Pre-War Stalinist (1933-1941): Stalin's First Major Project, Manezhnaya Square
Constructed between 1932 and 1940 Manezhnaya Square hosts three of Moscow's crown jewels of Soviet archeticure in Ivan Zholtovsky's Mokhovaya Street Building, Arkady Langman's State Duma Building, and Alexey Shchusev's The Moscow Hotel (1). Stalin built these buildings to act as a 'postcard' image of Moscow, which would represent the power of communism to the rest of the world. Looking at these buildings side by side (Below) it is clear that they were constructed completely independently of each other without any consideration for cohesion. These buildings, like many of the major architectural landmarks during the Soviet period, were erected hastily and independent of the neighborhood around them because Stalin was in a rush to visibly represent the wonders of communism (2). To reconstruct Moscow's neighborhoods up to Stalin's standards of beauty would have been to expensive and slow, thus Stalin dispersed uniqeuly brilliant landmarks throughout the city. Three of these pre-war Stalinist landmarks reside around Manezhnaya Square, making it the epicenter of this era's architecture (2).
Stalin's 1932 decision to build Manezhnaya Square as a hub for Communist discourse and appreciation on top of Moiseyevskaya Square, which had stood as a symbol of 19th century Russian middle-class emperialism, acts a symbol for the entire Soviet period. It is important to note that almost all of the beautiful and unique architecture that came from the Soviet period, including Manezhnaya Square, came at the cost of much historical and cultural destruction.
Fun Fact: The Moscow Hotel's original facade was most notable for having two noticeably unique halves. Rumor has it, according to the BBC, that when Shchusev sent his design to Stalin, Stalin liked it so much that he immediatly signed it for apporval. The problem was that Stalin signed so fast that he didn't notice that Shchusev was actually asking him to pick between two different designs and thus Stalin wrote his name over both potential designs of Shchusev's future building. It is said that Shchusev was too afraid to send the design back to Stalin, thereby claiming Stalin had made a mistake, and so simply chose to just have the building with two both designs as it was drawn. Still today, the Four Seasons keeps the two sides slightly difference in honor of the original facade.
1. "'Moscow' Wants to Rebuild." BBC, 2002. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.