Revivalism is perhaps most obvious in architecture. It is the use of elements that echo the style of a previous architectural era that have or had fallen into disuse or abeyance between their heyday and period of revival. Here in Virginia we have a lot of examples of Colonial revival style. Big Ben is a famous example of British Gothic revival.
Like the Romantic revivals of Western Europe, the Russian Revival was informed by a scholarly interest in the historic monuments of the nation. The historicism resonated with the popular nationalism of the period. (1)Sometimes Russians immitated architecture of times before Peter the Great. (2) Sometimes architects immitated Byzantine architecture.