The Lost Vanguard

About this book

"The Lost Vanguard documents the work of modernist architects in the Soviet Union during the years following the 1917 revolution and subsequent civil war. In little more than a decade, some of the most radical buildings of the twentieth century were completed by a small group of architects who developed a new architectural language in support of new social goals of communal life. Rarely published and virtually inaccessible until the collapse of the Soviet regime, these important buildings have remained unknown and unappreciated." "This book includes seventy-three structures, starting with the Shabolovka Radio Tower in Moscow and concluding with the Lenin Mausoleum. In between are buildings from all over Moscow (where the greatest concentration of modernist buildings still remains), St. Petersburg, Ivanovo, Ekaterinburg, Kiev, Kharkov, Zaporozhe, Nizhi Novgorod, Sochi, and Baku. The buildings range from grand projects such as Gasprom in Kharkov to a modest bus shelter in Sochi, a rare survivor by an unknown architect." "In an essay, architectural historian Jean-Louis Cohen surveys the history of the period, providing a context for the emergence of this startling new architecture in parallel to contemporary experiments in Europe."--Jacket.