Before 1917, the Russian architectural scene was divided between Russian Modern (a local interpretation of Art Nouveau, strongest in Moscow), and the neoclassical revival (strongest in St. Petersburg).[6] The neoclassical school produced mature architects, such as Aleksei Shchusev, Ivan Zholtovsky, Ivan Fomin, Vladimir Shchuko, and Aleksandr Tamanian). At the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917, professionals were established, with their own companies, schools and followers. These people would eventually become the elder architects of Stalinism and produce the best examples of the time.

Another school that began after the Revolution that is known today as constructivist architecture. Some of the constructivists (such as the Vesnin brothers, for example, Leonid Vesnín) were young professionals who had established themselves before 1917, while others had only completed their professional training (such as Konstantin Melnikov) or had none. They partnered with modern artist groups to compensate for a lack of experience with public exhibition. When the New Economic Policy began, its publicity led to numerous architectural commissions. Experience was not acquired quickly, and many constructivist buildings were rightly criticized for their irrational plans, cost overruns and low quality of execution.[7]​[8]​.

For a brief time in the mid-1920s, the architectural profession operated in the old-fashioned way, with private companies, international competitions, public tenders, and disputes in professional journals. Foreign architects were welcomed, especially towards the end of this period, when the Great Depression reduced their jobs in their countries. Among these were Ernst May, Albert Kahn"), Le Corbusier, Bruno Taut and Mart Stam.[9] The difference between the traditionalists and the constructivists was not well defined. Zholtovsky and Shchúsev hired modernists as junior partners for their projects. Zholtovsky hired Melnikov as a junior partner for the extensive housing project for the AMO plant") (1923). Zholtovsky and Shchusev directed the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition in 1923, distributing construction work on the pavilions to junior architects of all styles and at the same time incorporating constructivist developments into their own designs. of 417 million rubles.

Urban planning was developed separately. The housing crisis in large cities and the industrialization of remote areas required the construction of mass housing, the development of new territories and the reconstruction of old cities. Theorists devised a variety of strategies that created politicized discussions without much practical result. State intervention was imminent.

Stalin's personal architectural preferences and the extent of his own influence remain, for the most part, a matter of deductions, conjecture, and anecdotal evidence. The facts, or their representation in Soviet public documents, largely refer to the Palace of Soviets competition of 1931-1933:

The architects invited to lead these workshops were traditionalists - Ivan Zholtovsky, Alekséi Shchusev, Ivan Fomin, Boris Iofán, Vladimir Shchuko, Nikolai Ladovsky - as well as constructivists - Ilya Golosov, Panteleimon Golosov, Nikolai Kolli), Konstantin Melnikov, Viktor Vesnin and Moisei Guínzburg—This was the beginning of an important trend that lasted until 1955: Stalin chose Iofán for a project, but retained all the architects who competed in his employment. As Dmitri Khmelnitsky pointed out: «The comparison with Nazi architecture works to a certain extent, however, there is an important difference. Stalin never chose a single architect or style, as Hitler chose Speer. constructivists, nor traditionalists...Stalin forged his "Speer" with everything he could find.

early Stalinism

The early years of Stalinist architecture were characterized by the construction of individual buildings or, for the most part, monoblock development projects. Rebuilding vast areas of Moscow proved to be much more difficult than razing historic districts. The three most important buildings in Moscow from that time are on the same square, and they were all three built between 1931 and 1935; However, each draft evolved independently, with little attention to the overall whole (see pre-war film stills, 1936 1938 1939). Each one established its own vector of development for the next two decades.

A different type of development, known as "early Stalinism" or "Postconstructivism",[11] developed from 1932 to 1938. It can be traced as a simplification of Art Deco (through Shchuko and Iofan) and national constructivism, which gradually converts to Neoclassicism (Ilya Golosov, Vladimir Vladimirov). These buildings retain the simple rectangular shapes and large glass surfaces of Constructivism, but are ornamented with balconies, porticos, and columns (generally rectangular and very light). In 1938, it was already out of use.

The General Plan of Moscow (1935)

In July 1935 the State evaluated the results and finally issued a decree on the General Plan of Moscow. The Plan, among other things, included Stalin's ideas on urban development:

These regulations effectively prohibited low-cost mass construction in the old town and "prime" streets, as well as the construction of single-family homes. Low-cost developments were relegated to remote areas, but most funds were diverted to expensive new "package" projects that valued facades and grandeur over the needs of overcrowded cities.

Moscow Canal (1932-1938)

The Moscow Canal or Moscow-Volga Canal is a canal that connects the Moscow River with the main transport artery of European Russia, the Volga River. Its length of 128 km runs through the territories of the Tver and Moscow oblasts, as well as the federal city of Moscow. It provides 0.9 billion cubic meters of water to the city annually. With its construction, Moscow was linked by river to five seas: the White, the Baltic, the Azov, the Caspian and the Black. For this reason Moscow is called the "port of the five seas" (in Russian: port piatí moréi). The canal connects with the Moscow River 191 kilometers from its estuary in Tushino (an area northwest of Moscow), and with the Volga River in the city of Dubna, just upstream of the Ivankovo ​​Reservoir dam.

It was built between 1932 and 1937 by Gulag prisoners during the early-mid Stalin period.

Peter the Great had already had the idea of ​​joining the Volga and the Moscow River through a canal, although the idea was only realized between the years 1825 and 1844.

Moscow Avenues (1938-1941)

During the 1930s, the construction industry had already gained enough experience to tackle large, multi-block urban redevelopments, although all of them were located in Moscow. The three most important city projects were:.

USSR agricultural exhibition of 1939

In 1936, the annual Agricultural Exhibition was relocated to an empty field north of Moscow. On August 1, 1939, more than 250 pavilions had already been built on a plot of land. A statue of Vera Múkhina, Worker and collective farmer, which was on top of the USSR pavilion at the "Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne" (1937) (Paris Expo 1937), was reconstructed at the entrance doors. Several pavilions were created in the national styles of the Soviet republics and regions; A walk through the exhibition recreated a tour of the immense country. The central pavilion, the work of Vladimir Shchukó, was based somewhat on the aborted 1932 project of the Zholtovsky Palace of Soviets.[14] Except for the national buildings, nothing has survived (the central gates and large pavilions were rebuilt during the 1950s).

