Article: The Nicolai Fechin House in Taos, New Mexico.

Leo Tolstoy once said that a Russian with nothing but an axe could build a house or fashion a spoon - so deep is the Russian affinity for wood.(1) Indeed, the dark forests and windy plains of prerevolutionary Russia were freckled with simple, wooden cottages, or izbas, which had evolved over centuries and highlighted the wood's natural hues, grains, and textures. particularly in the interior. The rather superstitious peasants carved fanciful horses, birds, feathers, flowers, trees, and suns into gable ends and posts to ward off evil and bring good luck. Elizabeth Gaynor wrote:

The izba remains deeply rooted in the Russian psyche as a symbol of simplicity and comfort ...

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