Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

On November 29, 1932, the long-awaited exhibition Contemporary Architecture of the USSR was opened in the Mánes Exhibition Halls on Masarykovo Embankment. From December 18 until probably the end of the year, the public could also see it in the Morava Palace in Brno, organized by the Aleš Fine Arts Association. The exhibition was prepared in the Soviet Union by the promotional organization known as VOKS [Teige 1933]. One part likely originated in Moscow and the other in Kharkiv, Ukraine [Anonymous author 1932]. Accordingly, the show was divided into a section devoted to the Soviet Union as a whole and a section on Ukraine. Although the title suggests that it was intended to be a presentation of the best Soviet architecture, the exhibition instead showcased the results of the first Five-Year Plan and a global innovation: the planned economy.

Visitors were introduced to the extensive industrialization of the country in such large regions as the Donbas, the Urals, and Siberia. Artifacts represented several new towns and villages (known as kolkhozes or sovkhozes), giant industrial buildings, and technical structures (dams, power plants). The state’s care for the new socialist citizen was represented by images of theatres, houses of culture, schools and kindergartens, sports facilities, hospitals, and new types of buildings – workers’ clubs, cultural and recreational parks, collective housing, etc. [Janů 1933; Stibor 1932; Štursa 1933]. 

The exhibition presented all this mainly in the form of photographs mounted on convex panels or “stands”, which can be seen in the preserved views of the exhibition. Some reviewers described the photographs as “effective, sensationally executed” [Janů 1933], and others as “documents” that gave “a clear picture of the rapid and accelerating development in the building of socialism” [Štursa 1932]. However, reports and photographs also testify to the presence of architectural models, charts and statistics, books, magazines, and propaganda posters of the first Five-Year Plan.  Although all these materials were intended primarily as documents, there was probably a propagandistic intention behind the exhibition, aimed at convincing viewers of the unprecedented scale, scope, power, and success of the First Five-Year Plan, as well as the enthusiasm of the workers and the concern of the state for the welfare of the new man. 

The exhibition in the Mánes building was only open for 12 days but attracted great attention. Reviews appeared in most newspapers across the political spectrum, and leading Czechoslovak architects of all political persuasions commented on it. It is possible that the Czech public was so interested because of the unprecedented effects of the Great Depression in Czechoslovakia, which contrasted with the touted success of the First Five-Year Plan and its declared emphasis on the welfare of the socialist man. Reviews of the Brno reprise were less extensive, and most newspapers and magazines probably considered it superfluous to write about the same exhibition again.

The exhibition was especially popular among left-wing architects. Karel Janů [Janů 1933] and Jiří Štursa [Štursa 1932] wrote very positively about it, expressing their conviction that the socialist construction model represented the opposite of the “care” of the capitalist world, whose principles had brought about the global crisis. Karel Teige also praised the exhibition [Teige 1933]. In his text, he took great pains to defend it against its critics, citing the positive review by Pavel Janák, who was considered a politically moderate architect.

Indeed, Janák's evaluation was generally laudatory, although he also voiced criticism [Janák 1933]. He appreciated the social progress achieved through the buildings presented at the exhibition and the social dimension of such architecture. Another conservative, Ladislav Machoň, expressed similar views [Machoň 1932-1933]. He welcomed the social benefits of the new architecture but found even more negative aspects (low quality, inconsistent expression).

The harshest criticism came from Josef Karel Říha and Gustav Zvěřina. Říha noted that the exhibition did not show actual architecture but “anonymous architectural works” of “poor quality” [Říha 1933]. He also commented on the lack of human scale and the “ruthlessness” of Soviet industrialization. To Zvěřina, the gigantic scale of Soviet architecture seemed like a new Russian religion [Zvěřina 1933]. He disliked the collectivization of life and industrial production and the suppression of religious architecture. Women’s liberation from domestic duties appeared to him merely as an opportunity for cheap labour.