The surviving pavilions from 1939 are the last and only example of Stalin's monumental propaganda in its original configuration. Such pieces of propaganda were not built to last (such as Shchusev's War Trophy Hangar in Gorky Park); some were demolished during the de-Stalinization of 1956.

La arquitectura de la posguerra, a veces percibida como de un estilo uniforme, se fragmentó en al menos cuatro vectores de desarrollo:.

La construcción residencial en la posguerra fue segregada según los inquilinos. No se hizo ningún esfuerzo para ocultar los lujos; a veces eran evidentes, a veces deliberadamente exagerados (en contraste con la simple Casa del Embankment") de Iofan). Las residencias de los funcionarios de Stalin estaban en el nivel superior; así fue la Casa de los Leones de 1945 de Ivan Zholtovsky (la Casa de los Leones fue diseñado por Nikolai Gaigarov y M.M. Dzisko del taller de Zholtovsky. Zholtovsky supervisó y promovió el proyecto), una lujosa residencia en el centro para los mariscales del Ejército Rojo"). Los apartamentos para los generales diseñados en 1947 por Lev Rudnev, en el mismo bloque, tiene una disposición exterior menos extravagante. Había un tipo de edificio para cada rango de la jerarquía de Stalin.[15]​.

Los edificios de clase alta pueden ser fácilmente identificados por detalles como el espaciamiento entre ventanas, los áticos y las bay windows. A veces, el rango relativo y la ocupación de los inquilinos está representada por adornos, a veces por placas conmemorativas. Se ha de tener en cuenta que todas esas eran las características de Moscú. En las ciudades más pequeñas, la élite social generalmente comprendía sólo una o dos clases; San Petersburgo siempre tuvo una oferta de residencias de lujo de la época prerrevolucionaria.

Volga-Don Canal (1948-1952)

Construction of the Volga-Don Canal, designed by Sergey Zhuk's Hydroproject Institute, began before the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, which would disrupt the process. During 1948-1952 construction was completed. Navigation began on June 1, 1952. The canal and its facilities were built predominantly by prisoners, who were detained in several specially organized corrective labor camps. During 1952 the number of convicts employed by construction exceeded 100,000.

Underground metro (1938-1958)

The first stage of the Moscow Metro (1931-1935) began as a city transportation service. There was a lot of propaganda about its construction, but the subway itself was not perceived as propaganda. "Unlike other projects, the Moscow Metro was never named Stalin's metro."[16]​ The old architects[17]​ avoided commissions on the metro. Attitudes changed when work on the second stage began in 1935. This time, the metro was a political statement and enjoyed much better funding.[18] The second stage produced such different examples of Stalinist style as the Mayakovskaya (1938), Elektrozavodskaya and Partizanskaya (1944) stations.

It took 6 years to complete the first post-war metro line (a 6.4 km section of the ring line). These stations were dedicated to Victory. The Comintern metro station was renamed Kalininskaya in December 1946), the Park Kultury-Koltsevaya station featured real Gothic chandeliers, another exit. Metrostroy operated its own marble and carpentry factories, producing 150 solid marble columns for this short section. The second section of the ring line was a tribute to heroic work (with the exception of Shchusev's Komsomolskaya, set to recount Stalin's speech of November 7, 1941).[19]

On April 4, 1953, the public learns that the section from the Alexandrovsky Sad station, later called Kalininskaya, to Kievskaya is closed forever and replaced by a new deep alignment line. There is no official explanation for this costly change; all speculations refer to a bomb shelter function. One of the stations, Leonid Polyakov's Arbatskaya (2), became the longest station in the system, 250 meters instead of the standard 160, and probably the most extravagant. "To a certain extent, it is the Petrine baroque of Moscow, but despite the citations of historical legacy, this station is hyperbolic, ethereal and unreal."[20]​.

The Stalinist canon was officially condemned when two other sections, Luzhniki and VDNKh, were being built. These stations, completed in 1957 and 1958, were mostly stripped of excess, but architecturally they still belong to Stalin's lineage. The date of May 1, 1958, when the last of these stations opened, marks the end of all late Stalinist construction.

"Seven Sisters" (1947-1955)

In 1946 Stalin had the idea of ​​building many skyscrapers in Moscow, which led to a decree in January 1947 and the beginning of a six-year advertising campaign. At the time of the official opening, September 1947, eight construction sites were identified (the Eighth Sister, in Zaryadye, would be cancelled). Eight design teams, led by the new generation of chief architects (aged 37 to 62), produced numerous projects; there was neither open competition nor evaluation committee, an indicator of Stalin's personal management.

All the main architects received Stalin Prizes in April 1949 for preliminary blueprints; followed by corrections and amendments until very late stages of completion. All buildings were steel frames with concrete forms and masonry walls, supported by concrete foundations (which sometimes required ingenious water retention technologies).

Skyscraper projects required new materials (especially ceramics) and technologies; The solution to those problems contributed to later housing and infrastructure development. However, it came at the cost of stopping regular construction, at a time when the country was in ruins. The cost of this project on real urban needs can be judged from these numbers:

Similar skyscrapers were built in Warsaw, Bucharest and Riga; the tower in kyiv was completed without a crown and bell tower.

The rise of skyscrapers, publicized since 1947, was recreated by numerous smaller buildings across the country. The 8- to 12-story towers marked the 4- to 5-story complexes of postwar regional centers. The Central Pavilion of the All-Russian Exhibition Center, reopened in 1954, is 90 meters high, has a cathedral-like main hall, 35 meters high, 25 meters wide with Stalinist sculptures and murals.[22]​.

