Soviet Competitions of the 1920s - 1950s

In the Museum of Architecture there is the exhibition of competitive projects of the most famous buildings in Moscow in the 1930-1950s.   

There are 7 iconic buildings which everybody knows :

Hotel Moscow ( Okhotny Ryad), Palace of Labor, Izvestia building(Pushkinskaya square), 

Central Telegraph building ,Lenin libriary building, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall on Mayakovsky Square,

Lenin Library building,  Frunze Military Academy building.

I was struck by the high quality of submission of the project, drawings and technical drawing skills.

The exposition helps to assume which preferences  the government had these times , and how architects architects were solving the most difficult tasks. Customers were not always satisfied with one competitive round. It is interesting to look how already -designed versions  were improving.

I was impressed by the contrasts of ideas of architects from different architectural bureaus. Some have tried to convey the strength and power of the Soviet Union adhering to the style of Art Deco with elements of neoclassicism, others were defending the idea of functional style - constructivism. There were also the architects with their extraordinary avant-garde projects.  

Each project is deserves special attention, and I highly recommend you go and see this exhibit carefully.



I want to show you some different variants of 

Lenin libriary building :

D. Markov, D. Friedman, V. Friedman (1928)

A.Schusyev

I.Rerberg

P. Golosov, S. Sherbakov, M. Smurov


The winer
V. Schusyev, I. Rerberg

Kositsyna Alexandra
L4