A chronological event that took place on July 31, 1957 gives us a reason to talk about architecture, its tasks, goals and intentions. On this day, a resolution "On the development of housing construction in the USSR" was adopted, reminding us of the birthday of "Khrushchev". The story comes out thorough, because in illustrations and stories it covers the period from 1918 to the 70s.
"Air rook and touch-sensitive mast, Serving the line of Peter's successors, He teaches: beauty is not a demigod's whim, And the predatory eye of a simple carpenter."
"Admiralty". Osip Mandelstam.
Trends in the architecture of the USSR before 1939
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From the first months of its existence, the young Russian republic decided to consciously declare itself in a tangible space.
Lenin's plan for monumental propaganda (1918 - 1924)
Already in April 1918, Lenin put forward a program for the development of monumental art and its mobilization as the most important propaganda tool of the revolution and communist ideology.
According to Lunacharsky's recollections, the idea of monumental propaganda goes back to Campanella's utopian work City of the Sun. One of Campanella's ideas that interested Lenin was the decoration of city walls with frescoes, "which serve as a visual lesson for young people in natural science, history, arouse civic feelings - in a word, participate in the education and upbringing of new generations."
We must pay tribute to Ilyich for the fact that he did not insist to build long-term objects from the "bay-flounder", or to create even shorter-term, in a harsh climate, frescoes. Monumental agitation had to operate in the present time frame. April 12, 1918, Lenin, Lunacharsky and Stalin signed a decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On Monuments of the Republic"
It briefly reflected the tasks:
- to determine the list and remove monuments that are not of historical and artistic value, erected "in honor of the kings and their servants";
- to organize a competition for projects of monuments "intended to commemorate the great days of the Russian socialist revolution" and to establish the first models of monuments "for the judgment of the masses";
- replace inscriptions, emblems, street names, coats of arms, etc. new, reflecting the "ideas and feelings of revolutionary working Russia";
- decorate Moscow for the May Day celebration.
Despite the difficulties in implementing the decree, the SNK continued to work on its details.
In early August, Izvestia published a list of 66 persons, signed by Lenin, to whom monuments were to be erected. Note that after April there is no abstraction in the objects - specific figures of science, culture and revolution.
Let us speak in more detail about the fate of one abstract monument.
Statue of Liberty
Opposite the building of the Moscow City Council there was an equestrian monument to the hero of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, Mikhail Skobelev. Apparently, the personality of the “white general” did not suit the inhabitants of the Moscow City Council, or maybe the historical flair of the hero jarred on latent homosexuals [, with which bureaucratic offices were always rich (Skobelev was a great lover of women), but, one way or another, the monument was demolished.
An obelisk appeared on its pedestal in stages, and a year and a half later a winged woman in a Phrygian cap, personifying freedom. The young woman raised one hand and held a ball in the other, which the inhabitants of Moscow soon called "watermelon."
In 1922, bronze shields with the text of the first Soviet constitution were installed in the composition. Accordingly, the name of the object has also changed.
After the adoption of the 1936 Constitution, the dilapidated monument was in no hurry to restore. On the night of April 20-21, 1941, the monument to the Leninist Constitution was blown up.
In 1947, on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the capital, a monument to the founder of Moscow, Yuri Dolgoruky, was laid on the site of the destroyed monument. The grand opening of the equestrian statue to the first Moscow prince took place in 1954.
In 1962, on the initiative of the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev, a decree was issued "On the reconstruction of the Freedom Monument on Soviet Square by November 7, 1964." To restore the monument, it was previously planned to dismantle the equestrian statue of Dolgoruky, however, the monument was not replaced by the appointed time. After Khrushchev's resignation, projects to recreate the monument were developed until the 1980s, but were not implemented.
In our opinion, this story shows in a matrix the circumstances by which architecture developed in the USSR.
The plan of monumental propaganda on a large scale provided sculptors with state orders for city monuments, and thus was a direct stimulus for the original development of the Soviet sculptural school. Most of the works were made of short-lived materials and have not survived to this day.
Egyptian style
The era demanded new forms of self-expression from sculptors and architects, but they still had to go out. Therefore, for some time the masters worked in the style of “who studied what”. Until the 70s, the old school will still live and create, but the further, the more piece projects became in the style of neoclassicism and retrospectivism.
Metro station Kropotkinskaya - lotus columns.
The style, called "Egyptian", was very decorative and popular in world culture. Therefore, traces of it in post-revolutionary Russia are also noticeable.
This is, in fact, the mentioned "obelisk of Freedom", the pavilion of the metro station "Kropotkinskaya", portals of some government buildings, projects and the Lenin mausoleum itself.
The project of the Mausoleum in the form of a pyramid, architect. Shekhtel.
Constructivism and the avant-garde (1924 -1938)
The revolution, the building of a new state and society, a "new way of life", the restoration of the country after the Civil War, the fight against housing shortages, illiteracy, electrification and industrialization set new tasks for architects.
Palace of Culture named after Zuev. 1927-1929. Moscow.
A significant part of the buildings of this period represent completely new functional types of buildings: houses of culture, communal houses, kitchen factories, baths, covered markets, department stores, planetariums - and a new approach to urban planning and development (housing estates).
The language used by the architects of this period is very diverse and heterogeneous: from a complete rejection of the experience accumulated by architecture to its careful preservation for inclusion in the surrounding development - but the importance of the functional purpose of the building in its visualization has always been preserved.
Left: House of Commons for communications workers. 1932-1939. St. Petersburg; on the right: School No. 52 has become a restaurant "Khabib". arch. Pervushina. 2930-1932. St. Petersburg.
