Moscow in architectural projects 100 years ago

150 years ago the architect Vladimir Semenov was born, under whose leadership a master plan for the reconstruction of Moscow was developed in the 1930s. Its implementation was supposed to turn the city into a showcase of the new socialist state, and in the future – of the entire world proletariat. The plan radically influenced the urban development of Moscow, although it was not fully implemented and was not the only concept for the development of the city.

The first ideas for the reconstruction of Moscow were put forward shortly after the Soviet government moved from Petrograd in 1918. Unlike the northern capital, which, focusing on European cities, was built according to a regular plan, Moscow developed without a specific scheme or framework. By the early 1930s, the city still did not have modern water supply, sewerage, wide streets and embankments, as well as sufficient housing stock for the huge number of migrants from the countryside. In addition to the utilitarian one, the architects had a conceptual task – Moscow was supposed to become a reflection of the victory of socialism.

“New” and “Big”

In 1918, an architectural workshop was created under the Moscow City Council, headed by the architect Alexei Shchusev, which by 1923 developed the “New Moscow” plan. Its main principle was the transfer of the government center from the Kremlin and Kitai-Gorod to the Petrogradskoye Highway and Khodynskoye Pole. This was supposed to relieve the center, leaving its historical buildings intact and allowing the Kremlin to be turned into a museum. New areas with predominantly low-rise buildings based on the garden city principle were separated from each other by parks and boulevards.

The plan was not implemented, including due to difficult economic conditions and the civil war. However, thanks to him, a green wedge of Gorky Park and Neskuchny Garden, the village of Sokol, appeared in Moscow, and Sovetskaya (now Tverskaya) Square was reconstructed.

In parallel with “New Moscow,” “Greater Moscow” was developed: in 1925, the chief engineer for the improvement of the capital, Sergei Shestakov, presented a project based on the historically established radial-ring structure of the city, taking into account the growing population. According to the plan, the center of Moscow was surrounded by a system of rings, like the annual rings of a tree, which would include the nearby cities of the Moscow province: Podolsk, Domodedovo, Volokolamsk, Mozhaisk and others.

The project existed only in theory, was criticized and was ultimately found to be unconstructive. In 1930, Sergei Shestakov was repressed, and the project was classified.

In 1931, Moscow was separated into an independent administrative and economic unit. At the same time, the plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks set gigantic tasks for urban transformation: a decision was made to build a metro in Moscow and to connect the Moscow River with a canal to the Volga. The working outskirts were improved and residential areas were built up. Large-scale work needed a unifying basis, so the plenum obliged “Moscow organizations to begin developing a science-based plan for the further expansion and development of Moscow.”

The Moscow City Council announced a wide competition involving both Soviet and foreign architects. The competition reflected different creative views in the field of urban planning – both conservative and radical.

Ladovsky’s parabola

Soviet architect and creative leader of rationalism Nikolai Ladovsky criticized the existing radial-ring layout of Moscow. He believed that in such a system the rings would be forced to grow, which would inevitably lead to collapse. Ladovsky proposed getting away from the circles, “opening” one of them and giving the city the opportunity to develop in a given direction in the shape of a parabola.

The main axis became the northwestern direction along Gorky Street and Leningradskoe Highway. Along it there was housing, production and agriculture, which expanded towards Leningrad. In the future, this axis was supposed to merge with the northern capital.

The project was not taken seriously. At that time, the chief architect of Moscow, Vladimir Semenov, wrote about Ladovsky’s project: “His capital, as such, has disappeared. Her brain has been destroyed, leaving a very large work center.”

Ladovsky’s ideas are in some ways reminiscent of the current expansion of Moscow through accession southwestern lands of the Moscow region in 2012.

Satellite cities of May

The chief architect of Frankfurt am Main, Ernst May, believed that the city needed to be downsized and resettled. He proposed moving some of the residential functions outside of Moscow, thereby relieving the center as much as possible.

The architect wanted to organize a system of satellite cities around Moscow, which would be built up with low-rise buildings with private plots, and agricultural zones located between them. At the same time, Old Moscow as a city ceased to exist and turned only into an administrative and business center.

