Professional Documents
Culture Documents
This
collection of contemporary drawings, plans and paintings, together with modern
photographs, will come as a shock to a Western audience familiar with the architectural
achievements of the Constructivist period but still unacquainted with those of the 1930s,
'40s and 50s.
While the skyscrapers which tower over Moscow are the most obvious architectural legacy
of Stalin's reign, the most interesting aspect for the contemporary reader, and one which
Tarkhanov and Kavtaradze explore in full, is the history of the enormous architectural
competitions which proved such crucial tools in the propagandistic mass culture of the era.
Most of the grandiose visions reproduced here remained unbuilt, yet even in the form of
perspective views they convey the atmosphere of their time with great power.
Tarkhanov and Kavtaradze belong to a new generation of Russian art historians: the first
to be able to see the art and architecture of Stalin's time in a historical context. They not
only draw comparisons with expected sources, such as Speer's plans for a new Berlin, but
also discuss the Stalinist architects' allusions to classical and Renaissance architecture: the
Palace of the Doges and Trajan's Column united in the rendering of a palace for the Soviet
people, for example, or the looming, ghostly shapes of the classically inspired locks on the
Volga-Don Canal.
Stalinist Architecture is unique in providing an inside view of the period combined with an
objective perspective, and is richly illustrated with a vast range of material, much of which
has remained unseen in Soviet archives for the past forty years.
Stalinist dönemin Sovyet mimarisi, vizyoner bir niteliğe ve destansı bir ölçeğe
sahiptir. Çağdaş çizimler, planlar ve resimlerden oluşan bu koleksiyon, modern
fotoğraflarla birlikte, Konstrüktivist dönemin mimari başarılarına aşina olan
ancak 1930'lar, 40'lar ve 50'lerinkilere henüz aşina olmayan Batılı bir izleyici için
şok etkisi yaratacak.
Moskova'nın üzerinde yükselen gökdelenler, Stalin'in saltanatının en bariz
mimari mirası olsa da, çağdaş okuyucu için en ilginç olan ve Tarkhanov ve
Kavtaradze'nin tam olarak keşfettiği yön, bu kadar önemli araçları kanıtlayan
muazzam mimari yarışmaların tarihidir. dönemin propagandacı kitle kültürü.
Burada çoğaltılan görkemli görüntülerin çoğu inşa edilmeden kaldı, ancak
perspektif görünümler biçiminde bile zamanlarının atmosferini büyük bir güçle
aktarıyorlar.
Tarkhanov ve Kavtaradze, yeni nesil Rus sanat tarihçilerine aittir: Stalin
döneminin sanatını ve mimarisini tarihsel bir bağlamda görebilen ilk kişiler.
Sadece Speer'in yeni bir Berlin planları gibi beklenen kaynaklarla
karşılaştırmalar yapmakla kalmıyorlar, aynı zamanda Stalinist mimarların klasik
ve Rönesans mimarisine yaptığı imaları da tartışıyorlar: Doges Sarayı ve Trajan
Sütunu, Sovyet için bir sarayın oluşturulmasında birleşti. örneğin insanlar ya da
Volga-Don Kanalı'ndaki klasik esinli kilitlerin baş döndürücü, hayaletimsi
şekilleri.
Stalinist Mimari, nesnel bir bakış açısıyla birleştirilmiş dönemin içeriden bir
görünümünü sağlamada benzersizdir ve çoğu son kırk yıldır Sovyet arşivlerinde
görünmeyen geniş bir malzeme yelpazesiyle zengin bir şekilde resmedilmiştir.
The art of the Stalin era seems to exist in a state of time suspended,
recreating styles from the past on the one hand, but anticipating
postmodernism on the other. It may be this paradox, together with a certain
'Soviet exoticism' and the strikingly photogenic quality of some of the
architecture produced between the 1930s and the 1950s, which has
stimulated a superficial curiosity about the subject both in the Soviet Union
and in the West.
The aim of this book is to satisfy that curiosity but also to reach a deeper
understanding of the whole phenomenon of Stalinist architecture in the
context of the complex aesthetic philosophy which underlay every aspect of
Stalinist culture.
Terms such as 'Stalinist empire', 'Stalinist classicism' and 'Stalinist baroque'
are easily mocked. By the 1960s Soviet critics, often at the instigation of the
authorities, were competing with one another to invent amusing descriptions
of 'confectionery architecture', but with the benefit of hindsight and a
knowledge of late twentieth-century art we are in a better position to respect
the culture of the period in its own right. Despite all the understandable
prejudices against the bloody history of the Stalin cult, we cannot deny the
powerful creative quality of some of its art. It supported an ideology that was
intended to separate Russia from the rest of the world but which,
contradictorily, drew the country closer to contemporary European and
American culture, as well as to antiquity and the Renaissance. The critic
Andrei Sinyavsky has impressed a new generation of Russians with his
reflections on the nature of art: 'Art fears neither dictators nor repression; nor
yet conservatism and cliche. If required, art can be narrowly religious or
crudely statist; it can strip itself of all individuality and still retain its
greatness. Art is flexible enough to fit into every Procrustean bed proffered by
history . . .'
The architecture of the Stalinist era has many of the different qualities he
lists. It was not just a plaything of government - although many totalitarian
regimes have toyed with architecture - nor a strange accident of history, but a
phenomenon of great art with its successes and failures, glories and shame,
which is worthy of serious reappraisal in the context of its time.
