Tour audio Constructivism: between utopia and reality

We invite you on a walking tour around Petrogradskaya Side area. Here, there are great examples of civil and industrial architecture, which will aid you in learning about different architectural styles; you’ll learn their basic features, find their similarities and differences, and notice the details. This area is especially charming for those who prefer all the styles of Art Nouveau and Neoclassicism. However, the authors of this tour, the staff of the Museum of Political History of Russia, have their own architectural preferences. They are interested in Constructivism, the architectural movement of the revolutionary avant-garde.

The goal of this tour is to evaluate the buildings of this style, which were constructed between the middle of the 1920s and the second half of the 1930s, and to find new ideas and images born after the Revolution of 1917.

         Architects of constructivism were trying to find a perfect form of the human anthill, which strength is in the unity of many. Combining the ideas of art with the practices of industrial life, they sought to reflect wonderful, spacious, full of light, and machine-like concepts in stone and concrete. Structurally, the architecture of constructivism consists of relatively simple forms, which were without architectural decorations from previous eras and instead were connected to each other in accordance with the organization and operation of the internal space of the main structure. The architectural forms were purified from all decorative and unconstructive elements. It was the language of the new world breaking up with its past.

The tour can be started or finished at the Museum of Political History of Russia, located at the corner of Kronversky prospect and Kuibysheva Street. The museum exhibitions will help you to understand the philosophy of constructivism and learn more about the context of the time when it appeared.

First stop is Troitskaya Square, 1.