This feature returned to architecture after a twenty-year hiatus for Stalinist neoclassicism of the 1940-1950s, to leave a significant mark, first of all, in the development of "dormitory" areas in the 1960-1980s.
The largest number of structures of this era were erected in both capitals.
Gosplan garage. architect Melnikov. 1936. Moscow.
A curiosity can be attributed to the fact that architectural monuments in Moscow are called constructivism, and in the Northern Capital - avant-garde.
This was probably the most joyous time in the Soviet project. After all, not only architecture, but also other arts, literature in particular, have left us many favorite works, which during the entire Soviet era were unsurpassed in the sparkling enthusiasm of the authors themselves and their heroes.
House of the architect Melnikov. 1927-1929. Moscow.
Let's amuse our readers if we admit that the first work that came to mind of the era of constructivism for us was "The Old Man Hottabych" by Lazar Lagin.
In this article we will return to a detailed story about one representative of Russian Constructivism …
Has the country had any experience of working with foreign supercontracts in architecture?
The first five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR was adopted in 1928 for the five-year period 1928-1932. As a result of its implementation, the USSR turned from an agrarian country into an industrial country.
For the preparation and implementation of the plan, "armies" of foreign specialists were invited. Maximum opportunities and horizons were opened to all of them, but not everyone managed to perpetuate their talent in Soviet Russia.
Bauhaus and Ernst May
In 1919, the Higher School of Construction and Artistic Design (Bauhaus) was established in Germany. It was a revolutionary movement of the creative intelligentsia that arose within the framework of an educational institution.
The school denied ornamentation and redundancy of adornments of previous eras and advocated “functionalism”, that is, for the understanding that what is utilitarian, convenient, is also beautiful. It was noted that the best creations of functionalism are beautiful because the designers who actively participated in the project have taste and artistic flair.
At first, the new buildings seemed unbearable in their nakedness, but over time, society learned to appreciate the clear lines and compact forms of the new style.
In the 1919 Manifesto issued by the school, architecture was named a leading trend in design, the principles of equality between applied and fine arts were proclaimed, and ideas for improving the quality of industrial products were declared. The founders of the movement saw the goal of meeting mass needs and sought to make manufactured goods beautiful, affordable and as convenient as possible.
Complex "Woga", Erich Mendelssohn, 1925 - 1930.
Also influenced by the Bauhaus, the idea of a New Vision was formed in photography, architecture, visual arts and design.
It is quite natural that new times in the life of society bring in new forms and creative people are the first who perceive this.
Therefore, the previous chapter "Constructivism and the avant-garde" should also become clear to the reader. Now it becomes clear that the general European revolutionary tendencies in art gave strength and courage to Russian architects.
From the very beginning of the emergence of the Bauhaus, the movement was criticized by the emerging fascism, so in 1931 the former headmaster Hannes Meyer, accompanied by 7 students, moved to Moscow.
Buildings of the School of Trade Unions in Bernau. Hannes Meyer, 1928-1930.
As theorists, the project participants could not claim the role of direct implementers of the ideas of new construction projects, so they were included in the group of Ernst May, with whom the institute participated in the project of building workers' settlements around Frankfurt am Main.
In 1929, May organized an international congress of architects in Frankfurt. The Soviet delegation also attended this congress. The Soviet guests were very interested in the city planner's large-scale plans. The USSR just needed a person capable of organizing the construction of huge residential complexes in cities with a rapidly developing industry. May was offered a lucrative seven-year contract and invited to Moscow. He accepted the offer without hesitation. He was sure that such a large project is the dream of every architect.
When planning the first five-year plan, a broad discussion of the socialist cities and what they should become was unfolded in the public. Until 1931, an unsuccessful polemic was waged between the spontaneously formed ideological fronts of the "urbanists" and "deurbanists". There was a lot of debate about the implementation of futuristic social projects. The position on the demolition of all pre-Soviet buildings was also pushed through. They agreed that only the Kremlin should be left in Moscow. Apparently, the sectarians drew motivation from architecture in the words of the Internationale:
The invited architects rubbed their hands, "and then.." was their business. It was a dream for any foreigner to demolish Moscow by the forces of Russian "herostrats" and draw them their own plan of the Capital.
Below are Kaganovich's theses from the Soviet press:
In connection with the end of the discussion, "May's group" was given mobility (a railway carriage was provided), which went to the Urals, with the aim of designing on-site by a group of the social city of Magnitogorsk.
During its work in the USSR, the group developed master plans for the development of nearly two dozen Soviet cities, including Kemerovo, Nizhny Tagil, Novokuznetsk, Orsk, Kharkov.
Albert Kahn and the principles of Fordism in action
Unlike Ernst May, who had just announced himself, Albert Kahn was an accomplished man. Behind him was 30 years of successful work in the field of industrial and civil architecture and the name - "Detroit architect".
General Motors headquarters. 1919. Detroit.
In his Russified biography, there are many opposite opinions. So some call Kahn "the architect of Ford", others argue that he did not build Ford. More importantly, Kahn adopted the principles of Ford's industrial philosophy, called Fordism. The following features can be associated with this trend:
- use of inflexible technologies such as conveyor;
- adoption of a standardized template for labor operations (Taylorism);
- increased productivity due to economies of scale, as well as reduced use of skilled labor due to automation, intensification and homogenization of labor;
- an increase in the market for homogeneous products of mass industrial production and, as a result, homogenization (reduction in the degree of heterogeneity) of consumer consumption patterns;
- mass educational institutions preparing a mass labor force for industrial sectors.
In the article, we will try to trace how these principles, which work perfectly in industrial production, have stepped over into other areas, in particular, in civil and housing socialist construction.
