Soviet workers’ clubs in the 1920s

The role of the club is to serve as a sort of school of culture. It must liberate men from the old oppression of church and state. Continue reading

Architecture in cultural strife: Russian and Soviet architecture in drawings, 1900-1953

“Paper architecture” — drawn but unbuilt — exercises a strange grip on the imagination. It affords a brief glimpse into lost worlds: not only the real or historical world in which architects actually lived, but the worlds they imagined themselves to be building. Continue reading

Architecture in revolutionary times

“The architecture of the French Revolution was a first rehearsal for modernist architecture, similar to how French culture around 1789 was the rehearsal for the events of 1917.” Gennadii Revzin, 1989 Continue reading

Georgii Krutikov, The Flying City (VKhUTEMAS diploma project, 1928)

“Georgy Krutikov in 1928 envisaged a ‘Flying City Apartment Building’ moored to dirigibles when at anchor.” Continue reading

The Graveyard of Utopia: Soviet Urbanism and the Fate of the International Avant-Garde

Table of Contents I. Introduction: Soviet Urbanism and the Fate of the International Avant-Garde II. A Structural Overview of the Proceeding Work: The Sociohistoric Phenomenon of the International Avant-Garde and Soviet Urbanism as Its Decisive Moment III. The Dialectic of … Continue reading

The Soviet Moment: The Turn toward Urbanism, the Crisis in the West, and the Crossroads of the Architectural Avant-Garde in Russia

Introduction to Part Two of The Graveyard of Utopia: Soviet Urbanism and the Fate of the International Avant-Garde The Soviet architectural avant-garde was never as unified as its counterparts in the West.  Almost from the moment of its emergence in … Continue reading

“The Graveyard of Utopia: Soviet Urbanism and the Fate of the International Avant-Garde” (Roughly the First Half)

INTRODUCTION Comrades! The twin fires of war and revolution have devastated both our souls and our cities.  The palaces of yesterday’s grandeur stand as burnt-out skeletons. The ruined cities await new builders[…] To you who accept the legacy of Russia, … Continue reading

“The Graveyard of Utopia: Soviet Urbanism and the Fate of the International Avant-Garde,” Complete Introduction with PDF

Download Ross Wolfe’s “The Graveyard of Utopia: Soviet Urbanism and the Fate of the International Avant-Garde” Comrades! The twin fires of war and revolution have devastated both our souls and our cities.  The palaces of yesterday’s grandeur stand as burnt-out skeletons. … Continue reading

“The Graveyard of Utopia: Soviet Urbanism and the Fate of the International Avant-Garde,” by Ross Wolfe (Section 1)

INTRODUCTION Comrades! The twin fires of war and revolution have devastated both our souls and our cities.  The palaces of yesterday’s grandeur stand as burnt-out skeletons. The ruined cities await new builders[…] To you who accept the legacy of Russia, … Continue reading

Moisei Ginzburg’s “Results and Prospects” (1927)

I can’t seem to find the original Russian anywhere on my hard-drive.  If anyone has access to it, I would really appreciate if they would forward it to me. [Originally published as «Итоги и перспективы».  Современная архитектура, 1927.  № 4/5.  с. … Continue reading