Arkady Mordvinov
Encyclopedia
Arkady Grigoryevich Mordvinov , January 27, 1896—1964) was a Soviet
architect and construction manager, notable for Stalinist architecture
of Tverskaya Street
, Leninsky Avenue, Hotel Ukraina skyscraper in Moscow and his administrative role in Soviet construction industry and architecture.
. Mordvinov's early work, prior to his graduation from Moscow State Technical University (MVTU) in 1930, is definitely Constructivist
, best seen in his Kharkiv
Post Office of the late 1920s.
In 1929-1932, Mordvinov, Karo Alabyan and Alexander Vlasov were the founding members of VOPRA, a group of young 'Proletarian Architects' who attacked proponents of the Constructivist movement, notably Ivan Leonidov
, and all other "alien art" like eclectics, formalism
and even baroque
: "There is no class
-free art, neither class-free architecture" ("Бесклассового искусства у нас нет и бесклассовой архитектуры тоже нет" - Khan-Magomedov cites Mordvinov's March, 1928 speech). Mordvinov was also a vocal opponent of Le Corbusier's Tsentrosoyuz building
. VOPRA was used by the state against free-minded modernist architects and to consolidate the profession under tight state control. VOPRA founders had no clear creative concept beyond these rhetorics, and could not be criticised for their art, since it never existed. They definitely understood the likely consequences of their political assaults and had no remorse for their victims (the age of show trial
s already began with Shakhty Trial
and Industrial Party Trial
).
Despite the bitter war between VOPRA and modernist groups (ASNOVA
, the OSA Group
) there was an attempt to unify the architects within one voluntary union (MOVANO). With support from older generation (Alexey Shchusev
), MOVANO existed in 1930-1932, however, VOPRA tried to destroy it from within and launched their own magazine, RA (Revolutionary Architecture), co-edited by Mordvinov; soon, he co-edited another magazine, SA (Soviet Architecture, 1931-1934). Formation of Union of Soviet Architects in 1932 allowed Mordvinov to move from small-time criticism to an executive position; he acquired bureaucratic muscle and set up his own workshop, present in all architectural contests of 1930s.
Mordvinov's 1930s version of stalinist architecture - compared with old revivalist
s like Ivan Zholtovsky - was more rationalist, lacking classical order
, a simplified development of Ivan Fomin
's Red Doric style. This is a direct consequence of his lack of academic training. According to Khan-Magomedov, Mordvinov was influenced by the Stenberg brothers
, the draftsmen
who rendered his early works. In fact, during 1930s Mordvinov gradually accepted the rules of eclectics whom he had publicly nailed in 1928, and wilfully encouraged the arrest of unrepentant Modernists such as Mikhail Okhitovich
, who Mordvinov publicly denounced, implicating him in Okhitovich's eventual murder.
. Mordvinov's architectural input may be disputed, but he proved himself a capable project manager, successfully implementing so-called flow methode of moving construction crews between buildings in different construction stages. This was followed by equally grand Leninsky Avenue (1939-1940), Bolshaya Polyanka (1940), Moskva River
embankments (1940-1941) and Novinsky Boulevard (1939-1941) projects.
This work earned him Stalin Prize in 1941; incidentally, Mordvinov himself was on the Stalin Prize Board since its establishment in 1940. Since 1937, Mordvinov also enjoyed a management seat in the Union of Soviet Architects, has been President of Academy of Architecture (1950-1955) and International Union of Architects.
. In particular, he supervised the first master plans of rebuilding Minsk
and Smolensk
His influence was reinforced by a 1947 commission to design one of Moscow Skyscrapers
, now known as Hotel Ukraina, which he shared with Vyacheslav Oltarzhevsky
, one of the few Soviet experts in highrise construction.
In 1955, Mordvinov received a public beating by Nikita Khrushchev
for his expensive "architectural excesses", but even Khruschev could not deny Mordvinov's management and planning skills. In 1956-1964, Mordvinov completed two major projects - redevelopment of Komsomolsky Prospekt and greenfield Cheryomushki District
which became the symbol of Kruschev's affordable housing initiative.
External links
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
architect and construction manager, notable for Stalinist architecture
Stalinist architecture
Stalinist architecture , also referred to as Stalinist Gothic, or Socialist Classicism, is a term given to architecture of the Soviet Union between 1933, when Boris Iofan's draft for Palace of the Soviets was officially approved, and 1955, when Nikita Khrushchev condemned "excesses" of the past...
of Tverskaya Street
Tverskaya Street
Tverskaya Street , known as Gorky Street between 1935 and 1990, is the main and probably best-known radial street of Moscow, Russia. The street runs from the central Manege Square north-west in the direction of Saint Petersburg and terminated at the Garden Ring, giving its name to Tverskoy District...
