Between Modernism and Socialist Realism: Creative Destinies of Ukrainian Architects
The primacy of Modernism in the Ukrainian S.S.R., as well as in the entire Soviet Union, was short-lived. Its heyday came in 1928, when the construction of the Main Post Office on the Privokzalnaya Square of Kharkov on the base of the project by architect A. Mordvinov was started. The heated debates unfolded in the press were completed in a wide public discussion on the topic ‘About new and old architecture’, in the course of which the contemporary path of development of metropolitan and Ukrainian architecture was determined in general. The results of the famous competition for the Palace of Soviets in Moscow turned out, however, to be disastrous for Modernism in Ukraine. The proposed report studies the turning point of the deviation from the principles of Modernism in Ukrainian architecture under the pressure of the authorities; it is shown on the example of creative biographies of young leaders of the Ukrainian Branch of the Society of Contemporary Architects, brought up on the principles of the modern movement: Nikolai Kholostenko (Kiev), Grigory Yanovitsky (Kharkov), etc. The proposed report traces the process of deformation of the views and creative principles of young apologists of Ukrainian Modernism up to the distortion of their own works, the forced public self-flagellation in the press, the rejection of innovative ideas, and the transition to the position of Socialist Realism. We give the analysis of buildings designed in the spirit of Modernism but altered in the construction process (often by the authors themselves) in order to give them Classic features. The purpose is to show the relationship between creator and authorities, the consequences of the latter's arbitrariness. The research is based on archival materials, incl. autobiographical ones, as well as literary primary sources of the 1920-1950s.
06 Сентября 2021
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