The idea of organizing an exhibition of Soviet architecture probably originated within the Society for Economic and Cultural Relations with New Russia. Two of its members, Adolf Hoffmeister and Bedřich Feuerstein, were tasked to discuss it during their trip to the Soviet Union in 1931 [Čapková 2014, 2021].  The Prague show was probably intended to become part of the international congress of left-wing architects in Prague (October 29 – November 2, 1932), known as the meeting of the Union of Socialist Architects [Dvořáková 2020]. However, this did not happen as the exhibition was delayed.

The show in Mánes also had its “accompanying program.” During the exhibition, the USSR Plenipotentiary to Czechoslovakia, Alexander Arosev, organized a social event called “tea” to which he invited members of the Mánes Association and representatives of cultural and political life. Josef Gočár, the chairman of Mánes, is said to have used the occasion to “point out the flourishing of contemporary architecture in Russia brought about by the rapid development of the industry” [M. S. 1932]. Alexandr Arosev then discussed the possibility of sending an exchange exhibition of Czechoslovak architecture to the Soviet Union [Hausenblasová 2018]. In addition to the “tea,” there were daily guided tours with architects (presumably the left-wing ones). The proceeds from these tours went to unemployed artists.

At the time, the exhibition may have been perceived as one of the activities of the Czechoslovak leftist avant-garde, which probably saw it as a guide to solving the global crisis. Unlike another leftist show, the Exhibition of Proletarian Housing (1931), it was not closed. Today, we tend to see the 1932 exhibition as a tool of Soviet propaganda, owing its success to the situation in which it took place – the period of economic crisis – and to its presentation of values that were lacking in the interwar society.

Marcela Hanáčková

Works Cited

Anonymous author 1932: Untitled, [the text begins with the following words: „Velkou výstavu současné architektury SSSR …“], Právo lidu, 1932, 27. 11., Anna Hausenblasová, Československé a sovětské výtvarné umění ve třicátých letech 20. století: kontakty, vlivy, vzájemné působení (thesis), Institute of Eastern-European Studies FFUK, Praha 2018

Čapková 2014: Helena Čapková, Bedřich Feuerstein. Cesta do nejvýtvarnější země světa, Praha 2014, pp. 86–89

Čapková 2021: Helena Čapková, Bedřich Feuerstein. Architekt: Praha – Paříž – Tokio, Praha 2021, pp. 106–109

Dvořáková 2020: Dita Dvořáková, Levicový radikalismus – architekti Levé fronty a Svaz socialistických architektů, in: Vendula Hnídková (ed.), Duch, který pracuje/A Spirit at Work, Praha 2020, pp. 529–531

Hausenblasová 2018: Anna Hausenblasová, Československé a sovětské výtvarné umění ve třicátých letech 20. století: kontakty, vlivy, vzájemné působení (thesis), Institute of Eastern-European Studies FFUK, Praha 2018, pp. 43–46

Janák 1933: Pavel Janák, Pohled na ruskou architekturu z Prahy, Přítomnost VI, 1933, no. 8, pp. 123–125

Janů 1933: Karel Janů, K výstavě sovětské architektury v Praze, Stavba XI, 1933, no. 3, pp. 33–35

Ka- 1933: Ka- [František Kalivoda], Výstava sovětské architektury, Index. List pro kulturní politiku V, 1933, no. 1, p. 8

Machoň 1932-1933: Ladislav Machoň, Výstava soudobé architektury v SSSR, Styl XVII, 1932–1933, no. 10–11, pp. 177–178

M. S. 1932: M. S., Výstava československé architektury v SSSR, Národní osvobození, 1932, 6. 12., in: Anna Hausenblasová, Československé a sovětské výtvarné umění ve třicátých letech 20. století: kontakty, vlivy, vzájemné působení (diplomní práce), Ústav východoevropských studií FFUK, Praha 2018

Říha 1932: Josef K. Říha, Výstava soudobé architektury v SSSR, Lidové noviny XL, 1932, no. 629, 14. 12., p. 9

Stibor 1932: Oldřich Stibor, Výstava sovětské architektury, Volné směry XXIX, 1932, pp. 258–259

Štursa 1932: Jiří Štursa, Výstava sovětské architektury, Tvorba XII, 1932, no. 49, p. 780

