The Cultural and Historical Context behind the Formation of the Architectural Image of Nakhichevan-on-Don (Late 18th — Early 20th Centuries)

Abstract

This article focuses on the study of influence of Russian architecture of the Modern Age developed mostly under the influence of the St Petersburg architectural school on the artistic and spatial organisation of Nakhichevan-on-Don. It is not surprising that the architecture of the capital had a considerable influence on the forms and style of architecture of provincial cities. There are many scholarly works on the role of St Petersburg in the formation of the architectural image of provincial Russian cities. However, the role of the architecture of the capital of the Russian Empire remained virtually unnoticed in research devoted to Nakhichevan-on-Don. Hence, it is particularly interesting to examine the city’s architecture as Nakhichevan-on-Don was not a Russian city but one founded in 1779 by the Armenians who moved from Crimea to the Russian Empire. The analysis of the cultural and historical context of the formation of Nakhichevan-on-Don’s architecture aims to reveal the cultural dualism reflected in the architecture of the city and manifesting itself in the integration of the Don Armenians into the Russian cultural space on the one hand, and in their desire for national consolidation on the other hand. The work is based on a comprehensive study of archival materials, historical evidence of contemporaries, and on-site historical and architectural surveys of monuments. The leading methods of the research are comparative analysis, historical-genetic analysis, and stylistic analysis of the architecture of Nakhichevan-on-Don. The authors use a system approach which allows them to consider various aspects of the culture of the Don Armenians and study the architecture of the city in the context of its cultural environment as a whole.