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The House of Soviets in Elista: Russian Constructivism and the Process of the Construction of Socialist Society

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The House of Soviets in Elista: Russian Constructivism and the Process of the Construction of Socialist Society National Taiwan Normal University Graduate Institute of Art History 國立台灣師範大學藝術史研究所 Master’s Degree Thesis 碩士論文 The House of Soviets in Elista: Russian Constructivism and the Process of the Construction of Socialist Society Advisor: Candida Syndikus 指導教授: 辛蒂庫絲 博士 Graduate Student: Basan Kuberlinov 研究生: 巴桑 June 2015 中華民國 104 年 7 月 Table of Contents English Abstract………………………………………………………………………...3 Chinese Abstract………………………………………………………………………..4 1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………5 2. State of Research……………………………………………………………………7 3. The Building History……………………………………………………………….10 a. Prehistory and Planning Process………………………………………………10 b. Construction………………………………………………………………........18 c. Destruction and Rebuilding……………………………………………………19 4. Defining a building type and its style……………………………………………...21 a. The Formal Analysis…………………………………………………………..21 b. Constructivist Houses of Soviets and the Development of a Building Type.......27 c. Golosov’s House of Soviets…………………………………………………….34 5. The Issue of Style in the House of Soviets in Elista……………………………….37 a. Constructivism, Style or Method?...................................................................... 37 b. The Origins of Iliya Golosov’s style and his Theory of the Construction……...45 of Architectural Organisms 6. The House of Soviets in Elista and Constructivism in the Context of Soviet Everyday life and Ideology…………………………………………………………54 a. The Theoretical Conception of Constructivism………………………………...54 b. Everyday life, Ideology and Theater……………………………………………60 c. The Tower……………………………………………………………………….76 7. The Building in its Environment…………………………………………………....83 8. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….92 9. Bibliography………………………………………………………………………...99 Appendix: Glossary………………………………………………………………...103 Appendix: Illustrations……………………………………………………………..104 1 2 English Abstract The proposal presents the analysis of the House of Soviets in Elista. The building was designed by the famous Russian architect Iliya Golosov and its construction was a part of the first five-year plan (1928-1932). The House of Soviets should become the administrative and socio-cultural center of the newly built capital of the Autonomous Kalmyk Region, Elista. It also was one of new major types of buildings, which were developed in the RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) in the first two decades after the October Revolution of 1917. The type was elaborated by architects of Constructivism, the avant-garde style––or rather method, where form had to derive from function––which was predominant in Russia between 1923 and 1933. As at that time the idea prevailed that all art and architecture was to support the construction of the new socialist society, the House of Soviets should become an important factor in this process. The aim of this research is, first of all, to reveal the social and ideological functions of the building and to ask how they are expressed in its form. Second, it will be analyzed how, according to Constructivist architects, the building should help to organize the new socialist life. Keywords: Constructivism, House of Soviets, Elista, Iliya Golosov, Avant-garde Architecture 3 Chinese Abstract 本項研究計劃的主旨為分析埃利斯塔的蘇維埃眾議院。此棟建築物是由俄羅斯著名建築師 Iliya Golosov 所設計。蘇維埃眾議院的興建為第一個五年計劃（1928-1932）中的一部分， 而蘇維埃眾議院也成為當時為新興城區的埃利斯塔自治區中卡爾梅克一帶的管理和社會文 化中心。 此棟建築也是在十月革命後的第一個二十年間由建構主義建築師所發展出的新型建築物之 一。建構主義是 1923 年到 1933 年在俄羅斯的主流前衛風格。而在此期間，所有的藝術和 建築的目的皆是為了社會主義新社會的建設，而蘇維埃眾議院更是研究此段期間的重要議 題。 此次研究之目的，首先是要揭示本建築物所呈現出的社會和意識形態，並對其如何表現於 建築形式上提出疑問。其次則是為了解對建構主義的建築師而言，建築應如何建構出社會 主義的新生活。 關鍵字： 建構主義、蘇維埃眾議院、埃利斯塔、liya Golosov 4 1. Introduction In the turbulent time of the 1920s, artistic movements, such as Dutch De Stijl, German Bauhaus, Italian Futurism and many others, were born that inspired the whole century. Their foremost aim was the attempt to find a new language, which reflected the fundamental changes taking place in the society by combining theoretical studies with the reality that surrounded them. The artist-designer-engineer was regarded as a creator who would generate a new world of objects for the new individuals, embrace the art and architecture of many countries also leaving an imprint in different national cultures. Russian Constructivism played a significant role among these avant-garde movements. In comparison to its counterparts in the movement of modern art of other countries, Russian Constructivism explicitly considered ideological and social aspects. Its development was predominantly associated with the October Revolution of 1917. As a result, architects thought to build the first socialist country. Adopting the socio-political doctrine