This article serves as a supplement to the previous autobiography, aiming to introduce the beginning of Soviet art mentioned earlier. I hope that in the future I can also focus on this topic to learn about the history of Soviet art with everyone, and discuss what proletarian art should look like.
The black tower-like structure in the picture is called the Tatlin Tower, also known as the Third International Monument. This four-hundred-meter building is made of glass, iron, and steel, with two spiral steel structures extending toward the sky at a sixty-degree angle. The base of the building is a cube, serving as a venue for lectures, meetings, and legislative sessions, rotating once a year. Above it is a pyramidal structure that rotates once a month, with the top being a cylinder that functions as an information center, broadcasting news, announcements, and declarations via telegraph, radio, and loudspeakers to the world, proclaiming the strength of the Soviet Union and symbolizing the challenge to “modernity” represented by the Eiffel Tower.
Due to the enormous amount of steel required for the Tatlin Tower, its structural practicality was seriously questioned. Under the realities of steel shortages and the Russian Civil War, the plan was shelved and never revived.
The designer, Tatlin, came from an engineering and technical family and started working independently in society at a very early age. He worked as a sailor, an assistant painter, and a theater set designer. Because he believed that “art” was a product of “capitalism,” he called himself an “art engineer” or a “productionist.” (These two terms are very abstract, and I didn’t quite understand their meanings; I will add more about their principles and views after I learn more about them later.)
. I’ve always wanted to write about the history of the beginnings of Soviet art because it really had a great influence on my early architectural thinking. As mentioned earlier, "Soviet constructivism and suprematism paved the way for modern abstract art. The ‘rough’ architecture symbolizes the authority and grandeur of the people’s democratic dictatorship, and the bold stylistic design of workers’ collective dormitories represents a daring attempt at new ways of living and thinking in the ‘new era’ and ‘new ideas’. The towering Tatlin’s Tower is as powerful and resonant in my mind as the song ‘The Era is Near’. Workers and peasants work together to build a socialist motherland, leading to great material wealth. The most impressive point is that Soviet artists and architects such as El Lissitzky, Malevich, Tatlin, and Rochenko promoted the idea of ‘responding to Lenin, dedicating oneself to useful endeavors, expanding social contributions, and serving the Soviet government through art!’.
, the history of architectural changes during Khrushchev’s revisionist restoration period must be discussed. Before that, the socialist realism of the Stalinist era also needs to be mentioned.