“Albert Kahn came to Moscow in 1928 with 25 engineers, and within two years he trained more than 4,000 specialists,” Wikipedia writes. Who, how and when actually trained specialists and whether Albert Kahn came to Moscow - we will tell later. But further - the truth.
The project of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, which from the very beginning was considered a tank project, is being carried out by Albert Kahn Incorporated in record time - the building structures are manufactured in the USA, transported to the USSR and assembled within six months. As a result, the next order is a project of the giant Chelyabinsk Tractor and Tank Plant. And in February 1930, the Construction Association of the Supreme Council of the National Economy of the USSR concludes a new agreement, according to which Kahn's firm becomes the chief designer and consultant to the Soviet government on industrial construction. According to the agreement, in May 1930, a group of about forty employees came to Moscow and the American model of design organization was taken as the basis for the formation of a nationwide system of design business in the USSR.
Until the end of the contract in 1932, the team designed and organized the construction of 521 facilities.
These were:
- tractor (that is, tank) factories in Stalingrad, Chelyabinsk, Kharkov;
- automobile plants in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod;
- blacksmith shops in Chelyabinsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Kolomna, Lyubertsy, Magnitogorsk, Nizhny Tagil, Stalingrad;
- machine tool plants in Kaluga, Novosibirsk, Verkhnyaya Salda;
- rolling mill in Moscow;
- foundries in Chelyabinsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Kolomna, Lyubertsy, Magnitogorsk, Sormovo, Stalingrad;
- mechanical shops in Chelyabinsk, Lyubertsy, Podolsk, Stalingrad, Sverdlovsk; steel shops and rolling mills in Kamenskoye, Kolomna, Kuznetsk, Magnitogorsk, Nizhny Tagil, Verkhny Tagil, Sormovo;
- bearing plant in Moscow, Volkhov aluminum plant;
- Ural asbestos factory.
In 1932, the designers returned to America.
In the USSR during the 1920s - 1930s, there were no uniform, preferred standards for the construction parameters of industrial buildings. There was no modular coordination of individual parts of the buildings. The step of the supporting frame was chosen each time in a new way, based on the bearing capacity of metal or concrete structures. It was 4.5 m, 5.0 m, 5.2 m, 5.5 m. Design decisions were made ad-hoc and haphazardly.
Albert Kahn.
Albert Kahn proposed a diametrically opposite approach - he went not from technology to architectural form, but from a universal space to the placement of technology. He came up with a way to quickly create a universal building volume from standard parts, into which he could then fit, with almost no problems, any production process.
The peculiarity of his approach was the creation of an in-shop space due to a large-sized standard grid of spans on reinforced concrete or metal columns, with a pitch of 12x12 or 15x15 meters and similar, multiples of three meters. Everything was typical here - windows, lights, doors, gates, lintels, gutters, shower cabins, crane trusses, beams, columns, and so on. They were not drawn, calculated or manufactured for each project, but were produced industrially according to certain standard sizes. The assortment of finished elements eliminated the need for detailed working drawings. The elements were only selected according to catalogs and put together - in this way the projects of specific workshops were "constructed", and from them, again, according to standard schemes, the whole plant was then "assembled". This was a big gain in time. The facades were made conditionally - they did not depict the appearance, which was not very important, but the method of "layout" along the outer wall of its typical elements - window blocks, lintels, door leaves, gates, etc. "Layout", assembly, assembly drawings were quickly carried out in pencil and reproduced on photocopiers. Drawings were prepared and approved simultaneously with the excavation of the foundation pit, building structures were ordered by phone and delivered directly to the start of construction. The Americans saved not on the consumption of steel and concrete, but on reducing the labor intensity of all types of work and speeding up the installation.assembly drawings were quickly executed in pencil and reproduced on photocopiers. Drawings were prepared and approved simultaneously with the excavation of the foundation pit, building structures were ordered by phone and delivered directly to the start of construction. The Americans saved not on the consumption of steel and concrete, but on reducing the labor intensity of all types of work and speeding up the installation.assembly drawings were quickly executed in pencil and reproduced on photocopiers. Drawings were prepared and approved simultaneously with the excavation of the foundation pit, building structures were ordered by phone and delivered directly to the start of construction. The Americans saved not on the consumption of steel and concrete, but on reducing the labor intensity of all types of work and speeding up the installation.
Whether all this was a personal invention of Albert Kahn or whether he only generalized the experience that existed before him, bringing it to unified principles, it does not matter. It is important that there was nothing of the kind in the USSR at that time.
Anatoly Fisenko - a guy who adopted the principles of Fordism
Hereditary Kuban Cossack Tolya Fisenko was born on July 19, 1902 in Moscow in the family of an officer-teacher of the 3rd Cadet Corps. From the Cadet Corps, in which Tolya later studied, he brought out fluency in several foreign languages, the experience of self-discipline, the ability to focus efforts on achieving a specific goal and, which was very useful later, the ability to command subordinates. After the revolution, he studied at the Moscow Artillery School. Krasin, and then, in 1919, entered the Moscow Higher Technical School at the factory department of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, primarily because they accept it without a qualification of origin.
He learns from Kuznetsov, a famous civil engineer, designer, architect, who built many outstanding objects in Moscow, including the building of the Moscow Architectural Institute - one of the first reinforced concrete structures. The Vesnin brothers, Aleksey Shchusev, teach here, with whom Anatoly establishes personal relationships, which then persist for many years.
After defending his graduation project in May 1925, he began to work as an assistant simultaneously at two departments of the Moscow Higher Technical School - "Architectural structures" (prof. Kuznetsov) and "Architectural design of industrial structures" (prof. V. A. Vesnin); from that moment, Fisenko's continuous teaching activity began. He was a member of the creative association of constructivist architects OSA.