The double towers, which flank the city's main squares, can be found from Berlin to Siberia:

Stalin's skyscrapers

The Stalin Skyscrapers (Russian: ) are a group of seven Moscow skyscrapers designed in the Stalinist era. The English nickname for these skyscrapers is the "Seven Sisters." They were officially built from 1947 to 1953, in a complex combination of Russian Baroque and Gothic styles with the same contemporary technology used in the construction of skyscrapers in the United States.

The seven buildings are: Hotel Ukraina, the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Apartments, the Kudrinskaya Square building, the Leningradskaya Hotel, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the main building of Moscow State University, and the Red Gates Administrative Building.

Independence Avenue in Minsk (1944-1959)

The urban architectural ensemble of Nezalezhnastci Avenue in Minsk is an example of the integrated approach to the organization of a city's environment by harmoniously combining its architectural monuments, planning structure, landscape and places of natural or artificial vegetation. The Complex was built during the fifteen years after the Second World War. Its length is 2900 meters. The width of the road, including sidewalks, varies from 42 to 48 meters.

Work on the general layout of the former Sovietskaya Street began in 1944, shortly after the liberation of Minsk from Nazi troops. Leading architects from Moscow and Minsk took part in the project. In 1947, as a result of the competition, the project that had been developed under the supervision of academician of architecture M. Parusnikov, was selected for implementation.

The project plan for the Nezalezhnastci Avenue complex is a good example. The design provided the main characteristics of the urban complex: the length of the building facades, their silhouettes, the main divisions and the general architectural pattern. The integrated construction plan was based on hosting innovative ideas with classical architecture. Pre-war buildings and park areas were incorporated into the architectural ensemble.

Currently, the buildings that make up the Nezalezhnastci Avenue complex are registered in the State List of Historical and Cultural Values ​​of the Republic of Belarus. The architectural ensemble itself, with its buildings and structures, design and landscape, is protected by the state and inscribed on the List as a complex of historical and cultural values. In 1968 a National Prize for Architecture was introduced which was won by a team of architects representing the Moscow and Minsk schools of architecture (M.Parusnikov, G.Badanov, I.Barsch, S.Botkovsky, A.Voinov, V.Korol), S.Musinsky, G.Sisoev, N.Trachtenberg and N.Shpigelman) for the design and construction of the Nezaleznosci ensemble Avenue.[23]​.

The most famous Stalinist architectural ensembles in Minsk are also on Lenina Street, Kamsamolskaya Street, Kamunistychnaya Street, Pryvakzalnaya Square and others.

Reconstruction of kyiv (1944-1955)

Central kyiv was destroyed during World War II when the Red Army abandoned the city and used remote explosives to detonate bombs and deny them to German forces. After the liberation of kyiv, the streets and squares of the city were cleared of ruins. Symbolically (as a commemoration of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the USSR) on June 22, 1944, the City Soviet organized a competition for architects from kyiv and elsewhere in the republic and the union to develop a new project for the complete reconstruction of the central city.

Stalin Prize of 1949

The Stalin Prize of 1949, announced in March 1950, showed a clear and current division of Stalinist architecture: extravagant and luxurious buildings were still praised, but so were attempts to make the Stalinist style affordable. The 1949 award was awarded exclusively to completed apartment buildings, a sign of priority. It also demonstrates the class stratification of eligible tenants at this time. Three Moscow buildings received awards:.

Las repúblicas nacionales de la URSS tenían derecho a desarrollar sus propios estilos estalinistas, con más o menos libertad. Cuando las fuerzas locales no fueron suficientes, los arquitectos rusos fueron convocados (Shchusev diseñó un teatro de aspecto oriental en Taskent, etc.). Alexander Tamanian, designado como el principal arquitecto de Ereván, es en gran parte responsable de la variedad armenia de la arquitectura estalinista. La arquitectura estalinista fue, desde aproximadamente 1948 hasta 1956, empleada por el Bloque del Este de la posguerra 'Democracias populares', generalmente después de derrotar a la oposición modernista interna. Esto a veces mostraba ciertas influencias locales, aunque a menudo se consideraba una importación soviética.

Poland

The Palace of Culture and Science (1952-1957), was a “gift from the Soviet people to the Polish nation,” perhaps the most controversial of Stalinist architectural imports. It was the work of the Soviet architect Lev Rudnev. and was inspired by the Moscow skyscrapers (known outside Russia as the "Seven Sisters"), in turn inspired by American art deco skyscrapers. It was built in 1952-1955 and about 3,500 to 5,000 workers from the Soviet Union and about 4,000 Polish workers worked on it. Architecturally, it is a mix of socialist realism and Polish historicism. Considering the antenna support, which is an integral part of the spire, it has a height of 237 meters – still the seventh tallest building in the European Union – and completely dominates the city.

However, an earlier exercise in Neoclassicism was the grand MDM Boulevard, which was developed in parallel with the faithful reconstruction of the center of the old town. MDM was a typical Stalinist "master", with the generous street width often rumored to be for the purposes of tank movements. The planned city of Nowa Huta outside Krakow was also designed in Stalinist style in the late 1940s.

East Germany

After the Soviet victory, several grandiose war memorials were built in Berlin, including one in the Tiergarten and a larger one in Treptow. The first major Stalinist building in Germany was the Soviet embassy on Unter den Linden. This was initially mocked by modernists such as Hermann Henselmann, and until around 1948, East Berlin city planning (led by Hans Scharoun) was modernist, as in the gallery apartments that make up the first part of a planned Stalinallee. However, the government condemned these experiments and adopted the Russian style, and the rest of the Stalinallee was designed by Henselmann and former modernists such as Richard Paulick in what was disrespectfully dubbed Zuckerbäckerstil ('wedding cake style'). Similar, although less grandiose, monuments were designed in other cities, such as Leipzig, Dresden, Magdeburg, Rostock or the new city of Stalinstadt.[27]

Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Slovakia, Hungary and Latvia

Central buildings constructed in the Stalinist style also included the Scânteii House in Romania and the Largo complex, Sofia ("Largo (Sofia)"), in Bulgaria. These were all projects before 1953, even if some were finished after Stalin's death. In 1957 the Družba Hotel was opened in Czechoslovakia. An example in Albania is the former Albanian Film Studio in Tirana. In Hungary, a Stalinist style was adopted for the new town of Sztálinváros and many other housing, government and infrastructure projects during the 1950s. As in the USSR, modernism returned in much of Eastern Europe after the mid-1950s, although exceptions occurred in more authoritarian regimes: the enormous Parliament Palace in Bucharest is a very late example of neoclassicism, begun as late as 1984 and completed in 1990, shortly after the end of Nicolae Ceauşescu's regime in 1989. Latvia has the Latvian Academy of Sciences building in Riga, also known as Stalin's birthday cake.

