ARKITERA TRAVEL SCHOLARSHIP
Investigation of 20th century Soviet Architecture with Arkitera travel scholarship

Time has passed; ideas and buildings remain. Now, it is time to observe ideologies, memories, and experiences. After Lenin's death, Stalin took power in 1924 and spent the period until the 1930s establishing his harsh and ruthless bureaucratic system. The subsequent years were filled with evidence of how authority waged war on all ideas that came before it. Unlike Lenin, who embraced all the innovations and constructivist thoughts, Stalin, differing only in beliefs and characteristic distinctions, believed that for a classless society to be created, all industries must be under state control. He continued to impose this vision of a classless society in every aspect.

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Stalin, seeing the constructivist movement as a departure from its roots and pushing towards individualization, became a figure associated later with Stalinism during the phase of turning towards neoclassicism. With the burgeoning population, housing plans exploded, factories multiplied with advancing industry, and infrastructure projects like the metro and canals came with economic strengthening, serving as products reflecting Stalin's authority. After this heavy, conservative era, as a framework was lifted, a new modern world was born from the Soviet Union's reaction to this period, and I embarked on a journey to see, compare, and contrast their responses and the old-new relationships.

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As a scholar of Arkitera Architecture Center, I have organized a trip to investigate the aforementioned topics in a way that can narrated as a form of understanding the Soviet Architecture and Art evolution.

Travel Journal (in Turkish)