THREE STAGES OF THE TRANSITION FROM THE "STALINIST EMPIRE STYLE" TO MODERNISM ON THE EXAMPLE OF KYIV

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of socio-political factors that led to the transformation of the architecture of the Soviet Union in the mid-1950s. The factual material and works of numerous architects and researchers are structured. Two models of influence of power elites on the genesis of architecture of the period with an identical chronologically global context are compared. The author describes three stages of the transition from neoclassical architecture to Soviet architectural modernism and functionalism, illustrating his own systematization with appropriate examples of Kyiv development. 1) The beginning of the 1950s: the internal crisis of Stalin's neoclassicism, the growth of protests within the architectural community (especially after 1953); 2) 1955 – end of the 1950s: the search for new means of expression, attempts to complete unfinished projects at the intersection of neoclassicism and modernism, options for "compromise" between styles in the work of individual architects; 3) End of the 1950s – and until the collapse of the USSR: the crystallization of new approaches and the final transition to modernism in key projects and functionalism in mass media. These stages are studied on the example of Kyiv projects of that time. The corresponding objects are: competition for the monument of the Arch "In honor of the 300th anniversary of the reunification of Ukraine with Russia", transformation in the final stage of implementation of the restoration of Khreshchatyk street and residential development in micro-districts from the early 1950s to the early 1960s, respectively.