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“Ever Higher”: The Evolution of the Project for the Palace of Soviets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Sona Stephan Hoisington
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Abstract

In this article, Sona Hoisington focuses on the evolution of the project for the Palace of Soviets and its metamorphoses during the four stages of the competition (1931-33) and after. Rather than interpreting the project as the repudiation of modernist architecture, as many scholars have done, Hoisington argues that the design evolved from the modern and functional to the eclectic and monumental. Drawing on archival materials, she demonstrates that this change came about gradually and in a contradictory fashion. Hoisington shows how the Palace of Soviets acquired mythic significance, becoming a symbol of Soviet might and determination to overtake America and a temple to the revolution and its deity, Vladimir Lenin. In conclusion, she argues that the evolution of the Palace of Soviets encapsulates the changing models in the Soviet Union of the 1930s.

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Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 62 , Issue 1 , Spring 2003 , pp. 41 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 2003

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References

Research for this article was supported by a grant from the Campus Research Board of the University of Illinois, Chicago, and facilitated by the Davis Center of Russian Studies at Harvard University, where I have been an associate, and its director, Timothy Colton.

My thanks to architectural historian Greg Castillo who made available to me archival materials and read and commented on a draft of this paper as it was nearing completion; to artist Charles Wilson who shared with me his experiences in helping to organize the Naum Gabo and the Palace of Soviets exhibition; to Karina Ter-Akopyan, Moscow architectural historian and librarian, whose help was invaluable; to the staff of the Central Municipal Archive of Moscow for their assistance; and to the Director of the Shchusev Museum of Architecture, David Sarkisyan, for making available to me the project designs for the Palace of Soviets. Finally my thanks to Diane P. Koenker and Slavic Review's anonymous reviewers for their comments.

“Vse vyshe” (Ever higher), a popular Soviet song in the 1930s, embodied the ethos of high Stalinism. See Clark, Katerina, The Soviet Novel: History as Ritual (Chicago, 1981), 136–41Google Scholar.

1 Cooke, Catherine and Kazus, Igor, Soviet Architectural Competitions 1920s-1930s (London, 1992), 58–83 Google Scholar; Adkins, Helen et al., Naum Gabo and the Competition for the Palace ofSoviets, Moscow, 1931-1933 (Berlin, 1993)Google Scholar; and Peter Lizon, The Palace of the Soviets: TheParadigm of Architecture in the USSR (Colorado Springs, Colo., 1995) focus on the designs of the avant-garde. The gargantuan Stalinist design and other monumental designs are featured in Tarkhanov, Alexei and Kavtaradze, Sergei, Architecture of the Stalin Era, trans. Robin, and Whitby, Julia and Paver, James (New York, 1992), 25–33 Google Scholar.

2 KarinaTer-Akopyan, “The Design and Construction of the Palace of Soviets of the USSR in Moscow: A Historical Essay,” in Adkins et al., Naum Gabo and the Competition for the Palace of Soviets, 185-95; Cunliffe, Antonia, “The Competition for the Palace of Soviets in Moscow, 1931-1933,” Architectural Association Quarterly 11, no. 2 (1979): 36–48 Google Scholar. Others who have written on the Palace of Soviets include Catherine Cooke, “Images in Context,“ Architectural Drawings of the Russian Avant-Garde (New York, 1990), 37-42; Khan-Magomedov, Selim O., Pioneers of Soviet Architecture: The Search for New Solutions for the 1920s and 1930s, trans. Lievon, Alexander (New York, 1987), 403–4 and 418-23Google Scholar; Evgeniia I. Kirichenko, Kliram Khrista Spasitelia v Moskve: Istoriia proektirovaniia i sozdaniia sobora. Stranitsy zhizni igibeli, 1813-1931 (Moscow, 1992), 228-44; Manina, Antonina, “Concorso per l'edificiosimbolo del Paese: II Palazzo del Soviet,” in Mosca: Capitale dell'utopia (Milan, 1991), 99–107 Google Scholar; Papernyi, Vladimir, Kul'tura dva (Moscow, 1996); A. V. Riabushkin, Gumanizm sovetskoiarkhitektury (Moscow, 1986), 135-55Google Scholar; and Karl Schlogel, “The Shadow of an Imaginary Tower,” in Adkins et al., Naum Gabo and the Competition for the Palace of Soviets, 177-83.

