New Leningrad
“The 1920s and ‘30s saw the intensive development of Russian avant-garde architecture, drafted to create an image of a New World: a world in which the working masses built a new domesticity, a new industry, a new education, and a new politics”
That vital aspect of the Russian avant-garde, Soviet Constructivism - or the architecture of the 1920s-30s - does not feature much in central Petersburg. Soviet architectural art is mostly visible in the outskirts of the city, and predominantly as Stalinist architecture dating from the ‘50s.
From 1914 to 1925, very little was built in Petrograd, owing to economic and political factors. There was also a lack of ideas strong enough to permeate the conservative professional circles of the city. The monarchy favoured orthodox and national traditions; Liberals - neo-classicism and academic art. As for the bourgeoisie, it generally preferred all that was elegant, refined and at the same time rational and practical. By the time the city was renamed Leningrad in 1924, it had not undergone any major change, apart from losing some if its shine.
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