The Days of Stalinist Art and Architecture

Well, I guess it's time to continue my rants and somewhat informative blog series about Soviet architecture.

Today, I will start to work and explain the next era in the Soviet Union's respective eras on architecture and art. This would be the days of Stalin, and how his own insanity and ideological differences with the revolution destroyed the relative freedom that the revolution gave to architects and artists and how his style had a lasting legacy on the many skylines of cities all around the Eastern Block.

A Stalinist poster. Propaganda posters such as these became more and more commonplace as the freedom and ingenuity of the Constructivist Era slowly eroded away against Stalin's own personal taste.

As Stalin took power in the late 1920's, The Soviet Union was a bit different from the more darker and stereotypical view that many in the West had about the country. The country didn't have the massive collectivised farms that was typical in the countryside. Small private enterprises existed alongside state enterprises as the New Economic Policy (NEP) began the road to recovery for the country's economy after the chaos of the First World War and the Russian Revolution.

The rise of Stalin to General Secretary of the Party began the long road for his own vision of Russia to start and flourish. Socialist Realism became the only allowed and endorsed style of art in the intellectual and academic circles. Socialist Realism was a style that was created in the country as many in the Communist Party deemed earlier art styles such as Impressionism and Cubism as "decadent bourgeois art". Socialist Realism became official state policy in 1932 linking its art styles to the Stalinist ideology that the government at the time championed.

Spring Day by Nikolai Podzneev. This painting was one of the styles that was common throughout art of the Socialist Realism style which gave more of an emphasis on the lives of the proletariat.

In the world of architecture, the avant-garde and futuristic styles of Constructivism utterly disappeared in Stalin's reign of the country only to be replaced by the imposing style of the Neo-Renaissance buildings that dot Moscow today. Almost all of these buildings were usually associated with the Socialist Realism school of art and architecture which at this time was the only art style allowed in the country.

The Moscow Metro. The first lines were built in the 1930's giving the metro's stations a grand and imposing feeling to all those who walk amongst its halls, something that Stalinist architecture was meant to do.

Stalinist architecture took a more international approach by the end of the second world war as Soviet influence spread from Berlin to Beijing bringing this art style towards many of the Communist states that arose out of the war. Beijing's Tiananmen Square's buildings, which were built in the tenth anniversary of the Communist victory in the Civil War resemble this. As the Stalin's Soviet Union arose to superpower status, the nation's art arose to international prominence as well. 

The University of Moscow, one of the "Seven Sisters" that dominated Moscow's skyline.





Polandball Comics# 4

Alright everyone! Here's the next edition of the Polandball comics mania. For this edition, we have the death of Margaret Thatcher as the main event for the comic.

Polandball Comics#3

Well, here's another edition of the Polandball comics that are found all over the Internet. This time, the awesome crew of Polandball will show you a humourous side to the Vatican Conclave which elected Pope Francis I. Enjoy!

 

Polandball Comics#2

Here is another Polandball comic that I found interesting and hilarious. Polandball comics usually make fun of current and past geopolitical scenarios, this comic is no exception showing the history of Europe with adorable country balls.

Constructivist Art and Architecture

After watching a couple of the BBC's Art Of Russia episodes, I decided that one topic that would be interesting to delve into would be the art and the architecture of the early Soviet Union. This period is known as the Constructivist era. Much of the art and architecture of the period coincided with the revolutionary ideas that were sweeping the country. Constructivism was to be the new face of the revolution in artistic terms.

The poster above is one of the many examples of Constructivist posters and art that dominated the 1920's in Soviet Russia, right before the nightmare of the Stalinist regime. Constructivism itself began to emit some form of light after the chaos of the First World War and evolved from the abstractness of the Suprematist Art Style, one of its famous examples is the Black Square by Kazimir Malevich. Constructivism also began to be known as the art in service of the revolution. A few of its famous adherents were Aleksander Rodchenkno and Sergei Eisenstein. Constructivism also had an effect on the architectural landscape of the USSR, making this movement at the forefront of modern art.

The picture above shows one of the buildings built from this era, The Zuev Worker's Club, This modern looking building had all of the characteristics of the Constructivist Era. If one were to look at it, one could mistake it for a building that was built relatively recently in the 21st century, but this was built in 1926, right at the heart of the New Economic Policy Era of the Soviet Union. The movement influenced other art styles such as Bauhaus and De Stijl. It unfortunately had slowly begun to die out as Stalin took the helm of the country replacing the vibrant Constructivist architecture with the imposing style of neoclassical architecture which he championed.

Polandball Comic#1

Well, every few days I'll be surfing the Internet for Polandball comics and share them in this blog. If you don't know what Polandball is, then let me explain. Polandball is a meme that uses balls to personify countries. You will know which country is which due to that their flags are in the ball as well. The star of many of these comics is Polandball, a ball signifying Poland, but other countries star in their own comics such as this one.