Avant-Garde Modernism dominated the Russian architectural profession throughout the 1920s. Though severely limited by the disruptions of revolutions and civil war, the Avant-Garde has left behind it a body of theoretical work and a number of important completed projects that exerted a profound influence on pioneers of the Modern movement such as Walter Gropius and Hannes Meyer. Too often reduced to a single, homogenous movement, Soviet Modernism is here presented in all its considerable diversity; with over 300 rarely seen contemporary photographs, and documents by leading Modernists such as Tatlin, Melkikov and Golosov. In a new essay, Catherine Cooke examines the pre-revolutionary origins of the Avant-Garde and highlights the numerous fissures and tensions that characterized the movement during its decade of greatest influence.

The imagery of the revolutionary Russian artists and architects from 1910 to 1920 still remains popular today: however, many of the underlying theories of these artists and designers are only available in the Russian language and remain inaccessible to the West. Through a series of collected essays, many appearing in English for the first time, this text focuses on the influences, architecture, design and art of these underlying theories and concepts, exploring such issues as: new approaches to art and architecture; the aesthetic and social impact of mass production; and new technologies and new communications.

An essential exploration of how Russian ideas about the United States shaped architecture and urban design from the czarist era to the fall of the U.S.S.R. Idealized representations of America, as both an aspiration and a menace, played an important role in shaping Russian architecture and urban design from the American Revolution until the fall of the Soviet Union. Jean-Louis Cohen traces the powerful concept of “Amerikanizm” and its impact on Russia’s built environment from early czarist interest in Revolutionary America, through the spectacular World’s Fairs of the 19th century, to department stores, skyscrapers, and factories built in Russia using American methods during the 20th century. Visions of America also captivated the Russian avant-garde, from El Lissitzky to Moisei Ginzburg, and Cohen explores the ongoing artistic dialogue maintained between the two countries at the mid-century and in the late Soviet era, following a period of strategic competition. This first major study of Amerikanizm in the architecture of Russia makes a timely contribution to our understanding of modern architecture and its broader geopolitics.

"The groundbreaking new study on the early Soviet Union's Higher Art and Technical Studios, known as Vkhutemas, and their pioneering curriculum that has been a source of inspiration for generations of architects, designers, and artists until the present day."--Provided by publisher.