Blueprints and blood : the Stalinization of Soviet architecture, 1917-1937 / Hugh D. Hudson, Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hudson, Hugh D., author.

Series:

Princeton legacy library.

Princeton Legacy Library

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Socialist realism and architecture--Soviet Union.

Socialist realism and architecture.

Constructivism (Architecture)--Soviet Union.

Constructivism (Architecture).

European 6 :--Russia & Eastern.

European 6 :.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (279 pages) : illustrations.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey ; Chichester, England : Princeton University Press, 1994.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Analyzing "totalitarianism from below" in a crucial area of Soviet culture, Hugh Hudson shows how Stalinist forces within the architectural community destroyed an avant-garde movement of urban planners and architects, who attempted to create a more humane built environment for the Soviet people. Through a study of the ideas and constructions of these visionary reformers, Hudson explores their efforts to build new forms of housing and "settlements" designed to free the residents, especially women, from drudgery, allowing them to participate in creative work and to enjoy the "songs of larks." Resolving to obliterate this movement of human liberation, Stalinists in the field of architecture unleashed a "little" terror from below, prior to Stalin's Great Terror. Using formerly secret Party archives made available by perestroika, Hudson finds in the rediscovered theoretical work of the avant-garde architects a new understanding of their aims. He shows, for instance, how they saw the necessity of bringing elite desires for a transformed world into harmony with the people's wish to preserve national culture. Such goals brought their often divided movement into conflict with the Stalinists, especially on the subject of collectivization. Hudson's provocative work offers evidence that in spite of the ultimate success of the Stalinists, the Bolshevik Revolution was not monolithic: at one time it offered real architectural and human alternatives to the Terror. Originally published in 1993.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

1. Revolution and Architectural Schools of Thought

2. OSA and the People's Dreams

3. The Foundations of Stalinism in Architecture

4. The School of R evolutionary Architecture: VKhUTEMAS

5. Students and the Architectural Wars

6. Stalin's Agents in Architecture: VOPRA

7. The Deintellectualization of Architecture

8. Mikhail Olchitovich and the Terror in Architecture

9. Organizing a Victory Celebration

10. The Victory Congress?

Conclusion

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780691635064

0691635064

9780691606286

0691606285

9781400872824

1400872820

OCLC:

933516488