Review article

The article discusses the types of Russian architectural criticism of the mid XIX - early XX centuries. There have been identified three large groups of critical judgments - conceptual, primary and spontaneous ones. Conceptual criticism is considered as perceptions that regard the architectural views of the time as the objects. Primary criticism involves the collective analysis results (e.g., jury’s decisions, findings of commissions, etc.). Spontaneous criticism is directed at specific projects and buildings, which are objects for analyzing or summative judgments. The article also addresses the concepts and issues of general methodological character related to the nature of critical judgments (contradictions of the architectural process, problems of evaluation, etc.).