Totalitarian architecture is a term utilized to refer to "the officially approved architecture of dictatorships, over-centralized governments, or political groups intolerant of opposition, especially that of Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Stalin's Soviet Union, Communist China, etc. As an international style, it often drew on simplified Neoclassicism, and sculpture based on 19th century realism and Classicism for massive oversized State monuments." [2] [3] Such architecture was intended to support the leaders and the ideology of the regime. [4]
Beyond Neoclassicism, which is not unique for totalitarian systems, [5] [6] the descriptions of the totalitarian architecture sometimes focus on brutalism, often in the context of Le Corbusier and his associations with Benito Mussolini. [7] Other authors have upheld brutalism and socialist realism as modernist art forms which exist beyond simply being physical manifestations of totalitarian ideology. [8] [9] Though many architects and architectural historians believe that significant similarities exist in the planning and construction of buildings within totalitarian regimes, it is frequently not considered a unique architectural style. [10] [11]
The term "totalitarian architecture" appears in the scientific literature to compare architectures of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Stalinist Soviet Union, all of which are characterized by large monumental forms and ideological orientation. [3] Much of the study on architecture under totalitarian regimes and the related terminology was developed after the Second World War as people began to reconcile with extant buildings that invoked totalitarian ideals long after the associated regimes had collapsed. [12] Redevelopment of cities involving large-scale demolition of previous buildings was often executed by totalitarian regimes as a way of physically reshaping society to the desires of the nascent totalitarian states and their leaders. [13]
Architect and architectural historian Dmitry Khmelnitsky wrote that the concept of totalitarian architecture is usually associated with Stalin's neoclassicism and that it "strives to symbolize an abstract idea by architectural means. Usually, this is the idea of the greatness of statehood and power." [14] Elizaveta Likhacheva , art historian and director of the Shchusev Museum of Architecture, has described the totalitarian architecture as a common terminology, but hardly a distinct well-defined architectural style. [15] No true definition exists of a single unified style of "totalitarian architecture," and the term is generally considered as a descriptor of the broad trends within the architecture of totalitarian regimes in Europe rather than as a school of architecture in and of itself. [10] [11]
The imperial style of Japan is sometimes also grouped under the label of totalitarian architecture. [16] [17] However, art historian Yu Suzuki argued that the totalitarian style in Japan was not nearly as uniform as in Germany or Italy due to the lack of direct control over architects. [17]
As all architecture is inherently a product of the society in which it was constructed, the architecture of totalitarian regimes can be used to glean information on the ethos and desires of its creators, making it a popular subject for analysis by architectural historians. [18] The architecture of totalitarian regimes is often viewed in terms of how it manifests dominant state propaganda. [4] [19] [20] While the architecture of fascist Italy, Germany, Portugal, and Spain often invoked notions of racial supremacy, nationalism, and Christian supremacy, Stalinist architecture (such as the Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy) frequently emphasized the successes of the Soviet Union in building new society. [12]
The goals of totalitarian regimes in constructing memorials to their leaders and the aesthetic qualities of religious architecture are often compared, such as Lenin's Mausoleum invoking the shape of the Pyramid of Djoser. [21] Other tombs‘ architectural typologies, such as Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Georgi Dimitrov Mausoleum, have also been described as examples of architecture promoting communism as a political religion. [21] [22] [23] [24]
The Times columnist Ben Macintyre wrote that "Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Mussolini and Saddam all imagined vast cities constructed in their own honour. Stalin's Palace of the Soviets was to be higher than the Empire State Building. Hitler's Reich Chancellery was a deliberately theatrical statement, with towering brass doors 17ft high and the Führer's 4,000 sq ft 'study.' In 1984 , written in 1948, George Orwell left a prescient description of the sort of totalitarian architecture that would soon dominate the Communist bloc, imposing and hideous: the Ministry of Truth, an "enormous, pyramidal structure of white concrete, soaring up terrace after terrace, three hundred metres into the air." [25]
