Why do Russians go in for all those tacky mirrored glass windows? I’ve always wondered. It looks terrible. This article makes things clearer. Glass was still a luxury there when it had become commonplace in the rest of Europe, and combined with the Russian Orthodox Church prohibition against face gazing, the whole thing is a twinned form of rebellion and wealth display.
https://newprairiepress.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1729&context=sttcl