Other areas

In East Asia, some examples can be found in North Korea and China, such as the Beijing Exhibition Center, the Shanghai Exhibition Center, originally built as the Sino-Soviet Friendship Palace, and the "Moscow" restaurant in Beijing. Examples can also be found in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Stalinist styles were used for the design of Soviet embassies outside the Eastern Bloc, especially the embassy in Helsinki (1952), Finland and in Berlin, Germany. The building, designed by architect E. S. Grebenshthikov, bears some resemblance to Buckingham Palace in London; This is said to be due to the taste of the then Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov for the official residence of the British monarch.

Un cambio de la arquitectura estalinista al concreto prefabricado estándar generalmente se asocia con el reinado de Jrushchov y particularmente el decreto de noviembre de 1955 sobre la liquidación de los excesos ... (noviembre de 1955).[26]​ De hecho, Khrushchev estuvo involucrado en una campaña de reducción de costos, pero comenzó en 1948, mientras Stalin estaba vivo. Una conversión a la construcción en masa es evidente en los edificios estalinistas de la economía como Bolshaya Kaluzhskaya de Zholtovsky, 7. Basados en la masonería, proporcionaron solo una ganancia marginal; tenía que haber una nueva tecnología. Durante 1948-1955, varias oficinas de arquitectura conducen un enorme estudio de factibilidad, diseñando y probando nuevas tecnologías.[28]​.

Frame and panel experiment (1948-1952)

In 1947, engineer Vitaly Lagutenko was appointed to head the experimental Industrial Construction Bureau, with the goal of studying and designing low-cost technology suitable for rapid mass construction. Lagutenko highlighted large precast concrete panels. He teamed up with architects Mikhail Posokhin (senior)[29] and Ashot Mndoyants, and in 1948 this team built its first frame-and-panel concrete building near the current Polezhaevskaya metro station. Four identical buildings remained nearby; Similar buildings were constructed during 1949-1952 across the country.[30] This was still an experiment, not supported by industrial capacity or accelerated project schedules. Posokhin also devised several pseudo-Stalinist configurations of the same building blocks, with decorative excesses; These were not implemented. Concrete frames became common for industrial construction, but too expensive for mass housing.

Moscow Conference (January 1951)

It is not certain which Party leader personally initiated the drive to cut costs. The need was imminent. What is known is that in January 1951, Khrushchev, then head of the Moscow City Party, organized a professional conference on construction problems.[31] The conference decreed a transition to large-sized concrete pieces made in plants, building new plants for precast concrete and other materials, and replacing wet masonry technology with rapid assembly of precast elements. The industry still had to decide: should they use large or taller panels, or smaller panels, or perhaps two-story panels, as Lagutenko attempted in Kuzminki?[32] Basic technology was established, feasibility studies continued. A year later, this 19th line of action, the establishment of precast concrete plants, became law at the 19th Party Congress, which Stalin attended. The main public buildings and elite homes were not affected yet.

Peschanaya Square (1951-1955)

A different type of experiment concerned improving project management, moving from a single-building to a multi-block project scale. This was proven in the development of Peschanaya Square (a territory north of the Posokhin-Lagutenko block of 1948). Using the flow method[33]​ of moving equipment through a sequence of buildings in different stages of completion and a sparing application of precast concrete to traditional masonry, builders managed to complete typical 7-story buildings in 5 to 6 months.[34]​ Instead of wet stucco (which caused at least two months of delay), these buildings are finished with open brick on the exterior and drywall on the interior; and from a quality of life consideration, these are true, and the last, Stalinist buildings.

When Stalin was alive, luxury empire and mass construction coexisted; Lagutenko's approval did not mean the disappearance of Rybitsky. It changed in November 1954, when critics openly criticized the excesses and willingness to build 10- to 14-story buildings, Stalin's own will; according to Khmelnitsky,[35] this must have been personally initiated by Khrushchev. Over the next year, the campaign grew and prepared the public to end Stalinism.

The decree on the liquidation of excesses... (November 4, 1955) provides some data on the cost of Stalinist excesses, which are estimated at 30-33% of the total costs. Certainly, these examples were cherry-picked, but they are reasonable. Alexey Dushkin and Yevgeny Rybitsky received particular criticism for excessive costs and luxurious floor plans; Rybitsky and Polyakov were deprived of their Stalin awards. This was followed with specific orders to develop standardized designs and install a Standardized Buildings Institute in place of the previous Academy.[26]​.

Stalinist architecture died for five more years: work on old buildings was no longer a priority. Some were redesigned; Some, structurally complete, lost the excesses. The story ended with the completion of the Hotel Ukrayina (kyiv) in 1961.

The majestic Stalinallee in Berlin, also completed in 1961, was conceived in 1952 and had little to lose: the scale and bulk of these buildings are definitely Stalinist, but the modest finishes are similar to Jugendstil and Prussian Neoclassicism. The street would later be extended in an International Style style and called Karl-Marx-Allee.

Certain Brezhnev-era buildings, notably the "Russian White House", can be traced to Stalin's legacy, while the neo-Stalinist regime in Romania produced a vast, late example of the style in its Parliament Palace, which was begun in 1984. Deliberate recreations of its style have appeared in Moscow since 1996, either as period neighborhoods or as individual developments. Some are influenced by pure Neoclassicism or art deco; With some exceptions, its architectural quality and function in urban development is disputed. Examples of the least controversial are:.

