Brezhnev-era Soviet Architecture

Extract

[...] Chronological framework: Paul Wolkenstein distinguishes in Soviet architecture three successive periods. The first under Lenin in the 1920 decade during which the emphasis is clearly on Russian and supremacist constructions. Stalin then projects in the constructions neo-classical and 'empire' Stalinist styles. Khrushchev breaks with the Stalin period by introducing a style pushing towards prefabrication and homogeneity and, if the Brezhnev period is often perceived as a continuity, one can however highlight a relative emancipation of the architectural field from the State due to the prioritization of other sectors by Brezhnev. [...]

[...] One would start here from an article by Fabien Bellat dating back to 2013 on Brezhnev-era architecture2. This latter applies a method of art historian that diverges from that of historian, particularly in archives and subjects addressed. While the article largely focuses on the Russian part of the USSR, it hardly treats the 'margins' of the Soviet bloc, a global trend of Soviet historiography, whereas Paul Wolkenstein has chosen to put the aforementioned 'margins' at the center of his research. [...]

[...] The first is architectural and studies the buildings in themselves, referring to their own materiality. This architectural history is articulated with the history of political ideas and historical discourses; in fact, the ideas that precede the construction of the buildings shape them. The forms of the buildings resonate with the timid nationalist affirmations that appear in the Brezhnev Republics, without detaching from Soviet ideology. This is the case of the first commemorative monument of the Armenian genocide, the Tsitsernakaberd complex, inaugurated in 1967 in Yerevan: if it echoes a certain Armenian nationalism, it is also linked to the October Revolution by the Soviets, as explained by Paul Wolkenstein in his thesis. [...]

[...] These archives have been completed with the funds of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and those of the Union of Architects: Paul Wolkenstein found sources related to the main contractor, specialized press, and graphic documents of the buildings. The researcher was also able to conduct numerous ethnographic interviews with actors from the time, giving him a thread to access personal archives. In order to integrate memory questions into his work, interviews were also conducted with the current users of the buildings. His training in architecture and his mastery of Russian allowed him to conduct a precise fieldwork. Historiographical Hypotheses : His research work inserts itself into three historiographies. [...]

[...] This relative openness outside of Soviet geography does not alter the fact that every construction is first and foremost Soviet under Brezhnev. Archives: Paul Wolkenstein relies mainly on three types of sources: graphic sources from public institutions and their actors (public or personal archives), graphic sources from literature and specialized press, and finally oral sources: ethnographic interviews with actors from the period who are still alive and current users of the buildings. The national archives of the former territories of the federated republics were unevenly accessible to him due to the different attitude of each country towards his research: Yerevan, for example, was much more open to his initiative than Baku. [...]