“...Currently, Roerich exhibits at the Society for the Encouragement of Arts a number of excellent sketches, painted by him from the monuments of the ancient Russian architecture, that survived by some miracle beyond the walls of our ancient towns: Pskov, Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod.

What fantastic ghosts are these forgotten giants of Russian architecture, these impressively strange cathedrals with huge, low-drawn domes, picturesque porches and patterned walls! How much mysterious sadness lurks in their dilapidated grandeur, in the heavy outlines of their stone armor! When you think about them, you cannot believe that they are still alive, that church singing sounds under their vaults, and calling ringing of brass bells sound, like before, in the bell towers… As if you have seen them sometimes in your dreams, as if you have heard them in an old fairy tale.”

(S. K. Makovsky. Folk tale in the Russian Art. Zhournal dlya Vsekh Magazine. 1904. February. No. 2.)