External and internal pressures Ukrainian art and culture Essay

External and internal pressures Ukrainian trick and culture - Essay Example whatsoever gains, however, that Ukrainian arts and culture had during that era soon became ineffective when Stalinization and russification was imposed on non-Russian cultures. This implied a retrenchment of non-Russian culture and the imposition of Russian culture as a guideline for all artistic and ethnic activities. With the death of Stalin in 1953 and the subsequent de-Stalinization of Russian policies during the reign of Nikita Khrushchev in the late 1950s, Ukrainian art became free once again. A historical look at Ukrainian art reveals that despite the influences, squeeze or otherwise, there exists distinct Ukrainian elements that characterize and separate Ukrainian art from other irrelevant arts and culture. Ukrainian architecture began to take a distinctive shape in the pre-Christian era. Early Ukrainian structures were made of wood. In the 9th to 10th centuries churches, fortifications and even palaces were made of wood (see Fig. 1). Pieces of timber were horizontally placed on top of another to form structures and this tradition of construction was continued even up to the 20th century (My Ukraine). When Ukraine embraced Christianity in the 16th century, churches were built in Byzantine style but adopted the traditional and local Ukrainian methods which can be characterized by large central nave with almost square plans and a amply framework, windows were situated high above the ground, and the buildings were covered with a vault, hipped roof or cupola, a cover type in which is conical in shape and sloping and made of wood, brick or stone. These churches can in addition be characterized by the placement of the altar, which were located on the east with the door in the west or south.