The Evolution of Russian Country Estates near Moscow after the Peasant Reform of 1861

This article explores Russian country estates in the Moscow region. It attempts to analyze the key elements of the estate complex from 1861 to 1917. Having examined its evolution, the author suggests that these forms reflected the emergence of capitalism in Russia. The radical transformation of the estate economy, the decline in entertainment, and changes in the domestic, ceremonial, and religious aspects of life were confirmed architecturally compared to the previous period. The number of key estate buildings functioning year-round significantly decreased. This is due to the changing nature of life itself, which became more dynamic and required a greater presence in the city. Because the last owners of estates were generally characterized negatively in Soviet historiography, serious scholarly study of their estates was long impossible. Therefore, estate buildings from the post-reform period were granted cultural heritage status relatively late, only at the end of the Soviet era and in the post-Soviet period, and not all of them. This largely predetermined the destruction of some interesting estate structures.