, Leninsky Avenue, Hotel Ukraina skyscraper in Moscow and his administrative role in Soviet construction industry and architecture.
VOPRA years
Mordvinov was born in the village of Zhuravlikha in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate of the Russian EmpireRussian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. Mordvinov's early work, prior to his graduation from Moscow State Technical University (MVTU) in 1930, is definitely Constructivist
Constructivist architecture
Constructivist architecture was a form of modern architecture that flourished in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s. It combined advanced technology and engineering with an avowedly Communist social purpose. Although it was divided into several competing factions, the movement produced...
, best seen in his Kharkiv
Kharkiv
Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...
Post Office of the late 1920s.
In 1929-1932, Mordvinov, Karo Alabyan and Alexander Vlasov were the founding members of VOPRA, a group of young 'Proletarian Architects' who attacked proponents of the Constructivist movement, notably Ivan Leonidov
Ivan Leonidov
Ivan Ilich Léonidov was a Russian constructivist architect, urban planner, painter and teacher.-Early life:...
, and all other "alien art" like eclectics, formalism
Formalism (art)
In art theory, formalism is the concept that a work's artistic value is entirely determined by its form--the way it is made, its purely visual aspects, and its medium. Formalism emphasizes compositional elements such as color, line, shape and texture rather than realism, context, and content...
and even baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
: "There is no class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
-free art, neither class-free architecture" ("Бесклассового искусства у нас нет и бесклассовой архитектуры тоже нет" - Khan-Magomedov cites Mordvinov's March, 1928 speech). Mordvinov was also a vocal opponent of Le Corbusier's Tsentrosoyuz building
Tsentrosoyuz building
The Tsentrosoyuz Building or Centrosoyuz Building is a government structure in Moscow, Russia, constructed in 1933 by Le Corbusier and Nikolai Kolli. Centrosoyuz refers to a Soviet bureaucracy, the Central Union of Consumer Cooperatives. The building included office space for 3,500 personnel, as...
. VOPRA was used by the state against free-minded modernist architects and to consolidate the profession under tight state control. VOPRA founders had no clear creative concept beyond these rhetorics, and could not be criticised for their art, since it never existed. They definitely understood the likely consequences of their political assaults and had no remorse for their victims (the age of show trial
Show trial
The term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly public trial in which there is a strong connotation that the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal to present the accusation and the verdict to the public as...
s already began with Shakhty Trial
Shakhty Trial
The Shakhty Trial of 1928 was the first important show trial in the Soviet Union since the trial of the Social Revolutionaries in 1922.It is often alleged that the charges against the defendants were false, confessions fabricated, and torture or the threat of torture employed...
and Industrial Party Trial
Industrial Party Trial
The Industrial Party Trial was a show trial in which several Soviet scientists and economists were accused and convicted of plotting a coup against the government of the Soviet Union....
).
Executive career
ASNOVA
ASNOVA was an Avant-Garde architectural association in the Soviet Union, which was active in the 1920s and early 1930s, commonly called 'the Rationalists'....
, the OSA Group
OSA Group
The OSA Group was an architectural association in the Soviet Union, which was active from 1925 to 1930 and considered the first group of constructivist architects...
) there was an attempt to unify the architects within one voluntary union (MOVANO). With support from older generation (Alexey Shchusev
Alexey Shchusev
Alexey Viktorovich Shchusev ), 1873, Chişinău—24 May 1949, Moscow) was an acclaimed Russian and Soviet architect whose works may be regarded as a bridge connecting Revivalist architecture of Imperial Russia with Stalin's Empire Style....
), MOVANO existed in 1930-1932, however, VOPRA tried to destroy it from within and launched their own magazine, RA (Revolutionary Architecture), co-edited by Mordvinov; soon, he co-edited another magazine, SA (Soviet Architecture, 1931-1934). Formation of Union of Soviet Architects in 1932 allowed Mordvinov to move from small-time criticism to an executive position; he acquired bureaucratic muscle and set up his own workshop, present in all architectural contests of 1930s.
Mordvinov's 1930s version of stalinist architecture - compared with old revivalist
Revivalist
Revivalist may refer to:* An individual who is involved in a movement of Christian revival* Revivalist artist - a performer dedicated to reviving a musical or cultural form from an earlier era* Revivalism...
s like Ivan Zholtovsky - was more rationalist, lacking classical order
Classical order
A classical order is one of the ancient styles of classical architecture, each distinguished by its proportions and characteristic profiles and details, and most readily recognizable by the type of column employed. Three ancient orders of architecture—the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian—originated in...
