This art album acquaints the reader with a small part of Russian popular creations.

The Russian forests, stretching along great expanses of the country, have served man since ancient times: they have given him shelter and food, defended him from enemies; everything necessary was made of wood. Being so closely affiliated with the forest, man has learned to make artistic things of wood with great skill.

 

Beautiful specimens of architectural craftmanship have been well preserved in the North of Russia. Among forests and ravines, on hills and highlands, on the banks of rivers and lakes stand wooden churches.

Some of them- quite small ones - are village chapels; only a tiny dome distingueshes them from an ordinary "izba" (a peasant's cottage). Others, like fantastic giants, tower above the trees and their slender, graceful silhouettes stand out against the luminous sky.

 

Russian wooden resurrected at present by the careful hands of restorers, has opened up for us a page in the history of art of past times little known till now.