The remnants of the architecture of European totalitarian regimes can be seen as a part of European cultural heritage. According to the Council of Europe, "studying the architecture of Europe's totalitarian regimes...is a way to enhance the European identity in its unity and diversity. The idea of Europe originated from the wounds of World War II and the fall of Fascism and Nazism. It entered a new phase after the downfall of Communism, opening the way to a broader and more comprehensive idea of a Europe based on fundamental values such as political liberty, freedom of expression and assembly, democracy and the rule of law." [26] The European cultural organization ATRIUM collects photographs of abandoned buildings which have outlived the regimes that constructed them and "that still stand as monuments to another time." [27]
A number of buildings and memorials created by totalitarian regimes have been demolished, especially in Poland and Ukraine, based on legislation such as The Law on the Prohibition of Propagation of Communism or Any Other Totalitarian System Through The Names of All Public Buildings, Structures and Facilities. [28] [29] A demolition of the Palace of Culture and Science in Poland was debated. [30]
Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology that became the largest faction of the communist movement in the world in the years following the October Revolution. It was the predominant ideology of most communist governments throughout the 20th century. It was developed in Russia by Joseph Stalin and drew on elements of Bolshevism, Leninism, Marxism, and the works of Karl Kautsky. It was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, Soviet satellite states in the Eastern Bloc, and various countries in the Non-Aligned Movement and Third World during the Cold War, as well as the Communist International after Bolshevization.
Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and controls the public sphere and the private sphere of society. In the field of political science, totalitarianism is the extreme form of authoritarianism, wherein all socio-political power is held by a dictator, who also controls the national politics and the peoples of the nation with continual propaganda campaigns that are broadcast by state-controlled and by friendly private mass communications media.
The Palace of the Soviets was a project to construct a political convention center in Moscow on the site of the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The main function of the palace was to house sessions of the Supreme Soviet in its 130-metre (430 ft) wide and 100-metre (330 ft) tall grand hall seating over 20,000 people. If built, the 416-metre (1,365 ft) tall palace would have become the world's tallest structure, with an internal volume surpassing the combined volumes of the six tallest American skyscrapers. This was especially important to the Soviet state for propaganda purposes.
Soviet and communist studies, or simply Soviet studies, is the field of regional and historical studies on the Soviet Union and other communist states, as well as the history of communism and of the communist parties that existed or still exist in some form in many countries, both inside and outside the former Eastern Bloc, such as the Communist Party USA. Aspects of its historiography have attracted debates between historians on several topics, including totalitarianism and Cold War espionage.
Stalinist architecture, mostly known in the former Eastern Bloc as Stalinist style or socialist classicism, is the architecture of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, between 1933 and 1955. Stalinist architecture is associated with the Socialist realism school of art and architecture.
Alexey Victorovich Shchusev was a Russian and Soviet architect who was successful during three consecutive epochs of Russian architecture – Art Nouveau, Constructivism, and Stalinist architecture, being one of the few Russian architects to be celebrated under both the Romanovs and the communists, becoming the most decorated architect in terms of Stalin prizes awarded.
Fascist architecture encompasses various stylistic trends in architecture developed by architects of fascist states, primarily in the early 20th century. Fascist architectural styles gained popularity in the late 1920s with the rise of modernism along with the ultranationalism associated with fascist governments in western Europe. Fascist styles often resemble that of ancient Rome, but can extend to modern aesthetics as well. Fascist-era buildings are frequently constructed with particular concern given to symmetry; simplicity; and monumental size, especially for public buildings.
Ivan Aleksandrovich Fomin was a Russian architect and educator. He began his career in 1899 in Moscow, working in the Art Nouveau style. After relocating to Saint Petersburg in 1905, he became an established master of the Neoclassical Revival movement. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917 Fomin developed a Soviet adaptation of Neoclassicism and became one of the key contributors to an early phase of Stalinist architecture known as postconstructivism.
Postconstructivism was a transitional architectural style that existed in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, typical of early Stalinist architecture before World War II. The term postconstructivism was coined by Selim Khan-Magomedov, a historian of architecture, to describe the product of avant-garde artists' migration to Stalinist neoclassicism. Khan-Magomedov identified postconstructivism with 1932–1936, but the long construction time and vast size of the country extended the period to 1941.