Since 1925, in parallel with his incessant pedagogical activity, Anatoly Stepanovich continues to conduct practical design of TsAGI objects, designs (in a team) the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute (VEI), which is included in almost every book devoted to the architecture of the 1920s, Anatoly Stepanovich builds a number of buildings, in particular the High Voltage and High Voltage Testing Laboratory. These constructivist buildings have survived to this day.
At the end of 1927 and practically all of 1928, Fisenko worked in the design bureau of the All-Russian Textile Syndicate on the development of buildings for textile factories.
Orsha Flax Mill. 1928 - 1930.
The Soviet vanguard was mainly formed by young people inflamed by socialist ideas ideologically proclaimed by the Soviet government. They were literally overwhelmed by a wave of design work, because the country, despite complete poverty, carried out extensive construction - pre-revolutionary construction programs were implemented, which were remade for the tasks of the Soviet government (GOELRO, transport construction and others), industrial enterprises were restored, new projects were implemented, search ideas were worked out, field supervision was carried out. And although Anatoly Stepanovich is not formally a member of the creative group, his projects, "clean engineering" and laconic, attract the attention of the leaders of constructivism and are published on the pages of their organ - the magazine "Contemporary Architecture".
In the year Anatoly graduated from Moscow Higher Technical School, an event takes place in the Soviet Union, which, as time will later show, will become an epoch-making - in December 1925, the XIV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks decides to turn the country into an industrially developed power. This installation puts forward the task of forming state construction and design offices, designed to deploy large-scale work on the construction of new industrial enterprises and settlements with them. But only four years later (in 1929) the authorities will reach their hands on the practical solution of part of this gigantic task - the creation of a nationwide system of design business. The start of this work was given by the decree of June 1, 1928 "On measures to streamline capital construction in industry and power construction." The resolution contains a section "Use of foreign experience and achievements of foreign technology",which provides the Supreme Council of the National Economy with the opportunity "to attract foreign specialists to work in the state industry, in particular, in design."
Viktor Alexandrovich Vesnin.
In the early 1930s, Anatoly, most likely, not without the participation of Viktor Aleksandrovich Vesnin, the "marshal" of the Soviet industrial construction and close associate, comes to work at Gosproektstroy. Four months later, Fisenko was appointed to the post of deputy head of the architectural department and directly, in the most direct and close way, began to cooperate with American architects. He has to deal not so much, in fact, with architectural design, as with solving a very complex set of design and technological problems. In six months, he becomes a "narrow specialist of a wide profile" - a generalist, capable of comparing in his mind all the mutual requirements and restrictions that are put forward by related disciplines and making the only correct decisions that cannot be obtained in isolation from other issues. As a result,in October 1930, he was appointed head of the technical department, and a year later, on October 5, 1931, - the chief architect of Gosproektstroy - the informative head of the head design organization of the leading branches of the military-industrial complex (machine-building and metallurgical).
The hopes of the leadership of the Supreme Economic Council for the fulfillment of the plans of the first five-year plans are connected with Gosproektstroy. This head state design office, in addition to the huge volumes of project documentation, is entrusted with the functions of a "training and production enterprise" - a "forge of personnel." The 29-year-old young man, in fact, is personally entrusted with the task of generalizing the experience of in-line industrial design, transferring it to as many Soviet architects as possible.
More and more specialists pass through Anatoly Stepanovich, who are sent to Gosproektstroy both directly from the student's bench and from other design organizations. As they study, they are transferred to other design institutes subordinate to the Supreme Economic Council and there they implement the principles of the most advanced organization of the design process, form a system of mass design business.
By the way, Albert Kahn himself, most likely, was not privy to the "pedagogical" super task, secretly entrusted to his firm.
There is no reliable information that Albert Kahn himself was or even came to the USSR. It is reliably known that since 1930 the design delegation was headed by his brother - Moritz Kahn. Therefore, all further information should be perceived through this filter as a refinement
He, Albert, was discouraged by the constant "turnover" of personnel in Gosproektstroy - the replacement, who had worked a little and gained a little experience, some Soviet employees for others - inexperienced and unskilled; constant involvement of students in the work, albeit capable, but little able. As he wrote in his letter to the chairman of Soyuzstroy Komarov:
He did not assume that all this was done on purpose. In order for as many specialists as possible to be trained in the flow-conveyor design method. But Anatoly Stepanovich, who was in charge of this personnel program, perfectly understood the need of the country's national economy for design personnel. Fisenko did not participate in the all-Union discussion on the rational organization of collective project activities, which unfolded in 1930 on the pages of the professional press. He practically created this organization.
The history of Soviet industrial architecture almost never mentioned the names of Anatoly Fisenko and Albert Kahn together. Despite the fact that Albert Kahn's accelerated design technology, reworked under the leadership of Anatoly Fisenko into the Gosproektstroy method of flow-conveyor design, as well as the fundamental design solutions and layouts of industrial units developed here, as well as the principles of designing master plans for giant plants, turned out to be decisive to fulfill the plans of the first five-year plans and the basic ones for the next several decades.
In America, Albert Kahn Incorporated had about 400 employees, but the unique design technology developed in it, which made it possible to reduce the time required for the development of design documentation for industrial facilities tenfold, is firmly associated with the name of Albert Kahn alone. Thanks to this technology, already after the termination of the contract with the USSR, during the Second World War (1941), the firm "Albert Kahn Incorporated" designed the largest aircraft factory of bombers in one month! From the beginning to the end! With all the details! In these incredible terms, perhaps even today it is impossible to perform such a volume of work.
