Urban realm and temple construction of the Russian Orthodox Church on the cusp of 19th and 20th centuries (based on photographic documents of Kostanay city)

The article is devoted to considering “church construction” on the territory of Kostanay city, which broadly speaking includes building of churches, church government, and administrative organization. The investigations have led to a conclusion that the main factors contributing to soaring church construction in rapidly growing Kostanay city on the cusp of 19th and 20th centuries were active migration processes resulting in movement of significant number of orthodox people from European part of Russia, as well as development of missionary activities among native population. On the basis of photographic documents, the authors have characterized orthodox temple architecture, as well as subdivided churches according to “institutional principle”, composition and spatial dynamics, and style of space-planning decisions. It was found that a greater number of churches in Kostanay were the parish ones, prayer halls of temples had a single or five-domed top, the following architectural styles were distinguished in the temple construction: eclecticism, elements and techniques of provincial Baroque and classicism, national Russian style combined with the techniques of the “brick” style. Within church construction, the government was tasked with designing living environment in general, rather than religious buildings. The urban realm balanced all aspects of confessional life, included its physical, functional_ pragmatic, social, as well as emotional and artistic parameters. After Orthodox temples were built and given certain functions, there were changes in the social structure of the society, the parish was growing, the number of priests was increasing, which led to changes in the urban realm. The environment is connected with the main elements of the urban system, having stability and variability, respectively, which resulted in a set of individual and collective creative acts. The Russian Orthodox Church had a great influence on education and the moral state of urban dwellers. A network of parochial schools was formed at each church and each temple. Such schools pursued not only educational, but also missionary goals.