Before 1917, the Russian architectural scene was divided between Russian Modern (a local interpretation of Art Nouveau, strongest in Moscow), and the neoclassical revival (strongest in St. Petersburg).[6] The neoclassical school produced mature architects, such as Aleksei Shchusev, Ivan Zholtovsky, Ivan Fomin, Vladimir Shchuko, and Aleksandr Tamanian). At the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917, professionals were established, with their own companies, schools and followers. These people would eventually become the elder architects of Stalinism and produce the best examples of the time.

Another school that began after the Revolution that is known today as constructivist architecture. Some of the constructivists (such as the Vesnin brothers, for example, Leonid Vesnín) were young professionals who had established themselves before 1917, while others had only completed their professional training (such as Konstantin Melnikov) or had none. They partnered with modern artist groups to compensate for a lack of experience with public exhibition. When the New Economic Policy began, its publicity led to numerous architectural commissions. Experience was not acquired quickly, and many constructivist buildings were rightly criticized for their irrational plans, cost overruns and low quality of execution.[7]​[8]​.

For a brief time in the mid-1920s, the architectural profession operated in the old-fashioned way, with private companies, international competitions, public tenders, and disputes in professional journals. Foreign architects were welcomed, especially towards the end of this period, when the Great Depression reduced their jobs in their countries. Among these were Ernst May, Albert Kahn"), Le Corbusier, Bruno Taut and Mart Stam.[9] The difference between the traditionalists and the constructivists was not well defined. Zholtovsky and Shchúsev hired modernists as junior partners for their projects. Zholtovsky hired Melnikov as a junior partner for the extensive housing project for the AMO plant") (1923). Zholtovsky and Shchusev directed the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition in 1923, distributing construction work on the pavilions to junior architects of all styles and at the same time incorporating constructivist developments into their own designs. of 417 million rubles.

Urban planning was developed separately. The housing crisis in large cities and the industrialization of remote areas required the construction of mass housing, the development of new territories and the reconstruction of old cities. Theorists devised a variety of strategies that created politicized discussions without much practical result. State intervention was imminent.

Stalin's personal architectural preferences and the extent of his own influence remain, for the most part, a matter of deductions, conjecture, and anecdotal evidence. The facts, or their representation in Soviet public documents, largely refer to the Palace of Soviets competition of 1931-1933:

The architects invited to lead these workshops were traditionalists - Ivan Zholtovsky, Alekséi Shchusev, Ivan Fomin, Boris Iofán, Vladimir Shchuko, Nikolai Ladovsky - as well as constructivists - Ilya Golosov, Panteleimon Golosov, Nikolai Kolli), Konstantin Melnikov, Viktor Vesnin and Moisei Guínzburg—This was the beginning of an important trend that lasted until 1955: Stalin chose Iofán for a project, but retained all the architects who competed in his employment. As Dmitri Khmelnitsky pointed out: «The comparison with Nazi architecture works to a certain extent, however, there is an important difference. Stalin never chose a single architect or style, as Hitler chose Speer. constructivists, nor traditionalists...Stalin forged his "Speer" with everything he could find.

early Stalinism

The early years of Stalinist architecture were characterized by the construction of individual buildings or, for the most part, monoblock development projects. Rebuilding vast areas of Moscow proved to be much more difficult than razing historic districts. The three most important buildings in Moscow from that time are on the same square, and they were all three built between 1931 and 1935; However, each draft evolved independently, with little attention to the overall whole (see pre-war film stills, 1936 1938 1939). Each one established its own vector of development for the next two decades.

A different type of development, known as "early Stalinism" or "Postconstructivism",[11] developed from 1932 to 1938. It can be traced as a simplification of Art Deco (through Shchuko and Iofan) and national constructivism, which gradually converts to Neoclassicism (Ilya Golosov, Vladimir Vladimirov). These buildings retain the simple rectangular shapes and large glass surfaces of Constructivism, but are ornamented with balconies, porticos, and columns (generally rectangular and very light). In 1938, it was already out of use.

The General Plan of Moscow (1935)

In July 1935 the State evaluated the results and finally issued a decree on the General Plan of Moscow. The Plan, among other things, included Stalin's ideas on urban development:

These regulations effectively prohibited low-cost mass construction in the old town and "prime" streets, as well as the construction of single-family homes. Low-cost developments were relegated to remote areas, but most funds were diverted to expensive new "package" projects that valued facades and grandeur over the needs of overcrowded cities.

Moscow Canal (1932-1938)

The Moscow Canal or Moscow-Volga Canal is a canal that connects the Moscow River with the main transport artery of European Russia, the Volga River. Its length of 128 km runs through the territories of the Tver and Moscow oblasts, as well as the federal city of Moscow. It provides 0.9 billion cubic meters of water to the city annually. With its construction, Moscow was linked by river to five seas: the White, the Baltic, the Azov, the Caspian and the Black. For this reason Moscow is called the "port of the five seas" (in Russian: port piatí moréi). The canal connects with the Moscow River 191 kilometers from its estuary in Tushino (an area northwest of Moscow), and with the Volga River in the city of Dubna, just upstream of the Ivankovo ​​Reservoir dam.

It was built between 1932 and 1937 by Gulag prisoners during the early-mid Stalin period.

Peter the Great had already had the idea of ​​joining the Volga and the Moscow River through a canal, although the idea was only realized between the years 1825 and 1844.

Moscow Avenues (1938-1941)

During the 1930s, the construction industry had already gained enough experience to tackle large, multi-block urban redevelopments, although all of them were located in Moscow. The three most important city projects were:.

USSR agricultural exhibition of 1939

In 1936, the annual Agricultural Exhibition was relocated to an empty field north of Moscow. On August 1, 1939, more than 250 pavilions had already been built on a plot of land. A statue of Vera Múkhina, Worker and collective farmer, which was on top of the USSR pavilion at the "Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne" (1937) (Paris Expo 1937), was reconstructed at the entrance doors. Several pavilions were created in the national styles of the Soviet republics and regions; A walk through the exhibition recreated a tour of the immense country. The central pavilion, the work of Vladimir Shchukó, was based somewhat on the aborted 1932 project of the Zholtovsky Palace of Soviets.[14] Except for the national buildings, nothing has survived (the central gates and large pavilions were rebuilt during the 1950s).

