Russia: Modern Architectures in History

About this book

This book offers a comprehensive account of Russias architectural production from the late nineteenth century to the present explaining how its architecture was both shaped by and came to embody Russias rapid cultural economic and social revolutions over the past century. Richard Anderson looks at Russias complex relationship to global architectural culture exploring the countrys central presence in the Rationalism and Constructivism movements of the 1920s as well as its role as a key protagonist during the Cold War. Looking deeply at Soviet Russia he brings the relationship between architecture and socialism into focus through detailed case studies that situate buildings and architectural concepts within the socialist milieu of Soviet society. He tracks the way Russian architectural institutions departed from the course of modernism being developed in capitalist countries and he reappraises the architecture of the Stalin era and the final decades of the USSR. Finally he traces the influence of Soviet conventions on contemporary Russian architecturewhich is now a more heterogeneous mix of approaches and styles and how it made a lasting and little-known impact on territories extending from the Middle East to Central Asia and into China. A bold new assessment of Russias architectural legacy and contemporary contributions this book is a fascinating exploration of a tumultuous placeand the creativity that has come from it.