of the Soviet system, Constructivism made several attempts to realize utopian social projects through the comprehensive material “organization” of social life, the life, which now began to change rapidly against the background of industrialization and urbanization. Posters, monuments and stage design, everything was created in order to hail the revolution and the new social order. Architecture played a significant role in this process, as architects had to build a new environment for the new socialist society, which was meant to consist of modern buildings. Along with factories and plants, new types of buildings, such as house-communes, workers’ clubs, Palaces of Culture, were developed and built by the Constructivist architects. The Houses of Soviets were among these new types. The development of this type was strongly correlated with the country’s reorganization, when administrative-territorial division was reconsidered and new states and National Republics with new administrative centers were established. These new centers needed buildings for the government, communist party organizations and socio-cultural activities, which were called the Houses of Soviets. This was the situation, when the House of Soviets in Elista, which will be in the focus of this present study, was being built. It was in 1921 that Elista became the capital of the newly established Kalmyk Autonomous Region. As an absolutely new city, Elista rose in the very heart of the Kalmyk steppe located in the southeast of the European part of Russia, about 1,250 km south-east of Moscow. 5 It is necessary to note that Elista city was at the beginning of a process, meant to break the traditional, nomadic way of life of the Kalmyk people. It was one of the few new cities with its central urban ensemble being composed exclusively of modern architecture. The nucleus of this ensemble was the House of Soviets. It became the administrative and socio- cultural center of the city. Along with a pedtekhnikum (a college, which prepared teachers for elementary school) and a hospital, the building was designed by the famous Russian architect Iliya Golosov (1883-1945). The style of the House of Soviets in Elista is usually regarded to be Constructivist. Such a statement, however, is arguable, because the term used in this context is contradictory. Architectural Constructivism was not a style but a functional method, in which form had to be derived from function and construction.1 Although Golosov is often considered as one of the main representatives of Constructivism, his buildings were not always designed by applying strictly functional methods. It has been constantly repeated by Russian architectural historians that for Golosov, Constructivism was an “outward trend.” Selim O. Khan-Magomedov, for example, wrote that Golosov treated Constructivism as a set of stylistic features, which he used as means of expression.2 Vigdariya Khazanova called his projects “brilliant stylization in Constructivist spirit.”3 Taking into account the aforementioned facts, there are several aspects of the House of Soviets in Elista that I would like to study. In the first part of this proposal, I will regard the history of the building, on the one hand in order to reveal its involvement in the process of urbanization and the five-year plan; on the other hand, I will investigate under what circumstances and how the building process had progressed and how important the participation of the State had been. In order to achieve this goal, I shall analyze unpublished documents from the National Archive of the Republic of Kalmykia in Elista and the Passport of Architectural Monument, which is located in the Kalmyk State University in Elista. In the second part, I will analyze the building’s appearance—in its current form and as it was represented in drawings and photographs—in order to comprehend its main compositional elements. In the fourth part, I will regard the development of the building type in order to 1 Selim O. Khan-Magomedov, Arkhitektura Sovetskogo Avantgarda, Kniga Pervya: Problemy Formoobrazovaniya, Moscow 1996, p. 340. 2 Ibid, p. 442. 3 Vigdariya Khazanova, Sovetskaya arkhitektura pervikh let oktyabrya. 1917-1925 gg., Moscow 1970, p. 141. 6 reveal the main features of this new type of building. In the same part, I will also consider Golosov’s designs of other Houses of Soviets and examine their affiliation to the building type developed by other Constructivist architects. Subsequently, I will juxtapose the Houses of Soviets—those by the Constructivists and by Golosov—with the building in Elista in order to reveal the latter’s place in the architectural tradition of Constructivism. In order to understand the stylistic peculiarities of the House of Soviets in Elista, I will consider the building’s form in the context of the development of the Constructivist style and Golosov’s personal style. In the following research it will be
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