Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

History of Design in Russia: 1917–2021

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
History of Design and Design Law

  • 588 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the main phases of design development in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the Russian Federation (Russia) from 1917 to 2021, setting them against the political and economic context of the time. The first post-Revolution design professionals had to create a new material world from scratch. All the innovative know-how was immediately passed on to students but implementation in nationalized factories remained problematic. The dramatic political changes of the 1930s introduced a new style: the Communist leadership wanted to go back to the classics. The huge industrialization effort cost millions of human lives but the achievements were impressive. World War II put design evolution on hold, and the post-war regime renounced the ‘excesses’ of the past. The ‘Khrushchev Thaw’, mass housing construction, new technologies, space flight and efforts to improve international relations changed the lifestyle and the mindset of the Soviet people. Design officially became an integral part of any production process, and the Soviet design system took shape. The All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Technical Aesthetics (VNIITE) acted as a central coordinating body while every ministry got a specialized research institute or design office. The system collapsed with the rest of the Soviet Union and a new generation of Russian designers once again had to start from scratch. This time, they relied both on the reinvented Soviet legacy and the inventions of the avant-garde to find a distinctive national identity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    Formal marriage was optional in the early years of the Soviet regime.

  2. 2.

    Having an entire room for one family’s use was a luxury. Sometimes up to four families would share a room, or a living unit, while kitchens and bathrooms were all communal.

  3. 3.

    Administration of the USSR Council of People’s Commissars (1920), pp. 773–774.

  4. 4.

    The original movement took shape in the 1920s within the Institute of Artistic Culture (INKhUK). The group included Alexei Gan, Alexander Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova, Vladimir and Georgy Stenberg, Konstantin Medunetsky, Karl Johansson, and many others.

  5. 5.

    LEF magazine was the mouthpiece of the Left Front of the Arts, a Moscow artistic group of 1922–1928. Dominated by the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, this association of ex-futurists included Nikolai Aseyev, Osip Brik, Sergei Tretyakov, Boris Arvatov, Boris Kushner, Nikolai Chuzhak and a number of others. They all believed themselves to be the only true revolutionaries in art, much more relevant than the competing October Group collective and Proletarian Writers’ Association. A number of literary groups in Odessa, Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Tiflis, and Novosibirsk shared the agenda of LEF. Their magazines were LEF (1923–1925) and The New LEF (1927–1928).

  6. 6.

    LEF (1923), p. 48.

  7. 7.

    Lavrentiev (2007), p. 138.

  8. 8.

    Fyodorov-Davidov (1928), p. 4.

  9. 9.

    Ivanovo-Voznesensk (1923), pp. 11–15.

  10. 10.

    Yasinskaya (1977), p. 13.

  11. 11.

    The Vladimir Lenin Young Pioneer Organization was established on 19 May 1922.

  12. 12.

    Tatlin’s project of ‘normal clothing’ was unveiled in an anonymous article entitled ‘New Living’ in the Leningrad-based Red Panorama magazine.

  13. 13.

    Babaev (1931), pp. 8–12.

  14. 14.

    USSR In Construction was published from 1930 to 1941 and again in 1939. It was the main propaganda publication aimed at an international audience and was translated into five foreign languages. The magazine promoted the new ideology and lifestyle of the Soviet people.

  15. 15.

    Snitko (2007), p. 11.

  16. 16.

    The development of the aerosani (snowmobile) began 12 years earlier, before the Revolution.

  17. 17.

    Kholmyansky (1985).

  18. 18.

    Kick-starting the industrialization process was facilitated by the adoption of five-year plans. The 14th Communist Party Congress of December 1925 proclaimed the policy goal of transforming the country into a major economy through intense industrialization. The first Five-Year Plan (1928–1932) was realized in four years with over 500 production units operating across the country. These impressive achievements were made possible by repression and command administrative systems.

  19. 19.

    Yasinskaya (1977), p. 13.

  20. 20.

    Central Committee of the Communist Party (1932), p. 62.

  21. 21.

    The project of Boris Iofan was selected as a result of an ambitious competition launched in 1931. However, the utopian nature of the project combined with construction difficulties ensured the tower never materialised.

  22. 22.

    Notably, Alexander Lavrentyev in his seminal History of Design: Lavrentiev (2007).

  23. 23.

    Notably, the avant-garde art historian Alexandra Selivanova.

  24. 24.

    Mikhailov (2003), p. 86.

  25. 25.