Teige 1933: Karel Teige, Výstava sovětské architektury, Země Sovětů II, 1933, no. 5, p. 72

Zvěřina 1933: Gustav Zvěřina, Stavebnictví v SSSR, Stavební rádce, 1933, no. 248, 3. 1., pp. 369–372

Further Reading

 Vendula Hnídkova, Moskva 1937: architektura a propaganda v západní perspektivě, Praha, 2018

Jiří Křesťan, KSČ, Společnost pro hospodářské a kulturní styky s SSSR a obraz Sovětského svazu v prostředí české levicové inteligence (1925-1939), in: Zdeněk Kárník – Michal Kopeček (edd.), Bolševismus, komunismus a radikální socialismus v Československu, sv. 2, Praha 2004, pp. 84–109 

m.-, Výstava současné architektury SSSR (Mánes), Levá fronta II, 1931–1932, p. 30

Fedora Parkmann, Jiří Kroha. Bytová krize na pitevním stole: Sociologický fragment bydlení, Fotograf, 2020, no. 36, pp. 32–37 

[Jan Ryšánek] Architektura SSSR, Stavební rozhledy XIII, 1932, pp. 219–220

Se- [Stanislav Semrád], Výstava sovětské architektury, Stavitel XIII, 1932, pp. 131–134

Rostislav Švácha, Sovětský konstuktivismus a česká architektura, Umění XXXVIII, 1988, pp. 54–70

Archival Sources

Prague City Archives, Spolek výtvarných umělců Mánes Praha [Mánes Fine Arts Association Prague]

Anonymous author Výstava sovětské architektury, Dělnická rovnost. Deník Komunistické strany Československa IV, 1932, no. 296, 17. 12., p. 3 

Anonymous author, Výstava sovětské architektury v Brně, Dělnická rovnost. Deník Komunistické strany Československa IV, 1932, no. 302, 24. 12., p. 1

Anonymous author, Pouze 8 dní výstava sovětské architektury, Dělnická rovnost. Deník Komunistické strany Československa, 1932, no. 285, 4. 12., p. 2

Ka- [František Kalivoda], Sjezd levých architektů v Praze, Index. List pro kulturní politiku V, 1933, no. 1, p. 3 

Ka- [František Kalivoda], Výstava sovětské architektury, Index. List pro kulturní politiku V, 1933, no. 1, p. 8

m.-, Výstava současné architektury SSSR (Mánes), Levá fronta II, 1931–1932, p. 30

Karel Teige, Z výstavy současné sovětské architektury v paviloně Mánes, Země Sovětů, no.  2–3, 1933, in: Anna Hausenblasová, Československé a sovětské výtvarné umění ve třicátých letech 20. století: kontakty, vlivy, vzájemné působení (diplomní práce), Ústav východoevropských studií FFUK, Praha 2018 

Anonymous author, „Velkou výstavu současné architektury SSSR …“, Právo lidu, 1932, 27. 11., in: Anna Hausenblasová, Československé a sovětské výtvarné umění ve třicátých letech 20. století: kontakty, vlivy, vzájemné působení (thesis), Institute of Eastern-European Studies FFUK, Praha 2018

Anonymous author, Velká výstava současné architektury SSSR, Rudé právo, 1932, 2. 12., in: Anna Hausenblasová, Československé a sovětské výtvarné umění ve třicátých letech 20. století: kontakty, vlivy, vzájemné působení (thesis), Institute of Eastern-European Studies FFUK, Praha 2018 

M. S., Výstava československé architektury v SSSR, Národní osvobození, 1932, 6. 12., in: Anna Hausenblasová, Československé a sovětské výtvarné umění ve třicátých letech 20. století: kontakty, vlivy, vzájemné působení (thesis), Institute of Eastern-European Studies FFUK, Praha 2018

ln.-, Výstava sovětské architektury, Tvorba. Týdeník pro literaturu, politiku a umění XII, 1932, 1. 12., in: Anna Hausenblasová, Československé a sovětské výtvarné umění ve třicátých letech 20. století: kontakty, vlivy, vzájemné působení (thesis), Institute of Eastern-European Studies, Praha 2018