Temple Traditional Architecture as a Factor of an Adaptive Mechanism in the Development of the Russian Arctic

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2023-2/7-21

Abstract

The work is based on empirical field material obtained in traditional Pomor settlements located on the coast of the White Sea, in the delta of the rivers of the Northern Dvina, Mezen, Onega (Onega Pomorie), and archival sources. Two survey methods designed by the author were used to study monuments of wooden architecture and historical settlements as objects of cultural heritage. The article is also based on the author’s experience in the museum of wooden architecture “Malye Korely”. The cultural space in Russia formed under the influence of various national and ethnocultural traditions accompanied by the development of regional cultures, so analyzing the experience of the Russian North and Pomorie can provide a key to understanding the historical development of the country associated with the cultural and economic development of vast taiga and Arctic spaces, Eurasia up to Siberia and the Far East. The Arctic with its well-preserved history and culture is a treasury of technologies and practices of sustainable development. Pomors are the Russian-speaking group which settled the White and Barents Sea Coast in the XII century. The objective of this research is revealing and studying cult architecture, which, according to the author’s concept, served as an adaptive mechanism of development and organization of the Russian Arctic living space and sacral landscape. Pomor churches and crosses fulfilled not only sacral and protective functions, but also acted as navigating signs added to pilot charts.