3 Preliminary Competition (Stage One); Open Competition (Stage Two); Closed Competition (Stage Three); Second Closed Competition (Stage Four). See the chronology at the end of this article. The competition's preliminary stage lies beyond the scope of the present article and will not be discussed. For a treatment of that stage, see Khazanova, Vigdariia K., “K istorii proektirovaniia Dvortsa Sovetov SSSR v Moskve,” in Sovetskoe izobrazitelnoeiskusstvo i arkhitektura 60-70-khgodov (Moscow, 1979), 166–213 Google Scholar.

4 The archive of Upravlenie stroitel'stvom Dvortsa Sovetov (Directorate of Construction of the Palace of Soviets) is housed in Tsentral'nyi munitsipal'nyi arkhiv Moskvy (TsMAM), f. 694, op. 1; project designs for the Palace of Soviets competition and also design variants found in the archives of Iofan and Vladimir A. Shchuko, Shchusev Museum of Architecture, Moscow; July 1993 interview with Isaak Iu. Eigel’ in Moscow, conducted and taped by Greg Castillo and Amy Segal (archive of Greg Castillo); June 2000 interview with Lev Dmitrievich Iofan in Moscow; unreleased documentary film Vremia i zodchii, directed by Nikolai Blochkin and Amy Segal. I wish to thank architectural historian Antonina Manina for making this film available to me.

5 The competition decree and accompanying brief were republished in Dvorets Sovetov:Biulleten!’ upravleniiastroitel'stvom Dvortsa Sovetov, no. 1 (1931): 1—10 togetherwith a map and aerial photograph of the area. An English translation of the republished decree, brief, and accompanying illustrations appears in Adkins et al., Naum Gabo and the Competition forthe Palace of Soviets, 202-9.

6 Their names are listed in “Construction of a Palace of the Soviets in Moscow,” SovietCulture Bulletin, nos. 6-7 (1931): 30.

7 M. V. Kriukov, telegram to B. Breslav (Soviet trade representative in France), 24 August 1931 (TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 10, 1. 162); Kriukov, memo to Liubimov (Soviet trade representative in Germany), 31 August 1931 (TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 10,1.113); Kriukov, telegram to Levenson (Soviet trade representative in Italy), 31 August 1931 (TsMAM, f. 694, op. l,d. 10,1.75).

8 M. V. Kriukov, memo to V. M. Molotov, 26 October 1931 (TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 10, 1. 97); letter to Kriukov from B. Breslav, 2 December 1931 (TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 10, 1. 134).

9 This “list of foreign architects,” undated, can be found in TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 10, 1. 13.

10 M. V. Kriukov, memo to Piotr A. Bogdanov, chairman of Amtorg's Board, 27 August 1931 (TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 10,1. 238); M. V. Kriukov, telegram to Mamaev, 16 September 1931 (TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 10, 1. 219).

11 “Notices and Events,” The Architectural Forum, September 1931, 19.

12 The entries acquired by the Shchusev Museum are listed in N. I. Filiukova, DvoretsSovetov: Konkurs 1931-1933 gg.: Katalog-putevoditel'pofondam muzeia (Moscow, 1989). Foreign entries are discussed in Helen Adkins, “International Participation in the Competition for the Palace of Soviets,” Adkins et al., Naum Gabo and the Competition for the Palace ofSoviets, 197-201. The Shchusev Museum acquired 21 of the 24 foreign entries.

13 M. V. Kriukov, memo to die Museum of Fine Arts, 21 November 1931 (TsMAM, f. 694, op. l , d . 2,1.40).

14 M. V. Kriukov, memo to MOGES (Moskovskoe ob˝edinenie gosudarstvennykh elektrostantsii), 3 December 1931 (TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 2, 1. 50).

15 The film is preserved in Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv kinofotodokumentov (GosArkhiv) in Krasnogorsk. My thanks to Elena Kolikova for arranging for me to view this documentary and to order a copy for study purposes.

16 See Cohen, Jean-Louis, Le Corbusier and the Mystique of the USSR: Theories and Projectsfor Moscow, 1928-1936, trans. Hylton, Kenneth (Princeton, 1992), 193–97Google Scholar.

17 Dvorets Sovetov: Vsesoiuznyi konkurs 1932 g. (Moscow, 1933).

18 The decree was published in Sovetskaia arkhitektura, 1932, no. 2-3:116, in Stroilel'stuoMoskvy, 1932, no. 3:13-16, and then republished in 1933 in the competition catalogue, Dvorets Sovetov: Vsesoiuznyi konkurs 1932 g., 55-56.

