The future of history: The cultural politics of Soviet architecture, 1928-41

This dissertation describes the development of Soviet architecture between the First Five-Year Plan (1928--32) and the USSR's entry into World War II in 1941. During these years a distinctly Soviet form of architectural culture, characterized by a complex relationship between architects and the Communist Party, emerged in the USSR. Although its influence on architectural culture was significant, the Party's architectural agenda was neither stable nor predetermined. In this brief period the Party called upon architects to reconcile historical forms and contemporary practice; to participate in the state-sponsored campaign of violence known as the "Great Terror"; and subsequently to make industrialization a primary theme of architectural work. This study traces Soviet architects' responses to the uncertainty engendered by the Party's centralization of cultural policy. It describes the intersection of aesthetics and politics in the making of a new, historically-informed Soviet architecture and offers a significant reappraisal of one of the most enigmatic chapters in the history of twentieth-century architecture.