Corbusier’s rectangular grid

The idea of ​​the French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier is considered to be the most radical project for the reconstruction of Moscow. He called the radial-ring structure an unnecessary medieval rudiment that cannot accommodate the new meanings of a growing city. Corbusier proposed “redoing everything, first destroying it”: changing the layout to a rectangular one, demolishing most of the buildings and reducing the territory of the city, clearly dividing it by function. To the north was the new administrative center, to the south were residential areas, the historical center, and on the southernmost periphery was industry.

Vladimir Semenov also criticized this idea: “Corbusier’s project, which demolishes all of Moscow, is unacceptable. Reconstruction requires drastic measures. Need surgery. But when a surgeon is needed, they don’t call for an executioner.”

General plan 1935

Moscow authorities rejected radical changes. In 1935, Joseph Stalin and Vyacheslav Molotov approved the decree “On the master plan for the reconstruction of the city of Moscow.” The architects who developed it, Vladimir Semenov and Sergei Chernyshev, proceeded from the idea of ​​“preserving the foundations of the historically established city, but with a radical redevelopment of it by decisively streamlining the network of city streets and squares.” “The normal life of a rapidly developing city, especially urban traffic,” was hampered by “narrow and crooked streets, rugged neighborhoods with many alleys and dead ends,” the authors noted.

This problem was solved by expanding old squares and streets and creating new ones. It was planned to establish direct transport links between the city’s districts without the need to travel through the center. Several through diagonal highways were also provided: three of them went along the directions of the current Leningradskoye, Shchelkovskoye and Mozhaiskoye highways.

Old buildings were demolished when streets were widened, but they were often moved.

Over the years of implementation of the plan, the number of architectural monuments decreased: if in 1928 there were 216, by 1935 there were 74 left. Everything that could not be moved and could interfere with traffic was demolished. This is how the Kitai-Gorod Wall and Sukharev Tower were destroyed.

The main squares were also expanded—Red Square was proposed to be doubled.

On the site of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which was blown up in 1931, the Palace of Soviets was created, which was supposed to be located on a new urban axis – a wide highway starting at Dzerzhinsky Square (now Lubyanka) and going to Luzhniki, and then, through the Moscow River and Leninsky mountains – to new neighborhoods in the southwest.

According to the general plan, the city’s population was limited to 5 million people, “with full services for the everyday and cultural needs of this population.” The expansion of the city was planned through the annexation of new territories, mainly in the southwestern direction – “as the most healthy suburban area for housing, high and convenient in location.”

According to the new development principles, houses should not be low-rise – only buildings with 7-14 floors were allowed to be erected. Houses in new neighborhoods were built “at some short distance” for optimal lighting. The housing construction plan envisaged the construction of 15 million square meters in 10 years. m (about 2500 houses).

“Let our residential buildings be simple, calm, organized into masses. This is the frame, this is the background for public buildings. But let our public buildings be rich, majestic, not repetitive, let all types of fine arts merge their efforts in the overall work of building, rebuilding and decorating Moscow.” (Vladimir Semenov in the article “Moscow to be planned and rebuilt”, 1935).

Water flooding developed throughout the city. From the north, two ring canals were to go around the capital. One of them, a small one, connected the Yauza with the Khimki reservoir, and the second went out to the South Port area. The greatest attention was paid to the construction of canals that were supposed to connect Moscow with all the major rivers of the European part of the country.

The city became a major river port. New embankments with a total length of 52 km, lined with granite, were completed by 1937.

Great importance was also attached to the greening of the city, the creation of new parks and the reconstruction of existing ones. It was planned to create five “green” rings around the city center. For the opening of the new All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in 1939, the largest array of greenery was formed in the north-west of the capital, including the Park of Culture and Leisure named after. Dzerzhinsky (in 1976 included in VDNH), Ostankino Park and the Main Botanical Garden.

It was assumed that the master plan would be implemented within a decade. Moscow turned into a modern city by those standards, but due to the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, in many respects the plan remained a concept. The building of the Palace of Soviets was not built, the Boulevard Ring was not closed, the Northern Canal did not connect the Khimki Reservoir with the Yauza. The reconstruction of the city according to the general plan and its subsequent editions was completed in 1953.

“Kommersant” thanks the State Autonomous Institution “Institute of General Plan of Moscow” for assistance in preparing the material.

Andrey Yegupets