In Gosproektstroy-1, there were 4 times more employees than in Albert Kahn's firm - 1,500. By the way, in comparison with other Soviet design organizations, for example, the Mossovet workshops, which employed 30–40 people, it was a huge organization, the most powerful design industry. About 3,000 more people underwent short-term training within the walls of Gosproektstroy, spreading the experience of accelerated industrial design throughout the nationwide system of design business. But the technology of flow-conveyor design of industrial facilities, worked out in Gosproektstroy, thanks, first of all, to the efforts of its chief architect and chief engineer (in one person), was never mentioned in connection with Fisenko's name. As well as worked out here,a specific form of administrative organization of large design teams of state design institutes, in such aspects as: formal structure, the role of collective solution of problematic issues at technical councils, the peculiarities of the "subordination-leadership" process, the nature of the hierarchical structure and the system of "horizontal" ties, etc. This is precisely the form of organizing a mass design business, which, largely due to the efforts of Fisenko, replaced the system of "personal creative workshops" that existed before that time. Such was the specificity of copyright in those years for, as they would say now, “objects of intellectual property”.features of the process of "subordination-leadership", the nature of the hierarchical structure and the system of "horizontal" links, and the like. This is precisely the form of organizing a mass design business, which, largely due to the efforts of Fisenko, replaced the system of "personal creative workshops" that existed before that time. Such was the specificity of copyright in those years for, as they would say now, “objects of intellectual property”.features of the process of "subordination-leadership", the nature of the hierarchical structure and the system of "horizontal" links, and the like. This is precisely the form of organizing a mass design business, which, largely due to the efforts of Fisenko, replaced the system of "personal creative workshops" that existed before that time. Such was the specificity of copyright in those years for, as they would say now, “objects of intellectual property”.as they would say now, “objects of intellectual property”.as they would say now, “objects of intellectual property”.
The reasons for the decree of the Central Committee "On the development of housing construction in the USSR"
And now, having plunged so deeply into the processes of industrial architecture of the 30s - we will emerge in the 50s and sip on the sweet air of Khrushchev's "freedom", we suddenly realize: there was no housing construction in forty years of Soviet power! That is, as we remember, they built social cities with residential buildings, dormitories, and the people themselves, at their own expense, cut down houses, but there were no state programs aimed exclusively at housing construction.
Housing construction in the RSFSR and the Russian Federation (1918 - 2006).
There was a program of post-war reconstruction, and along with huts and barracks, beautiful facades of the "Stalinist Empire" were erected, but the priority of free housing was reasonably behind the priorities of industry, agriculture and free education. And it was not time to give away square meters. A couple of five-year plans would still have to keep the productive sphere in a tight leash, or even not let go of the reins at all. But to whom?
Koba is dead.
"Where are we going to crawl now?" - thought the leaders …
First inclinations
One of the first symptoms of a future change in state social policy makes sense to consider the secret certificate of the Central Statistical Administration of the USSR to Kaganovich, on the state of the city housing stock in 1940-1952, dated August 18, 1953, and appeared five months after Stalin's death. Apparently, the order to prepare this data was given about a month earlier.
The help is interesting because:
- firstly, it refutes the official data on the construction of housing in the first four five-year plans. In particular, the living area of Soviet cities in 1940 (167.2 million square meters) turns out to be practically equal to the living area of 1929 (166 million square meters). This means that new construction in the 1930s barely covered the loss of the housing stock. In 1952, the housing stock was 208.2 million square meters (an increase in comparison with 1945 - 54.2 million square meters, with the plan of the fourth five-year plan - 1946-1950 - 75.4 million square meters);
- Secondly, the certificate provides data on the average living space per person in the USSR (and separately for different cities). The data is possibly overstated (up to one and a half times) when compared with other sources, but, nevertheless, nothing of the kind has been published in the USSR since the late 1920s. However, this data was also classified;
- Thirdly, the certificate contains calculations of the need for housing stock, taking into account the increase in the average rate to 6, 7, 8 and 9 m² per person. We are talking respectively about 17, 57, 96 and 136 million square meters of missing housing. It should be clarified that even 9 sq. meters of living space per person were not allowed to settle the population one family at a time.
Such calculations in the USSR were carried out in the late 1920s and were forgotten with the beginning of industrialization in 1928. The government's task to carry out such calculations could mean only one thing: in August 1953, the Politburo was already preparing for reforms to dramatically improve the life of the population.
From the certificate of 1953 it is clear that over 30 years the housing situation in the USSR has deteriorated sharply. According to the calculations of 1928, in order to reach the sanitary standards by the end of the first five-year plan, it was necessary to build 100 million square meters of housing. In 1953, there was a shortage of 96 million m² until the same rate was reached. In addition, 18 million square meters of housing was located in barracks, which, even according to Soviet standards, could not be considered permanent housing. It is also necessary to take into account that in 1928 about 26 million of the urban population lived in such conditions, and in 1952 - about 80 million.
A year after reading the certificate, on August 19, 1954, a decree of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers of August 19, 1954 "On the development of the production of prefabricated reinforced concrete structures and parts for construction" was issued. It prescribed the construction of 402 precast concrete factories and the organization of the production of parts at 200 polygon sites.
This was already a direct step towards the reform of housing construction in the country. And at the same time - budgetary and economic reforms.
Development of the situation
The next step in this direction was the holding of the All-Union Meeting of Architects and Builders on November 30 - December 7, 1954. It was an unprecedented event, both in form and in meaning. From this moment, the official stage of the architectural reform begins. The main protagonist of the meeting was Khrushchev. It can be assumed that the previous steps were taken by Khrushchev, who served as first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee since September 7, 1953.
