Today, April 27, 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Kostochkin, a researcher of the fortresses of Ancient Rus.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Kostochkin (1920-1992) - researcher and popularizer of the history of serf architecture and cities of Ancient Rus, founder of the Department of Architectural Restoration of the Moscow Architectural Institute, which he headed in 1971-1977 (later closed and reopened) and a long-term employee of the Department of History of Architecture and Urban Planning of the Architectural Institute, where he lectured for 15 years, graduated more than 20 graduate students and was a professor until the last years of his life.
Vladimir Kostochkin is a candidate of art history (his 1953 thesis was dedicated to Ivangorod), doctor of historical sciences, professor of the Moscow Architectural Institute, honored architect of the RSFSR. As deputy chairman of the presidium of the scientific and methodological council for the protection of cultural monuments under the USSR Ministry of Culture and the head of the restoration section, Vladimir Kostochkin took part in improving the methods of protection and restoration of historical and cultural monuments, in 1984 he published a monograph on the problems of reconstruction in the ancient Russian heritage.
But most of all, Vladimir Kostochkin is known as a historian and popularizer of ancient Russian defense architecture. Here are some of his books about ancient Russian cities and fortresses, several of them are available for online study.
Album published by the Museum of Architecture. A. V. Shchusev in 1969 is available for viewing on the RSL website. It contains an overview of defensive architecture from the Slavic "promontory fortifications" to the developed, richly decorated, although lagging behind the latest trends in European fortification of the 17th century walls and towers, including the Moscow Kremlin and the Novodevichy Convent.
In another well-known book - "The Tsar's Master Fyodor Horse". M., 1964 - Kostochkin created a vivid image of the architect of the late 16th century, which was later challenged by a number of researchers, but allowed to draw attention to the fortification architecture of the last third of the century.
Two more books by Vladimir Kostochkin are available for reading on rusarch: Russian defense architecture of the late 13th - early 16th centuries. M., 1962; Fortress of Smolensk. M., 2000, and several articles of the researcher.
In his writings, Kostochkin described the features of the planning, construction and architectural appearance of the fortifications of Russia, clarified their dating and authorship by introducing new data obtained as a result of archival and field research, including archaeological research, into scientific circulation.
Vladimir Kostochkin was one of the first to introduce the Russian reader to the architectural heritage of the Upper Kama region. He raised the question of organizing a museum of arts and crafts of the Upper Kama, among his books - “Cherdyn. Solikamsk. Usolye "and" Cherdyn ", 1988 edition.
