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Totalitarian Architecture of the Soviet
Union

"QUANTUM SHOT" #815
Link - article by Simon
Rose and Avi Abrams

From Constructivism to Gigantism,
From Extreme Ornamentation to Brutalism (and very little
soul)

Unapologetic in their colossal scale
and glorification of the totalitarian state, these
gigantic structures dominate urban landscapes of the
former Eastern Bloc countries, still capable either to
inspire dreams of imperial grandeur, or resurrect ghosts
of dark abuses of power.

While researching
totalitarian architecture of the Third Reich earlier on DRB, we also came across
examples of similar architecture glorifying the opposite
end of the political spectrum.

(a concept for the Palace of the Soviets, image
via)

The champions of the communist world made a point of
expressing the perceived superiority of their political
system at the 1937 International Exposition, when
the pavilions of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union
defiantly faced each other in Paris:

(images via Kiel
Bryant, Francotopia)

Unlike much of German architecture created in the Nazi
period, buildings and other structures from the
Stalinist era are still are very much with us, some
being built after Stalin’s death in 1953, but in the
same style as that prevalent in the 1930’s and 1940’s.
Examples of Stalinist architecture, mostly in Russia and
the former Soviet republics, but also in Eastern Europe,
are quite well known. This article examines a selection
of the more notable buildings and monuments, as well as
some of the planned projects that never
materialized.

Palace of the Soviets:
perhaps the biggest unrealized architectural project in
history

The Palace of the Soviets was
to have been a huge congress facility and administrative
building located close to the Kremlin. Had the final
version been completed, it would have been the world’s
tallest structure:

(images credit: Ilya
Ilusenko)

Plans for its
construction in the early thirties also involved the
demolition of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Here
is the original Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in
Moscow on a photo from 1905, in its demolition in
1931:

(images via)

The contest to choose a winning design for the Palace
ofthe Soviets took place between 1931 and 1933. Here
are a few of the ideas that were considered: perhaps the
most grandiose was the entry by Boris Iofan, Vladimir
Schuko and Vladimir Gelfreich (1934-35
version):

(image via)

Another competition entry from 1933, by Vladimir Schuko
and Vladimir Gelfreich:

(images via)

Very interesting proposal by Italian architect Armando
Brasini, displaying quite different approach:

(images via)

Here is the very impressive interior hall proposed for
the Palace, filled with radiant light:

The historically rich area around the Palace was
supposed to be razed to the ground and filled with new
huge buildings... thus becoming one of the biggest
unrealized architectural projects in history - and a
symbol of the Victorious Socialism and the new
Moscow:

Artists of Social Realism School began to include the
Palace of the Soviets into their propaganda
paintings:

(painting by Alexander Deineka, via)

... and it was even depicted on boxes of
chocolates:

Moscow thus became "the Capital of the World" in many
publications:

It's fascinating to look now at some of the proposals;
they dominate the city with their grandiose scale and
monumental presence. The round tower by Dmitry Chechulin
on the left, and a "giant lighthouse" structure by
academician Ivan Zholtovski (right):

Here you can see the elaborate design and the impressive
framework of this titanic building (click here for higher
resolution):

(images via)

Work was begun in 1937, but stopped upon the German
invasion in June 1941. The steel frame and other
materials were used for bridges and fortifications for
the war effort and the work never resumed:

(images via)

The site was however converted in 1958 into what was at
the time the world’s largest outdoor swimming
pool:

(image via)

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the
Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was rebuilt between 1995
and 2000.

Other monumental projects in
Moscow: some had a chance to be built, others were never
realized

There was another architectural
contest called the Narkomtiazhprom in 1934 for
ambitious projects in and around Red Square in the
centre of Moscow, many of which were way ahead of their
time and may not even have been possible to build using
the technology and equipment available at the time.
Luckily, St. Basil’s Cathedral, one of the world’s most
famous structures and an instantly recognizable symbol
of Russia, was spared from demolition in most of the
designs, unlike the unfortunate Cathedral of Christ the
Saviour.

Here are some concepts by Ivan Fomin, P.
V. Ambrosimov, M. A. Minkov and Arkady
Mordvinov:

(images via)

The Moscow Pantheon, or rather the Monument to
the Eternal Glory of the Great People of the Soviet
Land, was a project to construct a colossal memorial
tomb in Moscow, planned immediately after the death of
Stalin in 1953. It was to be the final resting place for
all the most prominent communists and heroes of the
revolution, including the famous mummified body of
Lenin. However, when Stalin fell out of favour later in
the fifties, the project was shelved and the pantheon
was never built:

(images via RusArchives)

This preliminary sketch is truly Gothic in its
complexity (see similar "Communist Gothic" architectural
projects in our previous article):

(images via RusArchives)

These proposals have more classical and conventional
feel to them, although their sheer scale is still
overwhelming:

(images via)

The “Seven Sisters” are a group of skyscrapers in
the Stalinist style built in Moscow from 1947 to
1953:

Apartment building on Kotyelnicheskaya Nabyerezhnaya:

Moscow State University, main building:

(photo from Soviet magazine "Smena",
1953)

The other "sisters" in Moscow
are Hilton-Leningradskaya Hotel, Hotel Ukraina, Ministry
of Foreign affairs, Dushkin's Red Gates Building and
Kudrinskaya Square Building.