From this moment, the beginning of the architectural and construction reform in the USSR was officially counted. At the meeting, the Stalinist Empire style was condemned for its high cost and "decoration". The first persons of the architectural hierarchy - Mordvinov, Vlasov, were declared guilty. The meaning of Khrushchev's final speech boiled down to the fact that it is necessary to build cheaply, a lot, from panels and according to standard projects.
Several high-ranking architects - Rybitsky, Polyakov and Boretsky - were deprived of the Stalin prizes recently received for the NKVD residential building (Rybitsky) and the Leningradskaya hotel (Polyakov and Boretsky), one of seven Moscow skyscrapers. The official reason for the repression is the high cost and "decoration" of these projects. They were indeed extremely lush, but did not differ much from other elite buildings of that time. It can be assumed that the objects of the department of the freshly shot Beria fell under the repression.
Three for the Five Years
In February 1956, the XX Congress of the CPSU took place. He is known for being the beginning of the de-Stalinization of the USSR. At the same time, the congress adopted a program for the sixth five-year plan (1956 - 1960), which continued the development of reforms in the field of construction. The program of the sixth five-year plan envisaged the construction of 205 million m² of area within 5 years.
For comparison, the program of the third five-year plan (1939 - 1943) assumed the construction of 35 million square meters. m of living space. Fourth Five-Year Plan Program (1946-1950) - 72.4 million square meters. The program of the fifth five-year plan (1951 - 1956) envisaged the construction of 105 million square meters of living space. According to these planned indicators, one can judge the tendencies of planning of housing construction.
At the same time, the statistics of Stalin's time did not distinguish between the square meter of housing in a barrack without any improvement and the square meter of apartment housing in a comfortable house.
Why was the leap towards free nishtyaks prepared?
All in. As Uncle Gosha, Uncle Slava and Uncle Laza were not allowed on Khrushchev's birthday
In June 1957, Khrushchev staged a coup d'état. At the June 1957 plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, a group of top party functionaries and old Stalinist comrades-in-arms - Malenkov, Molotov, Kaganovich - were removed from party and state posts. Apparently, they represented the main obstacle to the implementation of Khrushchev's reforms.
On July 31, 1957, the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers adopted a resolution "On the development of housing construction in the USSR." It contained the fundamental provisions that determined the course of future housing construction.
In addition to the fact that the decree increases the housing construction plan in the sixth five-year plan to 215 million square meters, for the first time several fundamentally important phrases appear in it.
- "… proceed from the need to eliminate the shortage of housing for workers in the next 10 to 12 years";
- "Starting from 1958, in residential buildings under construction both in cities and in rural areas, provide economically comfortable apartments for the settlement of one family";
- "To introduce, from January 1, 1959, planning and accounting for housing construction in square meters of living and usable area and in the number of apartments."
For the first time in the history of Soviet power, the thesis appears in government decisions that it is necessary in the foreseeable future (10-12 years) to solve the housing problem and provide the urban population with housing at the rate of one apartment per family. Is it an end or a means?
VA-Bank-2
In January-February 1959, the XXI Congress of the CPSU took place. The sixth five-year plan was cut short two years before the end, and the congress adopted the program of a new seven-year plan (1959-1965), in which the indicators of housing construction were sharply increased once again.
It was declared:
The figure 650 - 660 million square meters means that the urban population of the USSR was supposed to provide housing at approximately the rate of 6 square meters of living space per person by 1965 (the urban population of the USSR was 100 million people in 1959, and 120.7 million people in 1965)). The average living area of an apartment was supposed to be 43 m² and was intended to accommodate six to seven people. 15 million apartments were intended for the occupation of about 30 million families (with a nepotism rate of 3.5 people per family). This did not yet make it possible to provide each family with a separate apartment, but it was a cardinal step to change the situation and solve the housing problem. Or power problems?
Within the framework of economic reforms, it was also planned to dramatically increase the production of food, goods for home and family, and in general all consumer goods, the situation with which in Stalin's time was no better than with housing.
Khrushchev's architectural manifesto. The beginning of the era of architectural "Mordor"
In parallel, in 1957-59, Khrushchev carried out the final stylistic reform of Soviet architecture. Just like 25 years ago, it took the form of a competition for the Palace of the Soviets. After all, we are talking about an object that was supposed to take the place of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior that was blown up in 1931.
The competition was announced in August 1956, the deadline for submitting projects was first set for February 1957, and then postponed to August 1957. In June, the USSR government changed, Khrushchev's old associates in the Stalinist Politburo were expelled from power, he became the sole dictator, and nothing prevented him from making key decisions on his own. The winner of both the first and second rounds of the competition was announced the chief architect of Moscow, Alexander Vlasov, with a modern project - simple, expressive and devoid of architectural decor.
Palace of the Soviets. "Mordor".
In accordance with the system of artistic control introduced by Stalin, projects approved by the country's top leadership became role models for all design organizations in the country.
The government's directive on the mass design of industrial apartment housing has brought with it the need to drastically change the principles of urban planning and volumetric design, the system of design institutes and architectural education.
And here, in our opinion, the development of the application of American experience in industrial architecture has served. Since there are no excesses, the very place for the specification and unification of production, and Gosproektstroy will share its experience with civil construction!
