Architecture of Soviet Russia

This course provides a detailed study of the last century in regard to the development of Russian architecture. The Soviet period is looked at from predominantly esthetic positions; therefore a habitual sociological approach is to be overcome in favor of a more neutral treatment of the political conditions and their influence on the changes of style experienced by the architecture of this country during more than 70 years of Soviet rule. The personalities of the leading architects, their chief achievements, inner tensions of purely artistic, not ideological nature, are moved to the forefront of discussion. The decline that Russian architecture experienced in the second half of the past century will be consequently viewed as a result of worldwide trends that transcend national and political borders.