    Travels to the US were undertaken by many Soviet cultural figures: architects Vyacheslav Oltarzhevsky and Boris Iofan, poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, authors Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov, to name but a few.

  26. 26.

    Kropotkinskaya won the Grand Prix at exhibitions in Paris (1937) and Brussels (1958) as well as the Stalin Prize for architecture and construction (1941).

  27. 27.

    Mayakovskaya was awarded the Grand Prix at the World’s Fair in New York in 1939.

  28. 28.

    Krasnye Vorota station was awarded the Grand Prix at the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne [International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life] in Paris.

  29. 29.

    Mikhailov (2003), pp. 92–93.

  30. 30.

    Heritage Art Gallery (2018), pp. 6, 65–85, 109.

  31. 31.

    Studio 12 (1936), pp. 18–22.

  32. 32.

    Meyerovich (2009).

  33. 33.

    RIA Novosti (2017).

  34. 34.

    Kasheev and Reminsky (2000).

  35. 35.

    Kholmyansky (1985), p. 90.

  36. 36.

    Mikhailov (2003), p. 94.

  37. 37.

    Kotelnikov (2004), pp. 20–22.

  38. 38.

    Mikhailov (2003), p. 98.

  39. 39.

    Solovyov (2004), pp. 67–108.

  40. 40.

    The project was launched in 1938, but the War put it on hold.

  41. 41.

    Moscow Design Museum (2020), p. 189.

  42. 42.

    According to Alexey Kostenko, a policy official of the Soviet and Russian Government from 1969 to 1996, in an interview conducted by the Moscow Design Museum, Moscow, 14 Oct 2020.

  43. 43.

    Moscow Design Museum (2020), p. 21.

  44. 44.

    State Committee for Construction (1955), p. 4.

  45. 45.

    Khmelnitsky (2007), pp. 323, 334.

  46. 46.

    The programme was initiated by the Resolution On the Development of Housing Construction in the USSR: Central Committee of the Communist Party, USSR Council of Ministers (1957).

  47. 47.

    Moscow Design Museum (2020), pp. 15, 24, 32, 70.

  48. 48.

    Runge (2006), p. 3.

  49. 49.

    Pravda (1958), p. 6.

  50. 50.

    Grigoriev (1958), Part 5.

  51. 51.

    Union of Artists of the USSR (1958), p. 17.

  52. 52.

    Manhattan Publishing (1959).

  53. 53.

    The series of impromptu exchanges took place within an installation featuring a model house that, according to the organizers, anyone in America could afford, complete with furniture and all kinds of appliances.

  54. 54.

    A full transcript of the debate is available at: Uporova (2007).

  55. 55.

    Solovyov (2004), p. 112.

  56. 56.

    Design Council. https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/. Accessed 25 Oct 2021.

  57. 57.

    Solovyov (2004), pp. 113–126.

  58. 58.

    Sankova and Druzhinina (2018), p. 49.

  59. 59.

    Azrikan (2000).

  60. 60.

    Azrikan (2000); Sankova and Druzhinina (2018), p. 107.

  61. 61.

    Kobylinsky tells the story in detail in his interview: Kobylinsky (2015).

  62. 62.

    Druzhinina (2018), p. 36.

  63. 63.

    VNIITE (1987), pp. 11–15.

  64. 64.

    VNIITE (1986), pp. 4–6.

  65. 65.

    Maistrovskaya (2007).

  66. 66.

    Orlova (1955), p. 18. Fashion Magazine was the official publication of the Ministry of Light Industry of the USSR, which had been published since 1945 and was the main Soviet fashion magazine. In 1988, Lydia Orlova was appointed editor-in-chief, which initiated a relaunch of the publication. Having gathered a new team of journalists, freelance authors and photographers and organized a photo studio for her photography, she turned Fashion Magazine into a fully-fledged publication about fashion.

  67. 67.

    The Electrotheatre is a reinvention of the original Konstantin Stanislavsky theatre in Moscow.

  68. 68.

    Nina Donis. http://www.ninadonis.com/ru_collections.html. Accessed 25 Oct 2021.

  69. 69.

    Albert Smirnov patented his invention on his own, without including management or the rest of the team as patent holders, as had been the standard Soviet practice. However, in the end, he had to leave the factory.

  70. 70.

    Smirnov Design Studio. https://eng.smirnovdesign.com/portfolio-item/zenit-m/. Accessed 25 Oct 2021.