Mumiy Troll's grandfather
In 1956, Vitaly Pavlovich Lagutenko, the grandfather of the future soloist of the Mumiy Troll group, was appointed head of the Moscow City Architectural and Planning Department. Since 1921, he worked in Shchusev's team, first at the construction of the Kazan railway station, and later as the chief engineer of Shchusev's workshop at the Moscow City Council. After the war, Lagutenko headed the first workshop of Mosproekt. At this time, the country's leadership set the task to the builders to create the cheapest possible residential building project with the possibility of family settlement (that is, with separate, not communal, apartments). The first stage in this task was the introduction of the idea of industrial panel housing construction with a supporting frame. The first experimental houses using this technology were built in 1947.
It was in the position of the head of the Architectural and Planning Department of Moscow that Lagutenko brought his main brainchild to its logical conclusion - the project of a cheap mass house with separate apartments for each family. This was the house of the K-7 series. The first experimental house of this series was built in Moscow on Grimau Street. The series was recognized as successful, and "Khrushchev" or "Lagutenk" in various modifications began to be built everywhere. Especially for their construction, on May 31, 1961, the First House-Building Plant was organized.
In the same 1961 V. P. Lagutenko becomes the head of a specially created design bureau for large-panel and frame-panel housing construction from thin-walled reinforced concrete elements at MNIITEP, where he continued to improve the K-7 series. Note that Lagutenko was not an architect either by vocation or by profession.
The Le Corbusier phenomenon
Starting to write an article entitled "Le Corbusier - Primitive Architecture", we went into the coverage of another event and the topic came out more important than the assessment of the work of one person. But we have made an opinion about what this author was for Soviet architecture. The fact is that from various articles it often sounds that panel housing construction in the USSR is directly related to the creativity or projects of this "master". In addition, this chapter will organically complement and generalize the story.
Conceptual message
The first attempt by Le Corbusier to openly “conceptualize”, as it is fashionable to say today, a look at architecture took place in the twenties in his work “Five Starting Points of Modern Architecture”.
These points are:
- Support pillars. The house is raised above the ground on reinforced concrete pillars, while freeing up space under the living quarters - for a garden or a parking lot;
- Flat roof terrace. Instead of the traditional sloping roof with an attic underneath, Corbusier proposed a flat roof-terrace on which a small garden could be planted or a place to relax;
- Free layout. Since the walls are no longer load-bearing (due to the use of a reinforced concrete frame), the internal space is completely freed from them. As a result, the interior layout can be organized much more efficiently;
- Tape glazing. Due to the frame structure of the building and the absence, in this regard, of load-bearing walls, windows can be made of almost any size and configuration, including freely stretching them with tape along the entire facade, from corner to corner; also Corbusier assumed through the lighting of the room;
- Free facade. Supports are installed outside the plane of the facade, inside the house (literally at Corbusier: freely located inside the premises). At the same time, external walls can be made of any material - light, fragile or transparent, and take any shape.
Separately, such techniques were used by architects before Corbusier, he, having made a careful selection, combined them into a system and began to consistently apply.
Since the purpose of this chapter serves to prove to many journalists and figures from architecture their view that the concept and creativity of this person were not tied to the future panel and other construction in the USSR, here we will go through the points that had a different task in revealing motivations:
- houses with the first floors on the basement stand on the ground, because the main experimental production sites, Moscow and Leningrad, stand on swampy soil and therefore buildings need a large support area, and in the conditions of a "catastrophic" lack of housing, no one would allocate the first floors for parking allowed;
- a flat roof, although it is a constant companion of "Khrushchev" and "Brezhnev", does not serve the task of expanding the habitable space: setting up gardens or, at least, drying clothes;
- internal walls are not load-bearing, but they are incorporated in each project and their demolition is fraught with long paperwork;
- strip glazing is used only in some series (for example: "houses-ships") and due to the large glazing area creates overheating in summer; through lighting is almost always impossible, since often apartments only face one side;
- external walls are made of uniform panels.
Construction experience in the USSR
Among the foreign architects who came to conquer Moscow in the late 1920s was the French aspirant, now known to everyone as Le Corbusier. Real name - Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris.
Tsentrosoyuz building from the side of Myasnitskaya street.
Charles-Edouard was included in the OCA project - an association of modern architects, which was promoted by Alexander Vesnin and in which many participated, including Anatoly Fisenko. Subsequently, Charles was in active correspondence with some members of the OCA.
The only project that the future Le Corbusier embodied, or rather tried to implement in the Soviet Union, was the building of the Tsentrosoyuz. The project was not implemented, although the building was completed and is in operation. The terms of reference for the project required a continuous air supply system. Since the Soviet builders did not possess such technology, they turned to an American company for help. They were ready to serve, but provided an estimate that exceeded the estimate of the entire building. For this and a number of other reasons (such as the employment of a Frenchman), the Russian architect Alexander Colley brought the supervision over the construction without the participation of his colleague. Despite the inspiring facade, the building without fulfilling the instructions of the author's project turned out to be "uncomfortable" for future permanent employees.
The building of the Tsentrosoyuz from the side of Sakharov Street.
Modulor
Corbusier in 1948 published the first volume of his work Modulor. The second volume of Modulor was published in 1954. In the book, he outlined the results of his research, conducted since 1942, and offered architects a system of harmonic quantities - a modulator based on the dimensions of the human body (with an increase of 183 cm) and the proportions of "Fibonacci numbers" (this is a series of numbers, where each subsequent is equal to the sum the two previous ones, for example: 1; 1; 2; 3; 5; 8; …). Modulor, according to its developer, helps the architect to choose the optimal dimensions of the designed house and its elements, corresponding to the height and proportions of a person. The first house calculated with a modulator was built in Marseille by 1952. The house stood on pillars, there were 337 two-story apartments, a roof-deck with a garden, a kindergarten, a swimming pool, a gym, etc.
“This is a system that aims to introduce into architecture and mechanics dimensions and dimensions consistent with human scales, to link with the infinite variety of numbers those basic life values that a person conquers while mastering space. Six years of research and experimentation have passed, and the "modulator" has made itself felt. The Marseille complex was built with this system in mind. That is why such a large building seems quite appropriate, light, elegant and humane."
Modulor. Drawing by Le Corbusier.
Some believe that the low ceilings were not invented by the State Planning Committee, but by Corbusier with his Modulor, a set of proportions based on human proportions. The key points were the navel, chest, head, arm extended, and so on.
Proportions. Drawing by Le Corbusier.
Further, we will quote Artemy Lebedev:
Note that if a person “wanted”, but could not, then we are talking here rather about a certain late Soviet person who lost the temple, with the vaults flying into the sky and spared money for receiving guests in a restaurant with high ceilings, he did not get tired at work, because he “settled well”, but had an apartment like a neighbor who “didn’t get a job,” so he regretted the lack of ceiling differentiation.
A fathom-high room, in our opinion, is convenient for everyday life.
Modulor was not a discovery, but a compilation by Corbusier designed to help in work and avoid mistakes. But whoever compiled first made the work easier for the second. Thanks to Modulor (although not only), Corbusier got into all architecture textbooks. Hence the direct thesis - the ceilings with a height of 2.16 m or 2.495 m above us were allegedly hung by a Frenchman.
Russian measures of length and carpenter's square.
Barn Le Corbusier
The measure of the master's cleanliness in relation to the people for whom he designs (prepares food, produces marketable products) determines how much he uses it all himself.
Favorite place of work and privacy of the architect was a house on the seashore in one room measuring 3.66 x 3.66 m, height 2.26 m. Since the construction of such dwellings in France was prohibited, since their dimensions did not correspond to the current standards, "Saray Le Corbusier "was located in the courtyard of his friend's cafe and did not have the right to be called home.
But where the grandfather of "Mumiy Troll" lived - the story is silent.
From the history of the "golden section"
For a long time, a person tends to surround himself with beautiful things. Already the household items of the inhabitants of antiquity, which, it would seem, pursued a purely utilitarian goal - to serve as a reservoir of water, a weapon for hunting, etc., demonstrate a person's desire for beauty.
Beauty and harmony have become the most important categories of knowledge, to a certain extent even its goal, because, in the end, the artist seeks truth in beauty, and the scientist - beauty in truth. There are already a lot of “beauty formulas”. For a long time, in their creations, people have preferred regular geometric shapes - a square, a circle, an isosceles triangle, a pyramid.
Of the many proportions that people have long used when creating harmonic works, there is one, the only one, which has unique properties. This proportion was called in different ways - "golden", "divine", "golden ratio", "golden number", "golden mean".
The "golden proportion" is a mathematical concept and its study is, first of all, the task of science. But it is also a criterion of harmony and beauty, and this is already a category of art and aesthetics.
The golden ratio.
The golden ratio is such a proportional division of a segment into unequal parts, in which the entire segment refers to the larger part as the larger part itself refers to the smaller one; or in other words, a smaller segment relates to a larger one as a larger one to everything.
And now the tricky question: were any creators familiar with Corbusier's conceptual conclusions? Pushkin, for example:
“Moscow… how much in this sound has
merged for the Russian heart!
How much there was in it!"
In the first sentence, the "golden ratio" passes through the "heart", and the first and second sentences are in the "golden" proportion. Thus, after reading this, everyone is inclined to assert that "Moscow is the heart of Russia", but where he got it from - he will not remember!
Did the builders of St. Basil's Cathedral read the works of Le Corbusier? That's just it! Because as stated in a poem by another great poet:
“In the northern capital, a dusty poplar languishes, A transparent dial is tangled in the foliage, And in the dark greenery a frigate or an acropolis
Shines from afar - a brother to the water and the sky.
An air rook and a touch-
sensitive mast, Serving as a ruler for Peter's successors, He teaches: beauty is not a whim of a demigod, But a predatory eye of a simple carpenter.
Domination is affectionate to us of the four elements, But a free man created the fifth:
Does not space deny the superiority of
This chastely built ark?
The capricious Medusas are angrily molded, As the plows are thrown, the anchors rust -
And now the bonds of three dimensions are torn
And the world seas open.
Admiralty. Osip Mandelstam. May 1913.
List of questions that did not receive coverage in the article due to limited volume
- what are the principles of "post-Fordism";
- why the principles of "post-Fordism" correspond to the aspirations of the inhabitants of the post-industrial society, from whom, in fact, dissatisfaction with the typical construction emanates;
- it is true that it is clear from the principles of Fordism that today's post-industrial bureaucracy in Russia is the bearer of the format of an industrial society;
- as a consequence of the previous: why does not society pass into the post-industrial phase with an industrial superstructure in the form of an unreformed bureaucracy;
- why the highest figure of the Masonic hierarchy bears the name of the "great architect";
Conclusion
A poet and a mathematician are climbing one beautiful, blooming hill from both sides. And when they meet at the top of the hill, the mathematician sees an unusually beautiful crystal vase in the poet's hand. And suddenly the poet removes his hand and the vase hangs in the air. The mathematician looks at this vase, remembers the law of universal gravitation, the vase falls and breaks.
The poet sadly looks at the fragments of this vase, recalls how beautiful it was, and suddenly the vase hangs in the air again.
To which the mathematician says: "I know how you feel."
To which the poet replies: "I feel that you know."
These are two ways of knowing the world.
An architect is a specialist who has synthesized both approaches in himself.
Was Lenin an architect? This is not the subject of this article.
Stalin was an architect.
Was it Khrushchev to judge the reader after finishing reading.
