Inventing "Modern Architecture": Government and Social Order in the USSR in 1930s

Abstract

This paper describes the use of architecture as an instrument of propaganda and symbolic representation of the government doctrines, which achieved a particular acuteness during the interwar period in the USSR. The system of governing the art world by the state created in those years retained its influence during the following decades. That's why, after 80 years passed, it's so important to look into the mechanisms that made this process run. This paper aims to analyze social and political sources of major events in the 19201930s architecture based on archive and press studies. This material, unveiling the culture governing mechanisms in the prewar USSR, could contribute to better knowledge of the inner reasons of 1932 aesthetic and institutional reconstruction of architectural activity, and also of the 1937 All-Union architectural meeting's sense and goals. Keywords—soviet architecture; avant-garde; constructivism; functionalism; Art Deco; architectural styles; soviet history