  71. 71.

    Unlike many other augmented reality helmets, Livemap is fully compliant with the USA DOT and European ECE 22.05 standards. Smirnov Design Studio. Livemap Helmet is an Intelligent Augmented Reality Helmet. https://eng.smirnovdesign.com/portfolio-item/livmap-helmet/. Accessed 25 Oct 2021.

  72. 72.

    Smirnov Design Studio. Unmanned Aircraft with Vertical Take-Off and Landing Veter. https://smirnovdesign.com/portfolio-item/unmanned-aircraft-with-vertical-takeoff-and-landing-veter/. Accessed 25 Oct 2021.

  73. 73.

    Slava’saakyan. Multipurpose Helicopter. http://www.slavasaakyan.ru/projects/66.html. Accessed 25 Oct 2021.

  74. 74.

    TMX. Development and Production of Rolling Stock for Rail and Urban Rail Transport. https://www.tmholding.ru/media/events/7409.html. Accessed 25 Oct 2021.

  75. 75.

    Rostec. About. https://rostec.ru/en/about/. Accessed 25 Oct 2021.

  76. 76.

    RHC Helicopters. https://www.rhc.aero/en/. Accessed 25 Oct 2021.

  77. 77.

    Filippova (2021).

  78. 78.

    Moscow Design Museum. http://moscowdesignmuseum.ru/en/. Accessed 25 Oct 2021.

  79. 79.

    Varikhanov (2017).

References

  • Administration of the USSR Council of People’s Commissars (1920) Collection of Laws and Directives Issued by the Government of the Workers and Peasants, 1943. Issue No. 98, 19 Dec 1920. Moscow, pp 773–774

    Google Scholar 

  • Azrikan D (2000) VNIITE, Dinosaur of Totalitarianism or Plato’s Academy of Design. Design Issues, Nov 2000, pp 70–71

    Google Scholar 

  • Babaev P (1931) What Poster Do We Need? Journal of the Association of Artists of the Revolution ‘For Proletarian Art’. Issue No. 1, pp 8–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Central Committee of the Communist Party (1932) On the Restructuring of Literary and Artistic Organizations. Constructing the Party. No. 9, p. 62

    Google Scholar 

  • Central Committee of the Communist Party, USSR Council of Ministers (1957) On the Development of Housing Construction in the USSR. Resolution of 31 July 1957 N 931. Available via Kodeks. https://docs.cntd.ru/document/765714291. Accessed 25 Oct 2021

  • Druzhinina O (2018) Vladimir Runge: from ‘Horizon’ to ‘Zenith.’ Moscow Design Museum, Moscow

    Google Scholar 

  • Filippova L (2021) The First Hydrofoil Moto Ship Meteor in 20 Years was Launched. 3 Aug 2021. Available via Channel One. https://www.1tv.ru/news/2021-08-03/410810-na_vodu_spuschen_pervyy_za_20_let_teplohod_meteor_na_podvodnyh_krylyah. Accessed 25 Oct 2021

  • Fyodorov-Davidov AA (1928) The Meaning and Purpose of the Exhibition. Soviet Everyday Life Textiles. Exhibition Catalogue. Glaviskusstvo, Moscow

    Google Scholar 

  • Grigoriev R (1958) Brussels – 1958 (documentary film)

    Google Scholar 

  • Heritage Art Gallery (2018) Postconstructivism or The Birth of Soviet Art Deco: Paris — New York – Moscow. Heritage Art Gallery, Moscow

    Google Scholar 

  • Ivanovo-Voznesensk (1923) Ivanovo-Voznesensk Textile Trust: Activity Overview During 1 Nov 1921 – 1 Jan 1923. GAIO

    Google Scholar 

  • Kasheev LB, Reminsky VA (2000) ZiS cars in the Red Army. In: Military Vehicles. Kirov

    Google Scholar 

  • Khmelnitsky DS (2007) Stalin’s Architecture: Psychology and Style. Progress-Tradition, Moscow

    Google Scholar 

  • Kholmyansky LM (1985) Design. Textbook. Prosveshenie, Moscow

    Google Scholar 

  • Kobylinsky V (2015), Monologue, June 2015 (Part 3). http://www.gruzovikpress.ru/article/2568-kobylinskiy-monolog. Accessed 25 Oct 2021

  • Kotelnikov V (2004) The Era of Giants. Aviamaster. Issue 6, pp 20–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Lavrentiev AN (2007) History of Design. Gardariki, Moscow, p 138

