Soviet architects and power institutions in the 1930s – 1950s: strategies of interaction

Abstract

Architectural policy under Stalin is traditionally considered as a symbol of the Soviet epoch of the 1930s – 1950s as a whole. However, the system of interactions between architects and the power institutions was not a simple one. Therefore it should not be estimated only in terms of repression and total control. The interactions between architects and the power in the 1930s – 1950s represented a compound order of relationships with its own rules which included special strategies and possibilities for architects to make choices along with some restrictions and restraints for the power itself.Centralization policy and the system of directive management led to serious unification of Soviet architectural activities. The same factors caused the variety of architects’ professional strategies and ways of adoption to new circumstances. The majority of avant-garde architects continued their professional activity even under new conditions. But it did not always lead to the rejection of their principles and to demotion in architectural hierarchy. Many of them were able to maintain firm positions in new system to affect the development of architecture and to form new artistic directions. This peculiarity demonstrates succession between two architectural epochs and explain the logic of changes in the Soviet architecture after 1932. It is important to explore both the models of behavior used by the former avant-garde architects under Stalin and the strategies of the power.