The surviving pavilions from 1939 are the last and only example of Stalin's monumental propaganda in its original configuration. Such pieces of propaganda were not built to last (such as Shchusev's War Trophy Hangar in Gorky Park); some were demolished during the de-Stalinization of 1956.

La arquitectura de la posguerra, a veces percibida como de un estilo uniforme, se fragmentó en al menos cuatro vectores de desarrollo:.

La construcción residencial en la posguerra fue segregada según los inquilinos. No se hizo ningún esfuerzo para ocultar los lujos; a veces eran evidentes, a veces deliberadamente exagerados (en contraste con la simple Casa del Embankment") de Iofan). Las residencias de los funcionarios de Stalin estaban en el nivel superior; así fue la Casa de los Leones de 1945 de Ivan Zholtovsky (la Casa de los Leones fue diseñado por Nikolai Gaigarov y M.M. Dzisko del taller de Zholtovsky. Zholtovsky supervisó y promovió el proyecto), una lujosa residencia en el centro para los mariscales del Ejército Rojo"). Los apartamentos para los generales diseñados en 1947 por Lev Rudnev, en el mismo bloque, tiene una disposición exterior menos extravagante. Había un tipo de edificio para cada rango de la jerarquía de Stalin.[15]​.

Los edificios de clase alta pueden ser fácilmente identificados por detalles como el espaciamiento entre ventanas, los áticos y las bay windows. A veces, el rango relativo y la ocupación de los inquilinos está representada por adornos, a veces por placas conmemorativas. Se ha de tener en cuenta que todas esas eran las características de Moscú. En las ciudades más pequeñas, la élite social generalmente comprendía sólo una o dos clases; San Petersburgo siempre tuvo una oferta de residencias de lujo de la época prerrevolucionaria.

Volga-Don Canal (1948-1952)

Construction of the Volga-Don Canal, designed by Sergey Zhuk's Hydroproject Institute, began before the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, which would disrupt the process. During 1948-1952 construction was completed. Navigation began on June 1, 1952. The canal and its facilities were built predominantly by prisoners, who were detained in several specially organized corrective labor camps. During 1952 the number of convicts employed by construction exceeded 100,000.

Underground metro (1938-1958)

The first stage of the Moscow Metro (1931-1935) began as a city transportation service. There was a lot of propaganda about its construction, but the subway itself was not perceived as propaganda. "Unlike other projects, the Moscow Metro was never named Stalin's metro."[16]​ The old architects[17]​ avoided commissions on the metro. Attitudes changed when work on the second stage began in 1935. This time, the metro was a political statement and enjoyed much better funding.[18] The second stage produced such different examples of Stalinist style as the Mayakovskaya (1938), Elektrozavodskaya and Partizanskaya (1944) stations.

It took 6 years to complete the first post-war metro line (a 6.4 km section of the ring line). These stations were dedicated to Victory. The Comintern metro station was renamed Kalininskaya in December 1946), the Park Kultury-Koltsevaya station featured real Gothic chandeliers, another exit. Metrostroy operated its own marble and carpentry factories, producing 150 solid marble columns for this short section. The second section of the ring line was a tribute to heroic work (with the exception of Shchusev's Komsomolskaya, set to recount Stalin's speech of November 7, 1941).[19]

On April 4, 1953, the public learns that the section from the Alexandrovsky Sad station, later called Kalininskaya, to Kievskaya is closed forever and replaced by a new deep alignment line. There is no official explanation for this costly change; all speculations refer to a bomb shelter function. One of the stations, Leonid Polyakov's Arbatskaya (2), became the longest station in the system, 250 meters instead of the standard 160, and probably the most extravagant. "To a certain extent, it is the Petrine baroque of Moscow, but despite the citations of historical legacy, this station is hyperbolic, ethereal and unreal."[20]​.

The Stalinist canon was officially condemned when two other sections, Luzhniki and VDNKh, were being built. These stations, completed in 1957 and 1958, were mostly stripped of excess, but architecturally they still belong to Stalin's lineage. The date of May 1, 1958, when the last of these stations opened, marks the end of all late Stalinist construction.

"Seven Sisters" (1947-1955)

In 1946 Stalin had the idea of ​​building many skyscrapers in Moscow, which led to a decree in January 1947 and the beginning of a six-year advertising campaign. At the time of the official opening, September 1947, eight construction sites were identified (the Eighth Sister, in Zaryadye, would be cancelled). Eight design teams, led by the new generation of chief architects (aged 37 to 62), produced numerous projects; there was neither open competition nor evaluation committee, an indicator of Stalin's personal management.

All the main architects received Stalin Prizes in April 1949 for preliminary blueprints; followed by corrections and amendments until very late stages of completion. All buildings were steel frames with concrete forms and masonry walls, supported by concrete foundations (which sometimes required ingenious water retention technologies).

Skyscraper projects required new materials (especially ceramics) and technologies; The solution to those problems contributed to later housing and infrastructure development. However, it came at the cost of stopping regular construction, at a time when the country was in ruins. The cost of this project on real urban needs can be judged from these numbers:

Similar skyscrapers were built in Warsaw, Bucharest and Riga; the tower in kyiv was completed without a crown and bell tower.

The rise of skyscrapers, publicized since 1947, was recreated by numerous smaller buildings across the country. The 8- to 12-story towers marked the 4- to 5-story complexes of postwar regional centers. The Central Pavilion of the All-Russian Exhibition Center, reopened in 1954, is 90 meters high, has a cathedral-like main hall, 35 meters high, 25 meters wide with Stalinist sculptures and murals.[22]​.