    Google Scholar 

  • LEF (1923) Who Is LEF Warning? LEF. Issue No 1, Mar 1923

    Google Scholar 

  • Maistrovskaya MT (2007) RNIFDT/VPKTIM (The Russian National Institute of Furniture Design and Technology) — 1960–1980 — the Centre for the Domestically Produced Furniture Design (Organization, Exhibitions, Competitions, Methodologies). https://stroganov-academy.org/images/content/nauka_vestnik/vestnik-articles/vestnik-2-2-2020/m-t-majstrovskaya-vpktim-1960-1980-gg-centr-proektirovaniya-otechestvennoj-mebeli-organizaciya-vystavki-konkursy-metodiki.pdf. Accessed 25 Oct 2021

  • Manhattan Publishing (1959) The American National Exhibition in Moscow. Manhattan Publishing, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyerovich MG (2009) Albert Kan in the History of Soviet Industrialization. Available via Archi.Ru. https://archi.ru/elpub/91506/albert-kan-v-istorii-sovetskoi-industrializacii. Accessed 25 Oct 2021

  • Mikhailov SM (2003) Design of Industrial and Postindustrial Society. In History of Design, Volume 2. Union of Russian Designers, Moscow

    Google Scholar 

  • Moscow Design Museum (2020) Diversification: 60 Years of History. Moscow Design Museum, Moscow

    Google Scholar 

  • Orlova L (1988) She Was Ahead of Her Time. Season Models 1988. Supplement to Fashion Magazine. No 1, p 18

    Google Scholar 

  • Pravda (1958) More than 500 Awards at the World’s Fair in Brussels. Pravda. Issue 278, 5 Oct 1958, p 6

    Google Scholar 

  • RIA Novosti (2017) Gorky Automobile Plant. Available via RIA Novosti. https://ria.ru/20170101/1484653454.html. Accessed 25 Oct 2021

  • Runge VF (2006) History of Design, Science and Technology. Architecture, Moscow

    Google Scholar 

  • Sankova A, Druzhinina O (2018) VNIITE. Discovering Utopia: Lost Archives of Soviet Design. Unit Editions, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Snitko AV (2007) Workers’ Settlements of Historical Industrial Cities of the Centre of Russia. Housing Construction. Issue 12, p 11

    Google Scholar 

  • Solovyov YB (2004) My Life in Design. Union of Russian Designers, Moscow

    Google Scholar 

  • State Committee for Construction (1955) Central Committee of the Communist Party and USSR Council Resolution on Eliminating Excesses in Design and Construction. Moscow

    Google Scholar 

  • Studio Number 12 (1936) Works of Architectural Workshops, Studio No. 12, Volume II. Moscow 7th Printing House, Mosoblpoligraf

    Google Scholar 

  • Union of Artists of the USSR (1958) USSR Decorative Art. Issue 12, Dec 1958

    Google Scholar 

  • Uporova E (2007) Khrushchev and Nixon. Kitchen debate, 1959 + Goodbye capitalists! Available via Podstation (Wayback Machine, internet archive, 13 Oct 2013) http://web.archive.org/web/20131028195442/, http://www.podst.ru/posts/28/. Accessed 25 Oct 2021

  • Varikhanov S (2017). World Class Engineering and Industrial Design. Available via Kommersant. https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3343847. Accessed 25 Oct 2021

  • VNIITE (1986) The ‘Vtomar’ Experiment in Action. Technical Aesthetics, Issue 7, pp 4–6

    Google Scholar 

  • VNIITE (1987) “SPHINX” — Radio Electronic Equipment of the Desired Future. Technical Aesthetics, Issue 9, pp 4–6

    Google Scholar 

  • Yasinskaya IM (1977) Soviet Textiles 1920s–1930s. Khudozhnik RSFSR, Leningrad

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Moscow Design Museum, Moscow, Russia

    Alexandra Sankova

Authors
  1. Alexandra Sankova
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Design, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Tsukasa Aso

  2. School of Law, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan

    Christoph Rademacher

  3. Research Center for the Legal System of Intellectual Property, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan

    Jonathan Dobinson

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Sankova, A. (2022). History of Design in Russia: 1917–2021. In: Aso, T., Rademacher, C., Dobinson, J. (eds) History of Design and Design Law. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-8782-2_19

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-8782-2_19

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-16-8781-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-16-8782-2

  • eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation