МАРХИ - Московский архитектурный институт (Государственная академия)

INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC AND EDUCATIONAL ONLINE JOURNAL
ARCHITECTURE AND MODERN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES

3(48) 2019

Article	STALIN AND THE FIRST STAGES OF THE COMPETITION FOR THE DESIGN OF THE PALACE OF SOVIRTS (1931–1932)
Authors	S. Kuznetsov Chief Architect of Moscow, First Deputy Chairman of the Moscow City Architecture Committee Moscow, Russia
Abstract	Some researchers in the field of architectural history believe that the transition from the Avantgarde to the “Stalinist” style of architecture in the USSR happened because of the personal initiative of the Soviet dictator, I. Stalin. Several authors of publications on the Stalinist period of architecture are particularly strong supporters of this argument. There is no doubt that architecture, like other types of culture – literature, music, theater and cinema – was subject of severe ideological dictates of the ruling power. Stalin did personally intervene in the cultural sphere in a number of famous instances. However, the myth that Stalin initiated a “style break” and completely deprived architects of creative agency in the early 1930s is not supported by archival sources. Russian and foreign historiography has already established that the change in architectural style toward monumentalism was most influenced by the competition for the design of the Palace of Soviets in Moscow. Based on archival research, this article examines the crucial early phases of the Palace competition. It shows that architects played key roles in a stylistic shift that was driven by a number of factors: ideology, personal politics, and spatial and architectural considerations, as well as Stalin's influence.
Keywords:	Stalin and architecture, architecture and power, Palace of Soviets, Boris Iofan, transition from Avantgarde to Stalinist architecture
	Article (RUS)
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For citation	Kuznetsov S. Stalin and the First Stages of the Competition for the Design of the Palace of Soviets (1931-1932). Architecture and Modern Information Technologies, 2019, no. 3(48), pp. 51-60. Available at: https://marhi.ru/AMIT/2019/3kvart19/PDF/04_kuznecov.pdf

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