, a simplified development of Ivan Fomin
Ivan Fomin
Ivan Aleksandrovich Fomin was a Russian architect and educator. He began his career in 1899 in Moscow, working in the Art Nouveau style. After relocating to Saint Petersburg in 1905, he became an established master of the Neoclassical Revival movement...
's Red Doric style. This is a direct consequence of his lack of academic training. According to Khan-Magomedov, Mordvinov was influenced by the Stenberg brothers
Georgii and Vladimir Stenberg
-Biographies and works:The Stenberg brothers, whose father was a Swede and whose mother was a Russian, were both born in Moscow, Russia but remained Swedish citizens until 1933...
, the draftsmen
Technical drawing
Technical drawing, also known as drafting or draughting, is the act and discipline of composing plans that visually communicate how something functions or has to be constructed.Drafting is the language of industry....
who rendered his early works. In fact, during 1930s Mordvinov gradually accepted the rules of eclectics whom he had publicly nailed in 1928, and wilfully encouraged the arrest of unrepentant Modernists such as Mikhail Okhitovich
Mikhail Okhitovich
Mikhail Okhitovich was a Bolshevik sociologist, town planner and Constructivist architectural theorist, most famous for his 'Disurbanist' proposals of 1929-30....
, who Mordvinov publicly denounced, implicating him in Okhitovich's eventual murder.
Moscow avenues
His political campaigning was rewarded with a 1937 commission to rebuild the right side of Tverskaya StreetTverskaya Street
Tverskaya Street , known as Gorky Street between 1935 and 1990, is the main and probably best-known radial street of Moscow, Russia. The street runs from the central Manege Square north-west in the direction of Saint Petersburg and terminated at the Garden Ring, giving its name to Tverskoy District...
. Mordvinov's architectural input may be disputed, but he proved himself a capable project manager, successfully implementing so-called flow methode of moving construction crews between buildings in different construction stages. This was followed by equally grand Leninsky Avenue (1939-1940), Bolshaya Polyanka (1940), Moskva River
Moskva River
The Moskva River is a river that flows through the Moscow and Smolensk Oblasts in Russia, and is a tributary of the Oka River.-Etymology:...
embankments (1940-1941) and Novinsky Boulevard (1939-1941) projects.
This work earned him Stalin Prize in 1941; incidentally, Mordvinov himself was on the Stalin Prize Board since its establishment in 1940. Since 1937, Mordvinov also enjoyed a management seat in the Union of Soviet Architects, has been President of Academy of Architecture (1950-1955) and International Union of Architects.
Post-war reconstruction
In 1943-1947, Mordvinov chaired the State Committee on Construction and Architecture, charged with rebuilding the damage of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In particular, he supervised the first master plans of rebuilding Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
and Smolensk
Smolensk
Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River. Situated west-southwest of Moscow, this walled city was destroyed several times throughout its long history since it was on the invasion routes of both Napoleon and Hitler. Today, Smolensk...
His influence was reinforced by a 1947 commission to design one of Moscow Skyscrapers
Seven Sisters (Moscow)
The "Seven Sisters" is the English name given to a group of Moscow skyscrapers designed in the Stalinist style. Muscovites call them Vysotki or Stalinskie Vysotki , " high-rises"...
, now known as Hotel Ukraina, which he shared with Vyacheslav Oltarzhevsky
Vyacheslav Oltarzhevsky
Vyacheslav Konstantinovich Oltarzhevsky was a Russian Soviet architect. He was one of the first Soviet experts in skyscraper construction, notable for his collaboration with Arkady Mordvinov on Hotel Ukraina...
, one of the few Soviet experts in highrise construction.
In 1955, Mordvinov received a public beating by Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
for his expensive "architectural excesses", but even Khruschev could not deny Mordvinov's management and planning skills. In 1956-1964, Mordvinov completed two major projects - redevelopment of Komsomolsky Prospekt and greenfield Cheryomushki District
Cheryomushki District
Cheryomushki is a district of South-Western Administrative Okrug of Moscow, Russia. District's population: The district is delimited by Nakhimovsky Prospekt , Obrucheva Street , Sevastopolsky Prospekt , Profsoyuznaya Street, and Vlasova Street . The district is mostly residential, with an...
which became the symbol of Kruschev's affordable housing initiative.
External links
- Historical photographs of Mordvinov's buildings on Tverskaya http://www.foto-list.ru/cities01_01.html
- Photographs of Kharkiv Post Office by Robert Byron http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/search/results.html?qs=kharkov+post+office