Academy of the Arts and the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences.

The volume begins with the author's survey of the architecture of Irkutsk in its historical context. The text concludes with extensive source references. In addition to Irkutsk the book contains monuments from other historic sites in the region, including villages connected with Decembrists' exile: Ust-Kuda, Urik, Belsk, Telma, Usole-Sibirskoe, and Listvianka on Lake Baikal. Also included are wooden buildings salvaged from the Ilim River basin and reassembled at the Taltsy Architectural and Ethnographic Museum. The frontispiece reproduces a map fragment from the 1745 Atlas Rossiiskii, published by the Imperial Academy of Sciences.

The book contains color as well as black-and-white images of architectural monuments and landscapes (including Lake Baikal) photographed by Brumfield during extensive travels in the Irkutsk territory. Of particular interest are photographs of a number of Irkutsk church interiors. The photographic negatives are preserved in the William Brumfield Collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

This is the second volume in the "Discovering Russia" series of books dedicated to lesser known corners of Russia and their architectural history. The series includes Brumfield's book Totma, and will include volumes on Tobolsk, Solikamsk, Cherdyn, and Kargopol, among others. These books are intended for those interested in architecture, history, photography and regional studies. By virtue of the dual language text of these books, readers not only in Russia but abroad will become better acquainted with these rare treasures of Russia's cultural heritage.

ISBN: 5-94607-061-4
OCLC #: 70117690