The Empire’s Last Style. Soviet Modernism: 1955-1985

Introduction by Kenneth Frampton.

Venue.- Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Columbia University, 114 Avery Hall. New York.

Soviet Modernism: 1955-1985 by Felix Novikov and Vladimir Belogolovsky.

The cultural period described in Soviet Modernism: 1955–1985 by Felix Novikov and Vladimir Belogolovsky, represents what seems to be one of such turning points in the history of Russian architecture, a period often described as belated modernism, similar of the Western modernist movement. However, both authors quickly prove that it was also a time for great ingenuity and independence of ideas.

The publication, structured as a catalog or “album” in Novikov’s words, presents a wide-ranging view into an area of Soviet architecture largely unknown and underrepresented, a hand-selected collection of one hundred projects framed by two essays (with English translations). One is an introduction, a personal account by Novikov, a direct eye-witness to the changing architectural scene of the 1960s. He shares his experiences working as an architect during the Soviet Union’s transition from Stalin’s dictatorship to Khrushchev’s “thaw”, and ultimately to the collapse of the system. The concluding essay by Belogolovsky, an architect and critic of the younger generation, summarizes the reader’s experience of the well-annotated catalog of images, suggesting the vast undiscovered potential of this architectural period “now only beginning to be revealed” as he writes.

Soviet Modernism: 1955-1985, An Anthology
Felix Novikov and Vladimir Belogolovsky
Tatlin, $80