Building Connections, Distorting Meanings Soviet Architecture and the West, 1953-1979
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Building Connections, Distorting Meanings Soviet Architecture and the West, 1953-1979 Olga Yakushenko Thesis submitted for assessment with a view to obtaining the degree of Doctor of History and Civilization of the European University Institute Florence, 26 April 2021 European University Institute Department of History and Civilization Building Connections, Distorting Meanings Soviet Architecture and the West, 1953-1979 Olga Yakushenko Thesis submitted for assessment with a view to obtaining the degree of Doctor of History and Civilization of the European University Institute Examining Board Prof. Alexander Etkind, EUI Prof. Catriona Kelly, University of Oxford Prof. Pavel Kolář, University of Konstanz Prof. Anatoly Pinsky, University of Helsinki © Olga Yakushenko, 2020 No part of this thesis may be copied, reproduced or transmitted without prior permission of the author i ii Researcher declaration to accompany the submission of written work Department of History and Civilization - Doctoral Programme I, Olga Yakushenko, certify that I am the author of the work “Building Connections, Distorting Meanings: Soviet Architecture and the West, 1953-1979” I have presented for examination for the Ph.D. at the European University Institute. I also certify that this is solely my own original work, other than where I have clearly indicated, in this declaration and in the thesis, that it is the work of others. I warrant that I have obtained all the permissions required for using any material from other copyrighted publications. I certify that this work complies with the Code of Ethics in Academic Research issued by the European University Institute (IUE 332/2/10 (CA 297). The copyright of this work rests with its author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This work may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. This authorisation does not, to the best of my knowledge, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that this work consists of 72517 words. Statement of inclusion of previous work: I confirm that chapter “Anatole Kopp: Enchanted by the Soviet” draws upon an earlier article I published in Yakushenko, Olga (2016) ‘Anatole Kopp’s Town and Revolution as History and a Manifesto: Reactualization of Russian Constructivism in the West in the 1960s,’ Journal of Art Historiography, № 14, June 2016. Statement of language correction: This thesis has been corrected for linguistic and stylistic errors. I certify that I have checked and approved all language corrections, and that these have not affected the content of this work. iii INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 6 PROBLEMATICS AND FRAMEWORK ....................................................................................................... 3 METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................................... 5 SOVIET ARCHITECTURE AS A FIELD OF HISTORICAL INQUIRY .............................................................. 6 TRANSNATIONAL ASPECTS OF COLD WAR STUDIES ........................................................................... 10 RUSSIA AND THE WEST ...................................................................................................................... 12 STRUCTURE ........................................................................................................................................ 15 SOURCES ............................................................................................................................................ 16 CHAPTER ONE. LEARNING TO KNOW WESTERN ARCHITECTURE ...................................................... 17 INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS OF SOVIET ARCHITECTS .................................................................... 19 EARLY ARCHITECTURAL LIKBEZ: PROFESSIONAL CULTURE ................................................................. 23 IMAGES AND THEIR MEANINGS: WESTERN MAGAZINES ...................................................................... 27 BUSINESS TRIPS AND ARCHITECTURAL TOURISM IN THE LATE 1950S-EARLY 1960S ........................... 31 WRITINGS ON WESTERN ARCHITECTURE AS A GENRE ......................................................................... 34 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................... 39 CHAPTER TWO. RECEIVING GUESTS: WESTERN ARCHITECTS IN THE USSR ....................................... 40 THE INTERNATIONAL UNION OF ARCHITECTS .................................................................................... 41 THE FIFTH IUA CONGRESS IN MOSCOW, 1958 ................................................................................... 44 FRENCH PROVOCATION OR HOW TO TALK TO FOREIGNERS ............................................................... 46 FEEDBACK AND COMMENTS ............................................................................................................... 49 ARCHITECTURE USA: PROPAGANDA OR CULTURAL TRANSFER? ......................................................... 51 THE EXHIBITION ARCHITECTURE USA: FROM MOMA TO THE USSR ................................................. 52 HOW TO DEAL WITH AMERICAN PROPAGANDA? ................................................................................ 56 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................... 58 CHAPTER THREE. PRESENTING SOVIET ARCHITECTURE ABROAD...................................................... 60 THE SYSTEM OF CORRESPONDENTS .................................................................................................... 61 L’ARCHITECTURE D’AUJOURD’HUI: ARCHITECTURE SOVIÉTIQUE ...................................................... 65 ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY: AA AS CASE ................................................................................. 76 CHAPTER FOUR. ANATOLE KOPP: ENCHANTED BY THE SOVIET EXPERIMENT ................................... 86 A FRENCH ARCHITECT DISCOVERS THE SOVIET UNION ..................................................................... 90 FRENCH ARCHITECTURAL CRISIS OF THE 1960S ................................................................................. 94 WHAT TOWN, WHAT REVOLUTION? .................................................................................................. 96 THE COLD WAR NETWORK .............................................................................................................. 100 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................... 103 CHAPTER FIVE. PROBLEMATIC HERITAGE OF THE SOVIET AVANT-GARDE ...................................... 101 EXCAVATIONS: THE RETURN OF SOVIET CONSTRUCTIVISM ............................................................. 106 WESTERN RECEPTION: FROM A GIMMICK TO A PRODIGY ................................................................. 111 THE ART IN REVOLUTION EXHIBITION, LONDON, 1971 ...................................................................... 117 PARIS-MOSCOU EXHIBITION, 1979 .................................................................................................... 122 POLITICAL DISCOURSE AROUND PARIS-MOSCOU 1979 ...................................................................... 125 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................... 130 CONCLUSION TO THE THESIS .......................................................................................................... 127 LIST OF THE ARCHIVES USED .......................................................................................................... 132 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................... 133 iv Introduction The transnational history of the Soviet Union often goes against everything we know as citizens of the post-Soviet world. We are used to imagining the Iron Curtain as an impermeable obstacle and any meaningful connection between the Soviet Union and the rest of the world as clandestine, unofficial, and potentially subversive. But it was not always the case. I wish to open my thesis with a short dramatic exposition from the memoir of one of the protagonists of my thesis, the Soviet architect Felix Novikov: Soon [after the speech against the extravagances in architecture in 1953] the architectural bosses went abroad in search for examples worthy of emulation. The head of the Union of architects of the USSR, Pavel Abrosimov,1 left for Italy, Aleksandr Vlasov went to the US, Iosif Loveĭko who, in his absence became the chief architect of Moscow, left for France. After, each of them gave a talk about his impressions to the colleagues in the overcrowded lecture hall of the Central House of Architects. A year after the “historical” (without irony) speech the Party and government decree “On the elimination of extravagances in housing design and construction” appeared […] in the text of this document were such lines: “Obligate (the list of responsible organizations followed )… to be more daring in assimilation of the best achievements… of foreign construction.” The true “reconstruction” resulted