19 A draft of the minutes from this March meeting can be found in TsMAM, f. 694, op. l , d . 4, 1.3.

20 Two studies are preserved: one dated 2 March 1931 (TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 3, 11. 4-9); a second, undated (TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 4,11. 6-8). Memos (TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 3, 1. 3 and d. 4, 1. 2) addressed to A. S. Enukidze indicate that he ordered the studies. A detailed map of the Okhotnyi riad area (TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 3, 1. 76) offers further evidence that the site had been carefully studied.

21 Adkins et al., Naum Gabo and the Competition for the Palace of Soviets, 202.

22 See Eigel', Isaak Iu., Boris lofan (Moscow, 1978), 53–54 Google Scholar, and Greg Castillo, “Constructivism Deconstructed” (unpublished paper).

23 M. V. Kriukov, memo to V. G. Likhachev in Mosgorispolkom (Moskovskii gorodskoi ispolnitel'nyi komitet), 21 July 1931 (TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 3,1. 25).

24 The entire history of the church with drawings and photographs is presented in Kirichenko, Khram Khrista Spasitelia v Moskve; for the consecration, see Wortman, Richard S., Scenarios of Power: Myth and Ceremony in Russian Monarchy (Princeton, 2000), 2:232–34Google Scholar.

25 These figures are taken from Baedeker's Handbook for Travellers: Russia (1914; reprint, New York, 1970), 304-5.

26 See Kirichenko, Khram Khrista Spasitelia v Moskve, 220.

27 “Volkhonka ulitsa,” Vecherniaia Moskva, 17 September 1931. Quoted in Kirichenko, Khram Khrista Spasitelia v Moskve, 248.

28 See Isaak Eigel', “K istorii postroeniia i snosa khrama Khrista Spasitelia,” Arkhitekturai stroitel'stvo Moskvy, 1988, no. 7:30-33; ASNOVA, memo to the Directorate of Construction, 8June 1931 (TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 19, 1. 63).

29 Colton, Timothy J., Moscow: Governing the Socialist Metropolis (Cambridge, Mass., 1995), 262 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Kirichenko, Khram Khrista Spasitelia v Moskve, 255; Chief Engineer Skorodumov, memo to the Directorate of Construction, 13 August 1931, on the use of explosives to bring down the cathedral (TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 7, 1. 2), accompanied by proposal and cost estimates (TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 7,11. 3-13).

30 See Curl, James Stevens, “The Modern Movement,” in A Dictionary of Architecture (Oxford, 1999), 427–28Google Scholar.

31 An axonometric view of la. N. Doditsa and A. N. Dushkin's design is reproduced in Adkins et al., Nawn Gabo and the Competition for the Palace of Soviets, 115. K. S. Alabian and V. N. Simbirtsev describe the moveable walls in an explanatory note in Sovetskaia arkhitektura, 1931, no. 4:49.

32 Architectural Forum, March 1932, A-C.

33 Draft of the minutes from this March meeting can be found in TsMAM, f. 694, op. l,d. 4, 1.3.

34 The revised brief, issued 28 February 1932, was published in Stroitel'stvo Moskvy, 1932, no. 3:13-16.

35 Izvestiia, 27 February 1932, 2-3.

36 V. M. Mikhailov, memo to the Construction Council, 9 March 1932 (TsMAJvl, f. 694, op. l , d . 19, 1.301).

37 V. M. Mikhailov, memo to V. M. Molotov, 13 July 1932 (TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 19,1.71).

38 V M. Mikhailov, memo to the Construction Council, 9 March 1932 (TsMAM, f. 694, op. l,d. 19,1.301).

39 Smolin (V. M. Mikhailov's secretary), memo to Shchuko, 5 April 1932, reporting that materials had been sent (TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 19, 1. 206).

40 V. M. Mikhailov, memo to V. M. Molotov, 13 July 1932 (TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 19, 1. 71); Stroitel'stvo Moskvy, 1933, no. 5-6:17-31. My thanks to the Frances Loeb Library of Design at Harvard University for permission to photograph this issue, which is housed in dieir collection.

41 A reproduction of A. L. Vitberg's design can be found in Kirichenko, KhramKhrista Spasitelia, 28.

42 A color reproduction of this drawing can be found in Adkins et al., Naum Gabo andthe Competition for the Palace of Soviets, 165. My thanks to Rena M. Hoisington for drawing my attention to these effects.

