What connects the cathedrals of Ancient Rus, Soviet Palace of Culture buildings, and modern residential complexes? How to learn to "read" constructions from different centuries and see in them the continuity of tradition, innovation, and the complex relationships between clients and builders? Is a decolonial perspective on Russian architecture possible, whose most impressive works were meant to demonstrate the power and scale of the empire, absorbing influences from all its subject territories? Architectural historian Lev Masiel Sanchez writes about how tastes of princes, tsars, and general secretaries, international politics, fates of individual architects, geography features, and building materials were reflected in wooden and stone architecture. "Domes, Palaces, Cultural Centers" does not stop at the capital's construction, showing how the peoples inhabiting the country could develop national architecture under the subordination of the Russian state.