Reviewed by Alice DiNizo for Readers' Favorite

Kashif Parvaiz has written a brilliant book on the history of Russian architecture since medieval times that reflects upon how buildings were created when Russian was its own world. It also reflects the influence of other cultures in Russian architecture's evolution over the centuries as through invasion, etc, Russia joined the world community. Author Parvaiz is truly an expert on Russian history as well as its architecture.He ends each chapter with biographies of rulers and chief architects of each time period and a glossary of terms that occasionally skips the definition of a key word in the preceeding chapter's text. That the author knows to organize each chapter in this way is commendable.

Each well-organized chapter is filled with black and white pictures of each cathedral and palace, Russian rulers and prominent architects of the time period who worked in and for Russia. If these pictures were larger and in color, this book would be a treasure to own and probably unaffordable. The only complaint with the book's presentation is that often a picture of an historic person or a building is not on the same page as its discussion.

The table of contents and the bibliographic data of "Russia's Prestige: Historical Architecture" are highly organized and useful. An index is not included but the table of contents is an adequate substitute. This book belongs in college libraries and in all large public libraries for research and pursuit of interest in all things Russian.