43 Stroitel'stvo Moskvy, 1933, no. 5-6:cover and 1-10. See also architectural journals, Sovetskaia arkhitektura, 1933, no. 4:1-6, and the inaugural issue of Arkhitektura SSSR, 1933, no. 1:3-8.

44 By decree of the Construction Council, published in Stroitel'stvo Moskvy, 1933, no. 5-6:2.

45 Cooke, “Images in Context,” 40; Tarkhanov and Kavtaradze, Architecture of theStalin Era, 33.

46 Eigel', Boris Iofan.

47 For a discussion of Government House, see William Craft Brumfield, A Historyof Russian Architecture (Cambridge, Eng., 1993), 480; Castillo, “Constructivism Deconstructed“; and Eigel', Boris lofan, 39-42 and 53-56.

48 See Tarkhanov and Kavtaradze, Architecture of the Stalin Era, 25.

49 M inutes from that meeting, Protokol soveshchaniia po voprosu predvaritel'nogo obsuzhdeniiaorganizatsii proektirovaniia Doma s“ezdov (Preliminary discussion of the organization for designing the House of Congresses), can be found in TsMAM, f. 694, op. ] , d. 4, 1. 4.

50 See TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 4, 1. 2.

51 The report entitled Doklad Sovetu Stroitel'stva Dvortsa Sovetov ob obespecheniipravil'nogo raspolozheniia Dvortsa Sovetov v sisteme Moskvy i na otvegennom uchastke (Report to the Construction Council concerning the proper location of the Palace of Soviets in the system of Moscow) bears Iofan's initials. It is dated 25 March 1931. TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 3, II. 67-74.

52 See, for example, his memo of 19 May 1931 to Torgsektor Gosizdata (Torgovlyi sektor Gosudarstvennogo izdatel'stva), requesting a copy of a large map of Moscow. TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 5, 1. 28.

53 See Lipstadt, Hélène, ed., The Experimental Tradition: Essays on Competitions in Architecture (New York, 1989), 42 and 65Google Scholar.

54 For a discussion of Pergamon, see Kostof, Spiro (revisions Greg Castillo), A Historyof Architecture: Settings and Rituals (New York, 1995), 182–89Google Scholar.

55 Eliade, Mircea, The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion, trans. Trask, Willard R. (New York, 1961), 22 Google Scholar, also see 26 for the great importance of threshold to sacred edifices.

56 For a discussion of die Monument to Victor Emmanuel and photographs of it, see Meeks, Carroll L. V., Italian Architecture, 1750-1914 (New Haven, 1966), 337–47Google Scholar.

57 Ruoff, Henry W., ed., The Circle of Knowledge (Boston, 1916), 526 Google Scholar.

58 Iofan, B. M., “Tvorcheskii otchet,” Arkhitektura SSSR, 1935, no. 6:24 Google Scholar; Rempel', L. I., “Zarubezhom: Arkhitekturnaia planirovka novogoRima,” Arkhitektura SSSR, 1935, no. 2:76 Google Scholar.

59 Lunacharskii, A. V., “Sotsialisticheskii arkhitekturnyi monument,” Stroitel'stvoMoskvy, 1933, no. 5-6:9 Google Scholar.

60 Stroitel'stvo Moskvy, 1933, no. 5-6:20-21.

61 The decree was published in Stroitel'stvo Moskvy, 1933, no. 5-6:2.

62 A photograph of the model showing the cube with the bas-relief of Lenin is reproduced in Ter-Akopyan, “Design and Construction of the Palace of Soviets,” 189.

63 A reproduction of die Vesnin brouhers’ design with the statue of Lenin can be found in Adkins et al., Naum Cabo and the Competition for the Palace of Soviets, 162.

64 Lunacharskii, A. V., “Sotsialisticheskii arkhitekturnyi monument,” Stroitel'stvoMoskvy, 1933, no. 5-6:10 Google Scholar. Lunacharskii did not live to see the final design; he died in December 1933.

65 Namely, the interview with Eigel’ taped by Castillo and Segal; the documentary film Vremia i zodchii directed by Blochkin and Segal; the article by Rozhin, I. E., “V. G. Gel'freikh,” in Arkhitektura SSSR, 1986, no. 5:92–97 Google Scholar; Eigel“s book Boris Iofan; and archival materials at the Shchusev Museum of Architecture.

66 Several of these sketches from the Iofan archive at the Shchusev Museum of Architecture are reproduced in Adkins et al., Nauru Gabo and the Competition for the Palace ofSoviets, 174-75.