The double towers, which flank the city's main squares, can be found from Berlin to Siberia:

Stalin's skyscrapers

The Stalin Skyscrapers (Russian: ) are a group of seven Moscow skyscrapers designed in the Stalinist era. The English nickname for these skyscrapers is the "Seven Sisters." They were officially built from 1947 to 1953, in a complex combination of Russian Baroque and Gothic styles with the same contemporary technology used in the construction of skyscrapers in the United States.

The seven buildings are: Hotel Ukraina, the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Apartments, the Kudrinskaya Square building, the Leningradskaya Hotel, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the main building of Moscow State University, and the Red Gates Administrative Building.

Independence Avenue in Minsk (1944-1959)

The urban architectural ensemble of Nezalezhnastci Avenue in Minsk is an example of the integrated approach to the organization of a city's environment by harmoniously combining its architectural monuments, planning structure, landscape and places of natural or artificial vegetation. The Complex was built during the fifteen years after the Second World War. Its length is 2900 meters. The width of the road, including sidewalks, varies from 42 to 48 meters.

Work on the general layout of the former Sovietskaya Street began in 1944, shortly after the liberation of Minsk from Nazi troops. Leading architects from Moscow and Minsk took part in the project. In 1947, as a result of the competition, the project that had been developed under the supervision of academician of architecture M. Parusnikov, was selected for implementation.

The project plan for the Nezalezhnastci Avenue complex is a good example. The design provided the main characteristics of the urban complex: the length of the building facades, their silhouettes, the main divisions and the general architectural pattern. The integrated construction plan was based on hosting innovative ideas with classical architecture. Pre-war buildings and park areas were incorporated into the architectural ensemble.

Currently, the buildings that make up the Nezalezhnastci Avenue complex are registered in the State List of Historical and Cultural Values ​​of the Republic of Belarus. The architectural ensemble itself, with its buildings and structures, design and landscape, is protected by the state and inscribed on the List as a complex of historical and cultural values. In 1968 a National Prize for Architecture was introduced which was won by a team of architects representing the Moscow and Minsk schools of architecture (M.Parusnikov, G.Badanov, I.Barsch, S.Botkovsky, A.Voinov, V.Korol), S.Musinsky, G.Sisoev, N.Trachtenberg and N.Shpigelman) for the design and construction of the Nezaleznosci ensemble Avenue.[23]​.

The most famous Stalinist architectural ensembles in Minsk are also on Lenina Street, Kamsamolskaya Street, Kamunistychnaya Street, Pryvakzalnaya Square and others.

Reconstruction of kyiv (1944-1955)

Central kyiv was destroyed during World War II when the Red Army abandoned the city and used remote explosives to detonate bombs and deny them to German forces. After the liberation of kyiv, the streets and squares of the city were cleared of ruins. Symbolically (as a commemoration of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the USSR) on June 22, 1944, the City Soviet organized a competition for architects from kyiv and elsewhere in the republic and the union to develop a new project for the complete reconstruction of the central city.

Stalin Prize of 1949

The Stalin Prize of 1949, announced in March 1950, showed a clear and current division of Stalinist architecture: extravagant and luxurious buildings were still praised, but so were attempts to make the Stalinist style affordable. The 1949 award was awarded exclusively to completed apartment buildings, a sign of priority. It also demonstrates the class stratification of eligible tenants at this time. Three Moscow buildings received awards:.

Las repúblicas nacionales de la URSS tenían derecho a desarrollar sus propios estilos estalinistas, con más o menos libertad. Cuando las fuerzas locales no fueron suficientes, los arquitectos rusos fueron convocados (Shchusev diseñó un teatro de aspecto oriental en Taskent, etc.). Alexander Tamanian, designado como el principal arquitecto de Ereván, es en gran parte responsable de la variedad armenia de la arquitectura estalinista. La arquitectura estalinista fue, desde aproximadamente 1948 hasta 1956, empleada por el Bloque del Este de la posguerra 'Democracias populares', generalmente después de derrotar a la oposición modernista interna. Esto a veces mostraba ciertas influencias locales, aunque a menudo se consideraba una importación soviética.

Poland

The Palace of Culture and Science (1952-1957), was a “gift from the Soviet people to the Polish nation,” perhaps the most controversial of Stalinist architectural imports. It was the work of the Soviet architect Lev Rudnev. and was inspired by the Moscow skyscrapers (known outside Russia as the "Seven Sisters"), in turn inspired by American art deco skyscrapers. It was built in 1952-1955 and about 3,500 to 5,000 workers from the Soviet Union and about 4,000 Polish workers worked on it. Architecturally, it is a mix of socialist realism and Polish historicism. Considering the antenna support, which is an integral part of the spire, it has a height of 237 meters – still the seventh tallest building in the European Union – and completely dominates the city.

However, an earlier exercise in Neoclassicism was the grand MDM Boulevard, which was developed in parallel with the faithful reconstruction of the center of the old town. MDM was a typical Stalinist "master", with the generous street width often rumored to be for the purposes of tank movements. The planned city of Nowa Huta outside Krakow was also designed in Stalinist style in the late 1940s.

East Germany

After the Soviet victory, several grandiose war memorials were built in Berlin, including one in the Tiergarten and a larger one in Treptow. The first major Stalinist building in Germany was the Soviet embassy on Unter den Linden. This was initially mocked by modernists such as Hermann Henselmann, and until around 1948, East Berlin city planning (led by Hans Scharoun) was modernist, as in the gallery apartments that make up the first part of a planned Stalinallee. However, the government condemned these experiments and adopted the Russian style, and the rest of the Stalinallee was designed by Henselmann and former modernists such as Richard Paulick in what was disrespectfully dubbed Zuckerbäckerstil ('wedding cake style'). Similar, although less grandiose, monuments were designed in other cities, such as Leipzig, Dresden, Magdeburg, Rostock or the new city of Stalinstadt.[27]

Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Slovakia, Hungary and Latvia

Central buildings constructed in the Stalinist style also included the Scânteii House in Romania and the Largo complex, Sofia ("Largo (Sofia)"), in Bulgaria. These were all projects before 1953, even if some were finished after Stalin's death. In 1957 the Družba Hotel was opened in Czechoslovakia. An example in Albania is the former Albanian Film Studio in Tirana. In Hungary, a Stalinist style was adopted for the new town of Sztálinváros and many other housing, government and infrastructure projects during the 1950s. As in the USSR, modernism returned in much of Eastern Europe after the mid-1950s, although exceptions occurred in more authoritarian regimes: the enormous Parliament Palace in Bucharest is a very late example of neoclassicism, begun as late as 1984 and completed in 1990, shortly after the end of Nicolae Ceauşescu's regime in 1989. Latvia has the Latvian Academy of Sciences building in Riga, also known as Stalin's birthday cake.

