קונגרס העולמי ה-18 למדעי היהדות

Jewish Architects in Soviet Ukraine and Political Propaganda Campaigns in Architectural Criticism: The late 1920s and 1930s

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Before the 1917 Revolution, the architects of Jewish origin could adopt traditional Jewish motives into their works in religious architecture and in projects of private mansions. E.g., they frequently designed buildings in Moorish style and decorated them with floral ornament. After the 1917 revolution such opportunities did not exist. The constructivist public buildings and apartment houses built by Soviet architects in the 1920s and early 1930s represented universal socialist values and were not strictly connected to national cultures. Simultaneously, some Ukrainian architects continued to use motives perceived as “national” (especially inspired by the baroque tradition, e.g. the building of the Forestry Institute in Kyiv designed by Dmytro Diachenko, 1925–1927). Some non-Slavic “national elements” were used by architects who worked in non-Slavic regions (e.g., some projects by Moisei Ginzburg were influenced by Crimean Tatar traditional architecture). At the same time, such use of “national” elements frequently was treated as representation of “bourgeois nationalism” and was condemned.

In contrast, Jewish national elements in architecture were perceived first of all as a part of religious tradition. New synagogues were not built during this period as well as new private mansions (the representatives of new ruling elites used prerevolutionary buildings). Even more, the public buildings and residence houses in the Jewish national districts in Soviet Ukraine, buildings of Jewish educational and cultural institutions had not any visual distinction from non-Jewish ones.

Such “deethnization” or “detraditionalization” of Jewish and non-Jewish architecture has been accompanied by propaganda campaigns in media. Interesting reflections could be found in journals on architecture and visual arts published in Soviet Ukraine and in Moscow in the interwar period. In my presentation, I will trace the influence of such campaigns on activity of Jewish architects in Soviet Ukraine.