Sheila Mary Fitzpatrick is an Australian historian, whose main subjects are history of the Soviet Union and history of modern Russia, especially the Stalin era and the Great Purges, of which she proposes a "history from below", and is part of the "revisionist school" of Communist historiography. She has also critically reviewed the concept of totalitarianism and highlighted the differences between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in debates about comparison of Nazism and Stalinism.
Red fascism is a term equating Stalinism and other variants of Marxism–Leninism with fascism. Accusations that the leaders of the Soviet Union during the Stalin era acted as "red fascists" have come from left-wing figures who identified as anarchists, left communists, social democrats and other democratic socialists, as well as liberals, and among right-wing circles both closer to and further from the centre. The comparison of Nazism and Stalinism is controversial in academia.
The Black Ribbon Day, officially known in the European Union as the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism and also referred to as the Europe-wide Day of Remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, is an international day of remembrance for victims of totalitarianism regimes, specifically Stalinist, communist, Nazi and fascist regimes. Formally recognised by the European Union, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and some other countries, it is observed on 23 August. It symbolises the rejection of "extremism, intolerance and oppression" according to the European Union. The purpose of the Day of Remembrance is to preserve the memory of the victims of mass deportations and exterminations, while promoting democratic values to reinforce peace and stability in Europe. It is one of the two official remembrance days or observances of the European Union, alongside Europe Day. Under the name Black Ribbon Day it is an official remembrance day of Canada. The European Union has used both names alongside each other.
Oleg Vitalyevich Khlevniuk is a Russian historian of the Soviet Union.
Various historians and other authors have carried out a comparison of Nazism and Stalinism, with particular consideration to the similarities and differences between the two ideologies and political systems, the relationship between the two regimes, and why both came to prominence simultaneously. During the 20th century, comparisons of Nazism and Stalinism were made on totalitarianism, ideology, and personality cult. Both regimes were seen in contrast to the liberal democratic Western world, emphasising the similarities between the two.
Gigantomania is the production of unusually and superfluously large works.
Stripped Classicism is primarily a 20th-century classicist architectural style stripped of most or all ornamentation, frequently employed by governments while designing official buildings. It was adopted by both totalitarian and democratic regimes. The style embraces a "simplified but recognizable" classicism in its overall massing and scale while eliminating traditional decorative detailing. The orders of architecture are only hinted at or are indirectly implicated in the form and structure.
Nazi architecture is the architecture promoted by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime from 1933 until its fall in 1945, connected with urban planning in Nazi Germany. It is characterized by three forms: a stripped neoclassicism, typified by the designs of Albert Speer; a vernacular style that drew inspiration from traditional rural architecture, especially alpine; and a utilitarian style followed for major infrastructure projects and industrial or military complexes. Nazi ideology took a pluralist attitude to architecture; however, Hitler himself believed that form follows function and wrote against "stupid imitations of the past".
Urban planning in Nazi Germany, the urban design and planning concepts used and promoted by the Third Reich (1933–1945), was heavily influenced by modernist planning and involved totalitarian methods to enforce Nazi ideology on its native and conquered populations.
The European Parliament resolution of 19 September 2019 on the importance of European remembrance for the future of Europe was a resolution of the European Parliament adopted on 19 September 2019 with 535 votes in favor, 66 against, and 52 abstentions, which called for remembrance of totalitarian crimes and condemned propaganda that denies or glorifies totalitarian crimes, and linked such propaganda to Russian information warfare against "democratic Europe."
Caprom is an architectural style, that emerged in Russia and the former USSR after the fall of the Soviet Union, that was a widespread phenomenon until 2008. It is also described as "post-Soviet postmodernism". Buildings that belong to this style often receive a negative assessment of contemporaries as "flashy and lurid".
Totalitarian architecture. Generally it might be defined as architecture created in frames of totalitarian State activity & under its strict control, due to its thorough character of the policy in order to strengthen & spread its ideology.
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: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)Totalitarian architecture, for instance, utilised specific propagandistic and symbolically loaded icons for its purposes"
Totalitarian architecture was supposed to achieve political benefits thanks to some perceptional codes, consciously hidden in it.