The Russian Revival style is the generic term for a number of different movements within Russian architecture, that arose in second quarter of the 19th century and was an eclectic melding of pre-Peterine Russian architecture and elements of Byzantine architecture.
The Russian Revival style arose within the framework the renewed interest in the national architecture, which evolved in Europe in the 1800s, and it is an interpretation and stylization of the Russian architectural heritage. Sometimes Russian Revival style is often erroneously called Russian or Old-Russian architecture, although the majority of Revival architects did not directly reproduce the old architectural tradition. Being instead a skillful stylization, the Russian Revival style was consecutively combined with other, international styles – from the architectural romanticism of first half of the 19th century to the modern style.
The first extant example of Byzantine Revival in Russian architecture, in fact the first example ever built, stands in Potsdam, Germany – a five-domed Church of Alexander Nevsky by Neoclassicist Vasily Stasov (builder of neoclassical Trinity Cathedral, St. Petersburg, father of critic Vladimir Stasov). Next year, in 1827, Stasov completed a larger five-domed Church of the Tithes in Kiev.
Buildings designed by Thon or based on Thon’s designs were: Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the Grand Kremlin Palace and the Armoury in Moscow, also cathedrals in Sveaborg, Yelets, Tomsk, Rostov-on-Don and Krasnoyarsk.