Soviet Architecture

Abstract

The term Soviet architecture refers to architectural production on the territory of the former Russian Empire under the control of the Soviet power in the aftermath of the revolution of 1917, and in the USSR between its establishment in 1922 and its fall in 1991. In addition to Russian architecture, it includes a variety of other architectural traditions in national republics and autonomous districts. Somewhat simplistically, the history of Soviet architecture has traditionally been divided into three periods: the “avant-garde” (1917–1932), “socialist realism” or “Stalinism” (1932–1955), and late modernism (1955–1991). The neat boundaries between these periods are provided by two political interventions in architecture. The first is the announcement of the results of the second round of the Palace of the Soviets competition (28 February 1932) followed by the Communist Party decree “On the Reconstruction of Literature and Artistic Organizations” (23 April 1932), which abolished independent artistic groups and replaced them with the state-controlled Union of Soviet Architects. The second is the Communist Party decree “On Elimination of Excesses in Design and Construction” (4 November 1955), which enunciated a turn to postwar modernism and standardization. This stylistically and politically motivated periodization reflected the lack of exchange between Soviet and Western architects and scholars during the Cold War. Indeed, while during the 1920s and the early 1930s, Soviet architects remained in dialogue with their international colleagues, in the late 1930s the ties were cut off, while the historicist turn inside the Soviet Union led to the discreditation of early modernist architecture. It was only in the 1960s, when the “thaw” in the Soviet Union and the activization of left politics in Europe (most importantly in Italy and France, which restored cultural and social connections with the Soviet Union) led to the “rediscovery” of Soviet post-revolutionary architecture, which progressive European architects saw as an operative model for their own programs. During the 1970s, the formal aspects of avant-garde Soviet architecture came to the fore in Britain, where they inspired the work of visionary architects later celebrated as the “deconstructivists,” while simultaneously being cleansed of their political and social program. The destabilization of the Soviet Union during the following decade and its eventual collapse led to the rise of political histories of Soviet architecture. All these historiographic traditions significantly favored the avant-garde over the subsequent period, when, it was believed, architecture had lost its autonomy and hence ceased to exist. More recent scholarship questions these assumptions as more and more projects and discussions from the Cold War period are coming to light, elucidating such topics as Soviet architects’ progressive stance on ecology and the sociability of cities, their use of cybernetic methods in urban planning, and their structural and formal innovations, which situates them on par with their Western counterparts.