Other areas

In East Asia, some examples can be found in North Korea and China, such as the Beijing Exhibition Center, the Shanghai Exhibition Center, originally built as the Sino-Soviet Friendship Palace, and the "Moscow" restaurant in Beijing. Examples can also be found in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Stalinist styles were used for the design of Soviet embassies outside the Eastern Bloc, especially the embassy in Helsinki (1952), Finland and in Berlin, Germany. The building, designed by architect E. S. Grebenshthikov, bears some resemblance to Buckingham Palace in London; This is said to be due to the taste of the then Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov for the official residence of the British monarch.

Un cambio de la arquitectura estalinista al concreto prefabricado estándar generalmente se asocia con el reinado de Jrushchov y particularmente el decreto de noviembre de 1955 sobre la liquidación de los excesos ... (noviembre de 1955).[26]​ De hecho, Khrushchev estuvo involucrado en una campaña de reducción de costos, pero comenzó en 1948, mientras Stalin estaba vivo. Una conversión a la construcción en masa es evidente en los edificios estalinistas de la economía como Bolshaya Kaluzhskaya de Zholtovsky, 7. Basados en la masonería, proporcionaron solo una ganancia marginal; tenía que haber una nueva tecnología. Durante 1948-1955, varias oficinas de arquitectura conducen un enorme estudio de factibilidad, diseñando y probando nuevas tecnologías.[28]​.

Frame and panel experiment (1948-1952)

In 1947, engineer Vitaly Lagutenko was appointed to head the experimental Industrial Construction Bureau, with the goal of studying and designing low-cost technology suitable for rapid mass construction. Lagutenko highlighted large precast concrete panels. He teamed up with architects Mikhail Posokhin (senior)[29] and Ashot Mndoyants, and in 1948 this team built its first frame-and-panel concrete building near the current Polezhaevskaya metro station. Four identical buildings remained nearby; Similar buildings were constructed during 1949-1952 across the country.[30] This was still an experiment, not supported by industrial capacity or accelerated project schedules. Posokhin also devised several pseudo-Stalinist configurations of the same building blocks, with decorative excesses; These were not implemented. Concrete frames became common for industrial construction, but too expensive for mass housing.

Moscow Conference (January 1951)

It is not certain which Party leader personally initiated the drive to cut costs. The need was imminent. What is known is that in January 1951, Khrushchev, then head of the Moscow City Party, organized a professional conference on construction problems.[31] The conference decreed a transition to large-sized concrete pieces made in plants, building new plants for precast concrete and other materials, and replacing wet masonry technology with rapid assembly of precast elements. The industry still had to decide: should they use large or taller panels, or smaller panels, or perhaps two-story panels, as Lagutenko attempted in Kuzminki?[32] Basic technology was established, feasibility studies continued. A year later, this 19th line of action, the establishment of precast concrete plants, became law at the 19th Party Congress, which Stalin attended. The main public buildings and elite homes were not affected yet.

Peschanaya Square (1951-1955)

A different type of experiment concerned improving project management, moving from a single-building to a multi-block project scale. This was proven in the development of Peschanaya Square (a territory north of the Posokhin-Lagutenko block of 1948). Using the flow method[33]​ of moving equipment through a sequence of buildings in different stages of completion and a sparing application of precast concrete to traditional masonry, builders managed to complete typical 7-story buildings in 5 to 6 months.[34]​ Instead of wet stucco (which caused at least two months of delay), these buildings are finished with open brick on the exterior and drywall on the interior; and from a quality of life consideration, these are true, and the last, Stalinist buildings.

When Stalin was alive, luxury empire and mass construction coexisted; Lagutenko's approval did not mean the disappearance of Rybitsky. It changed in November 1954, when critics openly criticized the excesses and willingness to build 10- to 14-story buildings, Stalin's own will; according to Khmelnitsky,[35] this must have been personally initiated by Khrushchev. Over the next year, the campaign grew and prepared the public to end Stalinism.

The decree on the liquidation of excesses... (November 4, 1955) provides some data on the cost of Stalinist excesses, which are estimated at 30-33% of the total costs. Certainly, these examples were cherry-picked, but they are reasonable. Alexey Dushkin and Yevgeny Rybitsky received particular criticism for excessive costs and luxurious floor plans; Rybitsky and Polyakov were deprived of their Stalin awards. This was followed with specific orders to develop standardized designs and install a Standardized Buildings Institute in place of the previous Academy.[26]​.

Stalinist architecture died for five more years: work on old buildings was no longer a priority. Some were redesigned; Some, structurally complete, lost the excesses. The story ended with the completion of the Hotel Ukrayina (kyiv) in 1961.

The majestic Stalinallee in Berlin, also completed in 1961, was conceived in 1952 and had little to lose: the scale and bulk of these buildings are definitely Stalinist, but the modest finishes are similar to Jugendstil and Prussian Neoclassicism. The street would later be extended in an International Style style and called Karl-Marx-Allee.

Certain Brezhnev-era buildings, notably the "Russian White House", can be traced to Stalin's legacy, while the neo-Stalinist regime in Romania produced a vast, late example of the style in its Parliament Palace, which was begun in 1984. Deliberate recreations of its style have appeared in Moscow since 1996, either as period neighborhoods or as individual developments. Some are influenced by pure Neoclassicism or art deco; With some exceptions, its architectural quality and function in urban development is disputed. Examples of the least controversial are:.