At the Fateful Turn - Russian Architects and the Revolution of 1917

摘要

The article examines the little-researched period of the history of Russian architecture, on the eve and during the revolution. Generally, architects in Russian Empire were interested neither in a social cataclysm nor in the fall of monarchy. However even this inert professional group had played its role in that fateful events. With the decline in the amount of civil construction and patriotic propaganda, the politicization of an architectural discourse has taken place. Stylistic controversies received a new value, but plans for the rational re-establishing of war-demolished cities and even capitals, which had to be occupied (e.g. Constantinople) became even more important. In the March of 1917 this ambition to rearrange the world has been easily converted into plans for the new democratic organization of the architectural community throughout the country - all-Russian Union of Architects. This association inspired by revolutionary romanticism was cancelled in 1918, when Bolshevik era began.