67 Eigel', Boris Iofan, 96.

68 These small sketches, executed in green ink, are preserved in the Shchuko archive at the Shchusev Museum of Architecture.

69 Black-and-white versions of these drawings are pictured in “V G. Gel'freikh,” written by I. E. Rozhin, who was one of these architects.

70 Architectural Drawings of the Russian Avant- Garde, 115.

71 In the documentary, Vremia i zodchii, Eigel’ emphasizes Gor'kii's role.

72 Iofan, B. M., “Stroitel'stvo Dvortsa Sovetov i sodruzhestvo iskusstv,” ArkhitekturaDvortsa Sovetov: Materialy v plenuma pravleniia soiuza sovelskikh arkhitektorov SSSR, 1-4 iiulia1939g. (Moscow, 1939), 7 Google Scholar.

73 This claim, first articulated on the pages of Stroitel'stvo Moskvy, 1934, no. 3:10, would be repeated over and over in the 1930s.

74 This myth is articulated, for example, in Prokof'ev, A., The Palace of Soviets (Moscow, 1939), 15 Google Scholar.

75 The drawing, published in Pravda, 20 February 1934, was republished in ArkhitekturaSSSR 1934, no. 3:7 and in Stroitel'stvo Moskvy, 1934, no. 3:4. It was pictured in Shchuko's, but not Iofan's, 1935 article, “Tvorcheskii otchet,” Arkhitektura SSSR, 1935, no. 6:21.

76 The model was pictured in Arkhitektura SSSR, 1934, no. 3:2 and 6 and in Stroitel'stvo Moskvy, 1934, no. 3:5, 7, and 10. For visitors’ comments, see TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 44,11. 62-80; some of the comments are signed and dated; others are not.

77 TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 44, 1. 78, signed “architect-artist” and dated 10 March 1934.

78 TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 44, 1. 80, signed artist B. Cheryshev, Volkhonka 5/6, apt. 26 and dated 23 March 1934; TsMAM, f. 694, op.l, d. 44, 1. 67, signed and dated 5 March 1934; TsMAM, f. 694, op. 1, d. 44, 1. 78, signed Zh. Lassi, member VKP(b), ul. Gor'kogo 36.

79 This painting is pictured in N. Atarov, Dvorets Sovetov (Moscow, 1940), in a foldout after 42. It is also reproduced in Ter-Akopyan, “Design and Construction of the Palace of Soviets,” 192.

80 Fitzpatrick, Sheila, Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times. SovietRussia in the 1930s (New York, 1999), 70 Google Scholar.

81 I am grateful to Diane Koenker for sharing this image with me.

82 A photograph of this ceiling can be found in Stroitel'stvo Moskvy, 1939, no. 16:29.

83 The film is preserved in GosArkhiv in Krasnogorsk. My thanks to Elena Kolikova for arranging for me to view this documentary and to order a copy for study purposes.

84 lofan's design for the Soviet Pavilion is discussed in Sona Stephan Hoisington, “The Soviet Enthusiasm for American Architecture in the 1930s” (unpublished paper).

85 The painting entitled Fizkul'turnyiparad (Sport parade) is reproduced in Agitatsiiaui schast'e: Sovetskoe iskusstvo stalinskoi epokhi (Dusseldorf, 1992), 181. It is discussed in Reid, Susan, “All Stalin's Women: Gender and Power in Soviet Art of the 1930s,” Slavic Review 57, no. 1 (Spring 1998): 164 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

86 Prokof'ev, Palace of Soviets.

87 Ibid., 5, 6, 18, 28.

88 Dvorets Sovetov (Moscow, 1939), 5 and 13.

89 For a discussion of these buildings, see Cohen, Jean-Louis, Scenes of the World to Come: European Architecture and the American Challenge, 1893-1960, trans. Hylton, Kenneth (Paris, 1995), 166–70, 178-81Google Scholar.

90 See Karl Schlogel, “The Shadow of an Imaginary Tower,” in Adkins et al., NaumGabo and the Competition for the Palace of Soviets, 183.

91 A diagram demonstrating this can be found in Latur, Alessandra, Moskva: 1890-1991 (Moscow, 1997), 268 Google Scholar.

92 See Clark, Katerina, “Engineers of Human Souls in an Age of Industrialization: Changing Cultural Models, 1929-41,” in Rosenberg, William G. and Siegelbaum, Lewis H., eds., Social Dimensions ofSoviet Industrialization (Bloomington, 1993), 248–64Google Scholar.