The Soviet city that was never built: six visions of Moscow from the
great architects of modernist Russia
After the October Revolution of 1917, Lenin moved the Russian capital
from the imperial, westward-looking city of St. Petersburg back to
Moscow, the traditional heart of Russia. Moscow was to be the ideal
Soviet city, its factories, theaters, communal housing and government
buildings representing the strength and potential of a new revolutionary
society.
Imagine Moscow: Architecture, Propaganda, Revolution explores Moscow
as it was envisioned by a bold generation of architects in the 1920s and
early 1930s. Featuring rarely seen material, this book portrays a vision
of the Soviet capital that was never realized but which still haunts the
city today.
Imagine Moscow focuses on six unbuilt architectural landmarks, each
telling its own story about the city: Ivan Leonidov's Lenin Institute
(1927), El Lissitzky's "Cloud Iron" (1924), Nikolai Ladovsky's Communal
House (1919), Nikolai Sokolov's Health Factory (1927), the Vesnin
brothers' Narkomtiazhprom (1934) and Boris Iofan's Palace of the Soviets
(1932). Each of these projects introduces a theme relevant to life and
ideology in the Soviet Union: collectivization, urban planning,
aviation, communication, industrialization, communal living and
recreation.
Large-scale architectural plans, models and drawings are placed
alongside propaganda posters, textiles and porcelain, contextualizing
the transformation of Moscow as a city reborn. Edited by curator Eszter
Steierhoffer, this book includes essays by writer Deyan Sudjic and
architecture historians Richard Anderson and Jean-Louis Cohen.
