Конструктивизм. Конец эпохи

On the other hand, despite the proclaimed ideals of the constructivists, their designs did not look like badly needed economical apartments for the workers which were supposed to be relocated from huts and barracks after the victory of the proletarian revolution. Instead of benefiting the masses, the authors rather cared about embodying their new aesthetic ideals akin to the art of the Russian avant-garde – the forerunner and, at the same time, the product of the Russian socialist revolution. Ideology required them to introduce elements of scientifically justified rational life into architecture and interior decoration. But this whole superstructure, regardless of how the authors themselves treated it, served as a pretext for the realization of their dream of a future utopia in defiance of naturally conservative tastes (like Lenin himself, for example), and, often, aesthetic ineptness of most of the new customers, in this case, the military-revolutionary party elite. Of course, among the latter there were some people who could relate to the new aesthetics born by the revolution, but for one reason or another, their influence, initially strong in the field of artistic education and social construction, literally faded away in just a decade, and they “accidentally " turned out to be political opponents (and, accordingly, the victims) of the real owners of the country of victorious socialism, led by a mustachioed leader in polished boots. The latter liked the classics, as, indeed, did his German colleague, whose tastes in his younger years gravitated towards the Bauhaus style. The third adept of the leader-controlled social system, the Italian Benito Mussolini followed a mix of classic and futurist ideas.

Классика в её наиболее помпезном выражении победила в СССР, когда идея управлять людьми с помощью создания нового коллективистского и морально безупречного быта оказалась откровенно утопической и была заменена старой, как мир, идеей репрессий против подозреваемых в нелояльности слуг режима, запугивания населения физической расправой или отъёма средств к существованию и возвеличивания мегало маньяков вождей. Таким образом жилые и административные здания последнего десятилетия перед войной, и еще какое-то время после неё (до XX съезда КПСС) в Москве, в столицах союзных республик и некоторых стран народной демократии, несут на себе печать сталинского стиля со шпилями, колоннами, скульптурами и пирамидальным профилем.