Exporting
Totalitarian Architectural Style throughout the Eastern
Bloc

The Eighth Sister was, as it
sounds, another building in the same style, which would
have been one of the tallest in the world at the time if
it had been built. After the death of Stalin, the
project was abandoned, in Moscow at least, but the
planned skyscraper was eventually built, admittedly with
a few alterations, in Warsaw, Poland as the Palace of
Culture and Science between 1952 and 1955 (sometimes
called "Russian Cake" building):

(images via)

In addition to Poland, what could be termed Stalinist
structures also exist in other countries in Eastern
Europe, such as Press Freedom House and Parliament
Place in Bucharest, Romania:

(images via)

The former Party House is in Sofia, Bulgaria (left
image), while the Karl Marx Alee apartments and
Strausberger Platz are located in the eastern part of
Berlin (right):

(images via)

Not content to leave his stamp on the architecture of
the Soviet Union, Stalin also like it have his own image
displayed in suitably monumental form, particularly in
the occupied territories of Eastern Europe after their
‘liberation’ by the Red Army at the end of the Second
World War. The Stalin Monument in Budapest was
built as the birthday present to Stalin on the occasion
of the great man’s 70th birthday in 1949:

(images via)

However, a few short years later, the statue’s
destruction was to become one of the most enduring
symbols of the Hungarian revolution in 1956:

(images via)

Elsewhere in what was once known as the Eastern Bloc,
the word’s largest statue of Stalin once stood in Prague
in the Czech republic. Prague is the most visited city
in the formerly captive nations of Central and Eastern
Europe, but few tourists would recognize the site of
this monument, which dominated the city skyline from
1955 until it was dynamited in 1962:

(image via)

The Moscow Metro is the second most heavily used rapid
transit system in the world and was also built in the
Stalin era, first opening in 1935. The system is
renowned for the examples of socialist realist art
adorning many of the stations, as well as for the ornate
designs of some of the stations themselves:

(image via)

And finally, while not strictly in the same field of
architecture, here’s a fascinating example from the
former Soviet Union. Built in 1975 for the Georgian
Ministry of Highway Construction, the building is
currently used as offices by the Bank of
Georgia.

(image credit: Enrique
Guerrero)

Article by
Simon Rose and
Avi Abrams,
Dark Roasted Blend.

CONTINUE
TO "WEIRD SOVIET ARCHITECTURE IN CAUCASUS"!
->

CONTINUE
TO "THE BEST OF RUSSIA" SERIES
->

Scroll down for comments: |
| 9
comments
|

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YOUR COMMENTS::

9 Comments:

don-kanyar
said...

Super hungarian
blog:

http://falanszter.blog.hu/2010/10/31/a_kommunizmus_diadala_sztalin_vilag_felhokarcoloja_es_a_6_000_tonnas_lenin

http://falanszter.blog.hu/2010/11/07/itt_moszkva_beszel_nagy_oktoberi_forradalom_sztalin_utopisztikus_epuletei_kozott

http://falanszter.blog.hu/2011/11/18/a_sztalinburg_projekt_uj_metropolisz_a_millios_nagyvaros_mellett

http://falanszter.blog.hu/2013/01/13/szocreal_stilusu_felhokarcolok_budapesten

___

Anonymous said...

What makes this architectural style totalitarian? The shape,
meaning, time / era it belongs to or something else? What you call
totalitarism in the end? Is Crysler Building a good example of
totalitarian architecture? Why not?
Anyhow there is another
good example of soviet architecture not mentioned in this article
- Gosprom
Building:
http://www.c20society.org.uk/botm/gosprom-kharkov-ukraine/

___

Raven
said...

I think I see another semi-famous Soviet item in this picture:
http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-uTZjQiFWH2c/UP9CtzPsI_I/AAAAAAACDFU/KzTGzUONVQw/s900/aa20.jpg

That
plane in the right image looks a whole lot like the Tupolev ANT-20
"Maxim Gorky," an enormous piece of flying propaganda and the
largest aircraft of the 1930s. Rather awe-inspiring...right up
until the pilot of the plane flying next to it (a Polikarpov I-5)
attempted to do a loop around it and crashed into it, sending both
of them to the ground.

___

Anonymous said...

Bravo anonymus, I totally agree, what exactly is totalitarian
architecture, can someone explain it.
If you think that these
are buildings that symbolize the power of the criminal regime,
fascism for example, than would be good to put Pentagon, or statue
of liberty which if we talk about symbols have nothing to do with
liberty,in your next post. You could name it, totalitarian
architecture of the united states.

___

Anonymous said...

Nitpick:

"was supposed to be raised to the ground and
filled with new huge buildings"

The word is "razed", not
"raised"

___

Anonymous said...

totalitarian architecture?
-overwhelming scale
-with no
relation to context or placed at the end of some important
composition line
-monotonous and monumental
-sometimes
boring, provoking negative emotions in people who are opposite to
the regime
-and build by totalitarian regime to express
power

___

Anonymous said...

totalitarian architecture?
-overwhelming scale
-with no
relation to context or placed at the end of some important
composition line
-monotonous and monumental
-sometimes
boring, provoking negative emotions in people who are opposite to
the regime
-and build by totalitarian regime to express
power

thanks!
then there is many examples of it around
the world, in USA can be called Totalitarian Architecture of
Capitalism :)Anyway some symbols of capitalism can not even be
called architecture, it's simply called kitsch

___

Ozren
Fürst said...

Is Roman architecture totalitarian as well?

___

Anonymous said...

a movie on the destruction of the
cathedral
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFlx55OANg8

___

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a Comment

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