社会主義建築の遺産と中国 Socialist Architectural Heritage: the Soviets, the World and China

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研究速報

クズネツォフドミトリー＊ Dmitry KUZNETSOV

numerous researchers within the schools of the Soviet Union 1. Introduction and locally. 1.1. Research background The contribution of the Soviet Union to the formation of the 1.3. Some heritage considerations and risks global urban and architectural cultures, the infrastructural There are two major issues to consider in the context of the development of the world is an unknown part of the global recent global policies. history of built environment. Despite the Soviets’ tremendous The first is the lack of awareness about the Soviet heritage political and technological power, its dissolution in 1991 not abroad by official institutions and local people. Such issue has only has led to a colossal loss of influence but also interrupted become relevant mostly because of the rising alertness towards many cooperations and created a certain disinterest of the world the modern heritage of architecture vulnerability, meaning that community to its global heritage. It is yet an opportunity to such heritage is potentially subject to ascertained dangers such consider this fresh historic prospective and attempt to analyze as: serious deterioration of materials or structure, of architectural the legacy of the Soviet regime all over the world. It is certain or town-planning coherence, significant loss of historical that it will provide us with unique data on the impact, official authenticity etc.; and potential risks such as: lack of conservation an not, of one of two biggest Empires and utopias of the XX policy, outbreak or threat of armed conflict or else threatening century. impacts of climatic, geological or other environmental factors 1). The second issue concerns the lack of consistent research on 1.2. Purposes and necessity the subject. Whereas Russia has been longly involved into the As the current history of the built environment has been development of many countries the research that has been basically one-sided, many key aspects of the development of conducted so far does not provide us with any consistent and such regions as North, South-East and Central Asia, Near East, understandable narrative. Therefore the contribution to different Western Europe, Africa, South America and the Caribbean, related spheres of life remains unclear. remain blancs yet we cannot deny the enormous influence the 2. Analysis approaches USSR had on the region. The topic searches to illuminate the complex network of cooperations in cultural, scientific and 2.1. Scope technological spheres that resulted in a fascinating corpus of at Looking deeper into the research scope we realize that most advanced infrastructural projects, industrial objects and monumental vestiges are the minor part of the aforementioned settlements, original monuments and unique urban planning cooperation impacts and the most considerable contributions decisions over at least one third of the world. All these are the come from the complex political and economical cooperation indispensable elements of the world’s recent architectural and developed in the two decades before the war and the during the urban heritage map as well as hitherto unstudied physical post-war and Cold War times. Such devision is dictated by vestiges of the Cold War and the original urban and architectural different attitude of the Soviet government at each period, where industries created in the Soviet Union. One more important the first is to be seen as a period of promotion of the new-born concern is the scientific and technical education and support and unclaimed new country 2) and the second as implementation that, born from a common project of propaganda, produced a of the new ideas by a country-winner in the World War II, the remarkable number of engineers, support the becoming of only country to create the atomic bomb in response to the USA and thus able to compete. We can also divide the entire scope ＊東京大学大学院工学系研究科 of the impact as buildings and urban projects are the visible

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研究速報 elements and huge infrastructural projects, financial aid on reformatting building industry, thinking anew the housing construction, specialists cooperation etc. as the invisible part of typologies and the management styles were the necessary the iceberg. conditions 3). However promissing was this avant-garde Some of the examples of the invisible impacts are the foreign movement based on functionalism and rationalism, it ceased students actively educated in the USSR in the post-war period. dramatically under Stalin, who favorited the proletarian We posses already some data on the number of students. Classicism (from 1930s) for the ordinary people found Constructivism incomprehensible. Implying that the nation had 2.2. Analysis modulation to be shown how happy it was, generally through the beaux-arts As a model for the analysis we have chosen the economical means, the positivist and pompous imagery. model of impact assessments giving us a more or less clear Similarly to Russia, the specificity of transformation in China relationship between the time conjuncture, the inputs, the outputs was largely in creation of a new society never hitherto existed and the impact on different spheres of social life (Fig.1) and thus the modernization in both countries would come to reject modernist architecture in favor of more classical 4). 3. Bringing Socialist Modernization to China

3.1. Towards a new society 3.2. China (1949-1956) As an exemplifying case study for this research, this paper After the political turmoil of 1920-40s, the real contribution touches upon a modest period of Russian history in terms of followed with the creation of the People’s Republic in 1949. The impact onto foreign territories as a result of a deep political, aid from the Soviet Union included specialists, money and civil and economic crisis following the October Revolution. The technical supplies. The Korean war and the necessity of unifying building of a new society, although attractive in the very people demanded the creation of the China’s primary enemy in beginning, after the World War II could difficultly find adherents. the face of the United States, which was also beneficial for the Yet, the underdeveloped and exhausted by colonialism China alliance with the Soviets. Hence the period from 1949 to 1956 and Mongolia that had not long ago become independent were pictures a challenging cooperation between the new-born countries eager to receive assistance in transforming there societies from seeking to create a new nation and achieve the future through imperial to communist. The new model of life, spread over by socialist modernization. Among the first steps of the initiative was the propaganda, was extremely attractive for foreigners seeking the reconstruction of the war-torn industries through the to experiment with new forms as Koos Bosma writes , “the implementation of 156 large-scale projects in heavy industry and Communist utopia was based on confidence in the beneficial military facilities. The large-scale advisory program demanding impact of science, technology, planning and management” in involvement of about 20,000 Soviet specialists was launched by which dealing with alternative town planning concepts, Chinese authorities under the title “Learning from the Soviet

Fig.1 Chinese case-study impact assessment

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研究速報 Union”. It was perceived as an inseparable part of the new movement heading towards socialism. Thus with help of Russian specialists a number of constructions projects were launched. In terms of urbanism, the first major project concerned the placement of new government in Beijing and played a major role in the partial demolition of the old city and the erection of the Tiananmen square. Soon after the Soviet planners’ arrival to the capital in 1949 at the invitation of the Beijing Planning Committee, their plan was to reuse the existing infrastructure of the old city in order to reduce the cost. The opposite proposal of two Chinese architects Liang Sicheng and Chen Zhanxian, known as “Liang-Chen Project” advocated the construction of

the new governmental facilities to the west and preserving the Fig. 2 The Beijing Broadcasting Center and the new quarters in entire old city. Considering the economic situation in the country Beijing. Source: Arkhitektura SSSR, 1959:10 and the necessity of rooting of the new Communist government symbolically in the capital, the Soviet’s proposal prevailed and rural households. The rural community was similar to the a radical transformation of the old city was undertaken. Almost kolkhoz (collective household) in the USSR: it included twenty-three miles of city walls were demolished for they were dormitories, residential schools for children, retirement homes regarded as slowing the development of the new city. for aged people and kindergartens. In 1953 the Minister’s The strong influence of Soviet supervisors, however short, not Comity accepted a new 5 million rubles railway construction only left the plans for many major cities (more than 150 before project aiming to connect Mongolian Ulan-Bator to the Chinese 1957) but created long-term tendencies for the future planning mainland and later the new train “Moscow-Beijing”, created a models. Among those tendencies one may count the industrial new wave of development. productivity as the prior function, including clearing of the old In architecture the design preference was given to the similar fabric for making it more functional or by usage of the farmlands to Russian eclectic use of forms from the past in order to achieve near the city; the centralized supply and housing management monumentality and promote nationalism. The Soviet-designed within the danwei (work-units as employment-based community buildings typically featured a symmetrical layout as, for instance, patterns). Another etalon was the Moscow city-plan of 1935, the Measurement and Cutting Tools Factory in Harbin (1954); including the hierarchy of concentric ring roads, radial avenues n the western suburbs of Beijing was built the “Friendship and open public spaces, accentuated with monuments 5). As C. Hotel” (1954). Later followed the China’s Broadcast Building Gu illustrates, the socialist style planning model was to show in 1958. Yet, as we mentioned before these were noticeable sort “the absolute power of the state, the confidence of government of landmarks and the min weight of the cooperation came to the in directing and controlling urban growth” 6). Another example a major number of plants and factories. Among many others, in of typically Soviet urban tools is the mikroraion, the socialist 1956 in Changchun was established the first automobile urban pattern of neighborhood planning. The Soviet-assisted projects in Beijing were giving priority to peripheral placement of apartment buildings and were rejecting the Western European models of repetitive rows of building blocs, proposed for instance by Walter Groppius. Hence after the Communist party took control over the country, Beijing as many other cities was reoriented towards socialist productive city, dominated by state- omened enterprises (SOEs) and the urban population increased from 1,76 million in 1949 to 3,41 million in 1957, with a dramatic increase of built-up area from 108,9 km2 in 1949 to 192 km2 in 1957 6). Another big-scale example is the people’s commune movement launched in China in 1958 by Mao Zedong, who by 1958 Fig. 3. The Friendship hotel, Beijing. Source: The Big Soviet established 23,397 rural communes, embracing 90,4 percent of Encyclopedia

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研究速報 manufacturing enterprise – the FAW. Many Chinese specialists to be building communism. Fair enough to admit that the would be sent to the Soviet Union during this time to learn collaborative project between the USSR and its partners were almost about everything, from milk production to river channels not always entirely supported technically or financially by the constructions. Due to the Soviet-based education and fashion the the Soviet Union: in many cases the co-called socialist Soviet style can be clearly noticed in the main hall of Tsinghua architecture was only a fruit of the vision architects developed University, designed by Guan Zhaoye and others (1959-1961, through organized or supported by the Soviets education or later 1963-1966, 2000-2001): a megastructure of 75,781 square as they were the only example to look at. It is worth admitting meters, reminiscent of the enormous tower of the University of that the USSR with their hydrogen bomb, enormous industrial Moscow. The model also served for the Huazhong University of projects and after-war reconstruction vigor were a leading world Science and Technology of Wuhan. However, probably one of power and a source of unique knowledge. The example of China the most symbolic examples is the Shanghai’s China-Soviet may show that, however criticized today, during the cooperation Friendship Hall (1955): the building of 18,300 square meters period the Soviet Union provided China with the most advanced was built only in ten months as a fruit of collaboration of technologies and supported the growth of cities and national Chinese architects from Central Design Institute (many of them economy. studied in the US) and Soviet specialists headed by Sergei At the same time we want to demystify in the further research Andreyev, a fellow of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and the the fairy-tale image of the cooperation with the USSR and laureate of the Stalin Prize. demonstrate with the documents that it was a “healthy” economic The new vogue in art became the Social Realism - a formula, and political activity similar to the current OECD loans and promoted by Stalin. It put term to the development of avant- cooperation and very close in terms of means to those of all the garde. Russian architects, who had longly struggled to find major powers of the period. Major attention will certainly be themselves and define the co-called Russian style, ended up paid to the human activity such as cultural diplomacy and choosing the three main styles preferred during the Stalin’s eduction as one of the irreplaceable means of new world’s regime: the neo-classicism, eclecticism and neo-barocco. On the citizen formation. Chinese side the exemplary designs of such classical revival (Manuscript received. September 25, 2017) include the Beihai Office Building in Beijing (1955), by Chen Bibliography Deng’ao (The Central Design Institute), The Shandong Opera House in Jinan (1954), by Ni Xinmu (The Shandong Architectural 1) “Documentation and Conservation of the Modern Monument Design Institute), The Guangdong Academy of Science in (DOCOMOMO International)”, accessed January 15, 2016, http:// ngo-db.unesco.org/ Guangzhou (mid 1950’s), by Lin Keming (the Guangzhou 2) A. Golubev, V, Nevezhin. (2016) Formirovanie obraza Sovetskoi Municipal Architectural Design Institute. Rossii v okruzhayushem mire sredstvami kulturnoi diplomatii: 1920 Following the Stalin’s death (1953) and Nikita Khrushchev’s - 1940. Historia Russica, Moscow, Saint-Petersbourg, page 17 denouncing speech of the 7th of December 1956, the alliance 3) Roos Bosma. (2014) New socialist cities: foreign architects in the became fragile and in 1959 the relationships experienced another USSR 1920–1940. Planning perspectives, 29:3, pages 301-327 crisis leading to the total withdrawal of all fundings, technical 4) Jeffrey Cody, Nancy S. Steinhardt, and Tony Atkin. (2011) Chinese Architecture and the Beaux-Arts, University of Hawaii Press and and human resources. The Soviet Minister’s Comity criticized Hong Kong University Press, http://worldhistoryconnected.press. 7) the “treatment of architecture as art” and the waste of materials . illinois.edu/9.2/br_croizier.html Similarly, on 28 March 1955, in the People’s Daily an editorial 5) Fan, K. Sizing. (2011) A Classicist Architecture for Utopia: The “Against Waste in Building” (Fandui jianzhu zhong de langfei) Soviet Contacts. Chinese Architecture and the Beaux-Arts. Ed. strongly criticized the “unnecessary projects, the indulgence of JEFFREY W. CODY, NANCY S. STEINHARDT, and TONY high-standard material, formalist design, an admiration of old ATKIN. U of Hawai’i; pages 91-126 6) Chaolin Gu, Yehua Dennis Wei & Ian G. Cook. (2015) Planning building forms, and waste of construction” 8). Thus not only the Beijing: socialist city, transitional city, and global city. Urban direct application of Soviet aids was ceased but also the Georgraohy, 36:6, 905-926, 911. continuity of the new stylistic turned to be non grata. 7) Van Zanten, D. (2011) Just What was Beaux-Art Architectural Composition? Chinese Architecture and the Beaux-Arts. U of 4. Conclusion Hawai’i. 23-38. Web. 32. We focus our research on the Soviet Union as the center of 8) Fan. op.cit., 99. the socialist architecture for it was the first country in the world