Stalin döneminin sanatı, bir yandan geçmişten gelen stilleri yeniden yaratan,
diğer yandan postmodernizmi öngören askıya alınmış bir zaman durumunda
var gibi görünüyor. Hem Sovyetler Birliği'nde hem de Batı'da konuyla ilgili
yüzeysel bir merak uyandıran, 1930'lar ve 1950'ler arasında üretilen bazı
mimarilerin belirli bir "Sovyet egzotizmi" ve çarpıcı fotojenik kalitesiyle
birlikte bu paradoks olabilir. .
Bu kitabın amacı bu merakı gidermek, aynı zamanda Stalinist kültürün her
yönünün altında yatan karmaşık estetik felsefe bağlamında Stalinist
mimarinin tüm fenomenini daha derinden anlamaktır.
'Stalinist imparatorluk', 'Stalinist klasisizm' ve 'Stalinist barok' gibi terimlerle
kolayca alay edilebilir. 1960'larda Sovyet eleştirmenleri, genellikle yetkililerin
kışkırtmasıyla, 'şekerleme mimarisi'nin eğlenceli tanımlarını icat etmek için
birbirleriyle rekabet ediyorlardı, ancak geriye dönüp bakmanın yararı ve
yirminci yüzyılın sonlarına ait sanat bilgisi ile daha iyi bir konumdayız.
dönemin kültürüne başlı başına saygı duymaktır. Stalin kültünün kanlı
tarihine karşı tüm anlaşılabilir önyargılara rağmen, bazı sanatının güçlü
yaratıcı niteliğini inkar edemeyiz. Rusya'yı dünyanın geri kalanından ayırmayı
amaçlayan ama çelişkili bir şekilde ülkeyi çağdaş Avrupa ve Amerikan
kültürüne olduğu kadar antik çağa ve Rönesans'a da yakınlaştıran bir
ideolojiyi destekledi. Eleştirmen Andrei Sinyavsky, sanatın doğası üzerine
düşünceleriyle yeni nesil Rusları etkiledi: 'Sanat ne diktatörlerden ne de
baskıdan korkar; ne de muhafazakarlık ve klişe. Gerekirse sanat, dar anlamda
dinsel ya da kabaca devletçi olabilir; kendini tüm bireysellikten arındırabilir ve
yine de büyüklüğünü koruyabilir. Sanat, tarihin sunduğu her Procrustean
yatağına sığacak kadar esnektir. . .'
Stalinist dönemin mimarisi, listelediği birçok farklı niteliğe sahiptir. Bu sadece
hükümetin bir oyuncağı değildi - birçok totaliter rejim mimariyle oynamış olsa
da - ya da tarihin garip bir kazası değil, başarıları ve başarısızlıkları,
ihtişamları ve utançlarıyla büyük bir sanat fenomeniydi ve bu bağlamda ciddi
bir şekilde yeniden değerlendirilmeye değerdi. onun zamanının.
Stalin's immediate circle behaved very much like their master, and their often
unsophisticated tastes had continually to be taken into account. They
included Mikhail Kalinin and Vyacheslav Molotov, both simple men with little
education; Kliment Voroshilov, a former cavalryman; and Lazar Kaganovich, a
leather-worker. All judged architecture by their own limited standards.
Such powerful but uninformed control inevitably had its effect. For many
years, indeed until the 1970s, architects were not able simply to build in
reflection of the spirit and atmosphere of their time; they were irresistibly
drawn into politics and not infrequently sacrificed in the political struggle.
Three generations of architects were associated with the Stalinist style. The
first consisted of men with considerable pre-revolutionary careers behind
them, such as Alexei Shchusev, Ivan Zholtovsky, Vladimir Shchuko, Ivan Fomin
and the Vesnin brothers. These were the people, of bourgeois background and
education, who were to lay the foundations of the Stalinist style. The next
generation, including Georgii Golts, Andrei Burov and Karo Alabyan, were
mainly pupils of the 'pre-revolutionaries', and more amenable to the new
style than, for example, Fomin, the neoclassicist, or Zholtovsky, the devotee of
Palladianism, could ever be.
The third generation of 'Stalinist' architects hardly had time to prove
themselves before the regime came to an end. A few of the most talented,
such as Viktor Andreyev, Georgii Zakharov and Mikhail Posokhin, produced
some work which epitomizes the style in its purest form, a good example of
which is the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, built in Moscow in 1954.
The architects of Stalin's 'court' considered themselves an elite. Their fees
were enormous, they lived in luxurious apartments and studios and built
up priceless private libraries. Their way of life was remarkable in a country
chronically cursed with poverty and hunger. Soviet cinema of the time
invariably portrays architects as sybarites and gentlemen of leisure.
The architects themselves were well aware of the situation in the country.
Whatever its disadvantages it allowed them to hope that their most extreme
ideas might be realized, provided that they had the support of the supreme
power. Today their position may seem indefensible, but perhaps their
professional dilemma is understandable. Tyrants have always loved
architects.
Stalin's Russia was a nightmare of double standards and double thinking,
when the simple aspirations of ordinary people could amount to crimes
against the state. It was an era of speech-making and marching - but also a
time of disappearances and night arrests. Although this aspect of the period is
not our primary concern, it should be borne in mind. The recent past is still too
close for a completely objective view.