Park of the Fallen/Muzeon Art Park, Moscow

Posted on 07/05/2024 by Michael

Soviet emblem

Park of the Fallen/Muzeon Art Park

Presented in the slide show below are images taken of some of those monuments and statues produced during the period of the construction of Socialism in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

Construction worker

With the victory of reaction against the (admittedly weak and already corrupted revisionist) Socialist state in the 1990s many of these monuments and statues were removed from public spaces and many were left to rot. However, a re-assessment of the role of Socialist leaders of the past and with a mix of opportunism from the ruling capitalists that they could easily create another tourist attraction in the city led to the re-erection of these statues in the vicinity of the modern art gallery – which also displays art produced during the Socialist period.

The works presented here were produced over a period of about 50 years, representing the thinking of the revolutionary period as well as the period of revisionism and capitalist restoration. Those later works are included as they still represented a glimmer of the hope for a new future.

Included at images of VI Lenin, JV Stalin, Karl Marx, MI Kalinin and FE Dzerzhinsky, as well as Heroes of the Soviet Union.

Swords into ploughshares

Why some of these art works were considered controversial is difficult to understand. The Soviet leaders were the enemies of the new capitalist rulers so their removal can be understood. But why the references to peace or the statue of the female construction worker? Presumably it wasn’t what they are but the society that produced them and what they continue to represent.

Peace

The main concentration of the socialist art works are concentrated around the large metal emblem of the Soviet Union, in an area north west of the New Tretyakov Gallery. More contemporary sculptures are displayed in other parts of the park.

Location;

In Muzeon Art Park, in which is also located the New Tretyakov Art Gallery (the gallery of 20th century Russian art).

How to get there;

The park is across the bridge over the River Moskva from the Park Kultury metro station and beside the main road that leads past the Oktyabrskaya metro station in the direction of the river. The main entrance to Muzeon Art Park is directly opposite the main entrance to Gorky Park.

GPS;

55°44′4.29″N

37°36′17.51″E

More on the USSR

Lubyanka Building, Moscow

Posted on 07/05/2024 by Michael

The original building

More on the USSR

Lubyanka Building

Lubyanka (Russian: Лубянка, ) is the popular name for the building which contains the headquarters of the Border Guard Service, (an agency of the FSB) and its affiliated prison, on Lubyanka Square in the Meshchansky District of Moscow, Russia. It is a large Neo-Baroque building with a façade of yellow brick designed by Alexander V. Ivanov in 1897 and augmented by Aleksey Shchusev from 1940 to 1947. It was previously the national headquarters of the KGB.

The Lubyanka was originally built in 1898 as the headquarters of the All-Russia Insurance Company (Rossiya Insurance Company). It is noted for its parquet floors and pale green walls. Belying its massiveness, the edifice avoids an impression of heroic scale: isolated Palladian and Baroque details, such as the minute pediments over the corner bays and the central loggia, are lost in an endlessly repeating palace façade where three bands of cornices emphasize the horizontal lines. A clock is centred in the uppermost band of the façade.

A fountain used to stand in front of the building, at the centre of Lubyanka Square. Following the Bolshevik Revolution the structure was taken over by the government in 1918 for use as the headquarters of the the Cheka. The prison is on the top floor, but since there are no windows on that floor, most prisoners, and therefore popular conception, thought they were being detained in its basement.

Lubyanka in 1961

In 1940, Aleksey Shchusev was commissioned to enlarge the building. By 1947, his new design had doubled Lubyanka’s size horizontally, with the original structure taking up the left half of the façade (as viewed from the street). He added another storey and extended the structure by incorporating backstreet buildings. Shchusev’s design accentuated Neo-Renaissance detailing, but only the right part of the façade was constructed under his direction in the 1940s, due to the war and other hindrances.

In 1958, the fountain at the centre of Lubyanka Square was replaced by a statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky (‘Iron Felix’), founder of the Cheka. This statue now stands, on its original plinth, in the Muzeon Art Park (Park of the Fallen).

The building’s asymmetric façade survived intact until 1983, when the original structure was reconstructed to match the new build, at the urging of Communist Party General Secretary and former KGB Director Yuri Andropov, in accordance with Shchusev’s plans.

Lubyanka during renovation in 1983

Although the Soviet secret police changed its name many times, their headquarters remained in this building. Secret police chiefs from Lavrenty Beria to Andropov used the same office on the third floor, which looked down on the statue of Cheka founder Felix Dzerzhinsky.

After the dissolution of the KGB in 1991, the Lubyanka became the headquarters of the Border Guard Service of Russia, as well as the Lubyanka prison, and is one directorate of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB). A museum of the KGB (now called Историко-демонстрационный зал ФСБ России, Historical Demonstration hall of the Russian FSB) was opened to the public (but you have to get special permission to enter).

Text from Wikipedia.

Location;

2 Bolshaya Lubyanka Street.

GPS;

55.759204° N

37.62874° E

More on the USSR

Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building

Posted on 02/05/2024 by Michael

The apartment building on Kotyelnicheskaya embankment in Moscow

More on the USSR

Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building

Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building is one of seven Soviet skyscrapers laid down in September 1947 and completed in 1952, designed by Dmitry Chechulin (then Chief Architect of Moscow) and Andrei Rostkovsky. The main tower has 32 levels (including mechanical floors) and is 176 metres (577 ft) tall. At the time of construction it was the tallest building in Europe.

The building also incorporates a 9-story apartment block facing Moskva River, designed by the same architects in 1938 and completed in 1940. Initially built with wet stucco wall finishes, it was re-finished in terracotta panels in line with the central tower and acquired ornate pseudo-Gothic crowns over its 12-story raised corners and centre tower. By the end of World War II, the side wing was converted to multi-family kommunalka housing, in contrast to the planned elite status of the central tower.

The central tower, of a conventional steel frame structural type, has a hexagonal cross-section with three side wings (18 stories, including two mechanical floors). While it is not exceptionally tall or massive, the ‘upward surge’ of five stepped-up layers, from a flat 9-story side wing to the spire, gives the impression of a more massive structure.