- analoi: A pulpit or lectern in the Russian Orthodox church.
- baraban: In early Russian architecture, same as drum or a cylindrical or polygonal wall below a dome, often pierced with windows.
- begunets: In Russian medieval churches, string-course or frieze of bricks laid on ends at angles, stretcher-sides flush with the wall behind, and touching at the tops to form a series of indented triangular recesses. Often associated with brick cogging (called porebrik), it was sometimes made of masonry, forming repeated carved depressions.
- bochka: In early Russian architecture, a wooden roof whose peak has the shape of a horizontal cylinder with the upper side surface extended into a pointed ridge.
- chasovnya: In early Russian architecture, a chapel which is a detached structure.
- Constructivism: A movement which originated in Moscow after 1917, primarily in sculpture, but with broad application to architecture. The expression of construction was to be the basis for all building design, with emphasis on functional machine parts. Vladimir Tatlin’s project of a monument to the Third International in Moscow (1920) is the most famous example.
- dyakonik: The sacristy in a Russian Orthodox church.
- dynka: In early Russian architecture, an ornamental band around the shaft of a column or pillar.
- fonar: In early Russian architecture, a type of lantern consisting of a cupola having many small windows.
- glukhaya glava: In early Russian architecture, a blind cupola.
- glukhie shatry: In early Russian architecture, any blind building element, as a blind window.
- gont: A thin wood shingle, used for roofing in early Russian architecture.
- gulbishche: In early Russian architecture, a terrace which surrounds a building.
- izba: A Russian log cabin, log house, or hut.
- kamera: An interior subdivision of a Russian prison.
- khory: In early Russian architecture, a gallery.
- kiot: In early Russian architecture, a niche to house one or more icons.
- kliros: The choir platform in a Russian Orthodox church.
- kokoshniki: In early Russian architecture, a series of corbeled arches (usually one of two or three tiers, one above the other); especially used around the drum supporting a cupola. 2. Any similar decorative feature.
- kolokolnya: In Early Russian architecture, a bell tower.
- krest: In Russian architecture, a cross.
- krestokupolnyi: A Russian Orthodox church having a dome over the crossing.
- kub: A type of roof structure on an early Russian wooden building which is square in plan; constructed of wood, it has four identical faces, with a profile similar to a squared-off onion dome. Also see kubovatoye pokrytiye.
- kurgan: A tumulus or burial mound in the southern part of Russia and Siberia.
- leshchad: A thin stone slab used in early Russian construction, as in flooring.
- lopatka: In early Russian architecture, a pilaster without a capital.
- lukovitsa: In early Russian architecture, an onion dome.
- lunnitsa: In early Russian architecture, a semicircular pendant.
- makovitsa: In early Russian architecture, a small cupola. 2. In early Russian architecture, any type of crowning.
- musiya: In early Russian architecture, a mosaic.
- nalichnik: An encircling border or decorative frame around a window or door in early Russian architecture; often with columns and a pediment.
- obraznaya: The room in which icons are kept in a Russian Orthodox church.
- okhlupen: In early Russian architecture, a ridge beam.
- okonchina: In early Russian architecture, a framework of grooved bars for holding glass in a window.
- onion dome: A bulbuous, domelike roof terminating in a sharp point, used especially in Russian Orthodox church architecture to cover a cupola or tower.
- papert: The parvis of a Russian Orthodox church.
- parus: In early Russian architecture, a pendentive.
- pechura: In early Russian architecture, a niche in a masonry wall.
- podzor: In early Russian architecture, a carved bargeboard. 2. A decorative band of ironwork on a masonry building.
- porebrik: In early Russian architecture, a frieze constructed of bricks which are set at an angle of 45 degrees to the surface of a wall.
- prestol: In the Russian Orthodox church, an altar or sanctuary table.
- pritvor: The narthex of a Russian Orthodox church.
- rhodonite: A silicate of manganese of a pink or red color, frequently streaked and spotted. Hard and tough, and with a close textures. Little used in America, but a favorite material with the Russians. Found in commercial quantities only in the Urals.
- riznitsa: A sacristy in a Russian Orthodox church.
- Russo-Byzantine architecture: The first phase of Russian architecture (11th to 16th century) derived from the Byzantine architecture of Greece; mainly stone churches characterized by cruciform plans and multiple bulbous domes.
- sandrik: In early Russian architecture, a door or window pediment.
- shater: In early Russian architecture, a roof which is steeply pyramidal in shape, having four or more sides.
- shatrovoye pokrytiye: In early Russian architecture, a roof which is steeply pyramidal in shape, having four or more sides.
- shchipets: In early Russian architecture, a gable.
- sheiya: In early Russian architecture, a drum having no windows, which supports a dome.
- shirinka: An ornamental insert in early Russian architecture; a framed rectangular or square recess in a masonry wall; may have an ornamental stone or brick at its center.
- Suprematism: Russian artistic movement founded (1915) by Kasimir Malevich (1878-1935), who produced paintings limited to basic geometric shapes using a sparse range of color. His White Square on a White Ground (1918) was regarded as the movement’s paradigm, and influenced the International-Modern Movement and De Stijl, though was largely passé by 1919.
- trapeznaya: A refectory in the monastery of a Russian Orthodox church.
- tsarskiy vrata: In the iconostasis of a Russian Orthodox church, the middle of three pairs of doors which lead to the main altar.
- zvonnitsa: In early Russian architecture, a bell gable.
Also see Architecture Origin index.
Also see Architecture index.