Petersburg architecture of the 20th century

Since the start of the 20 century the architects tried to preserve the architectural traditions of the last centuries and develop the art integrity of the city planning. The most fruitful solutions were offered by the architects V.A.Shchuko and L.N.Benois (living houses at Kamennoostrovsky avenue) in neoclassical style (renaissance, palladians). At the same time the architects turned to the architecture of Peter the Great 's times ( the City College of Peter the Great, the Hospital named after Peter the Great - Mechnikov's Hospital today). The interest to the ancient Russian architecture was revived and its tendencies could be seen in the architecture of Suvorov's Museum.

The years of the Civil War,economical ruins and fuel crisis inflicted the great loss on the urban economy and living houses. But the works on the city planning and development in the future were not stopped during these years. In 1919 on the base of Petrograd Soviet People's Economy the architectural workshop - "Bureau on the City Planning supervising" was organised. During 1919-1921 it was headed by I.A.Fomin and made the projects of re-planning for the workers parts of the city: Vyborgsky, Narvsky, Vassileostrovsky, Petrogradsky and designed the project of reconstruction for Bolshoy avenue of Vassilievsky Island. In 1920 I.A.Fomin designed the project for the reconstruction of the Field of Mars, executed in 1920-1926 . In the middle of the 20-s the reconstruction of the workers outskirts began, the living quarters at Stachek (Strike) avenue were built (1925-1927, architects A.S.Nikolsky, A.I.Gegello), the part of Tkachei (Weavers) street was reconstructed ( 20-s , architect D.P.Buryshkin, S.O.Ovsyannikov). The typical characteristic features are: the integrity of the composition, the simplicity and convenience of planning.The consumer services were built at the same time with the living houses construction. In the same period the construction of the large public buildings was started: The Palace of Culture and Technique named after I.I.Gas ( 1930-1935, architects A.I.Gegello, D.L.Krichevsky) , The Palace of Culture named after Maxim Gorky (constructivism, 1925-1927, architects A.I.Gegello, A.I.Dmitriyev , D.L.Krichevsky).

There were the great changes in the start of 1930-s in the architectural and art trends of the new construction of living houses and public buildings. After the Decreee of the Central Committee of the Communist (bolsheviks) Party of All Russia from April 23, 1932 about the changes in literary and art organizations the great turning took place in the architecture development. it was the way of constructivism ideas cancellation and new techniques use. On August 10, 1935 the Central Committee of the Communist (bolsheviks) Party of All Russia adopted the Resolution about the Principles on the City Planning Project and defined the direction of the city development to the East, South-East, South and South-West, to the convenient, non-flooded regions. Since 1935-1936 the massive construction of the living houses and consumer services was started in the outskirts of Leningrad, namely - in the regions of Stachek (Strike) avenue, in Avtovo, Moskovsky avenue, Shemilovka, Malaya (Small) Okhta. The complexes with all the modren facilities and greenery were constructed there.

During the years of the World War II the city and its monuments had suffered much from Nazi bombing and artillery fire. 3300 thousand m2 of the living space were totally destroyed and probably 2200 thousand m2 - severely damaged, probably the every building suffered. More than 500 thousands of Leningraders stayed without the roof above their heads.The wooden houses were mostly destroyed: many - with the fires, the remaining - were taken apart and used as the firewood and for fortifications making. As the result the appearance of the outskirts of Nevsky, Moskovsky, Kirovsky districts, Staraya and Novaya Derevnya, Lesnoye and Bolshaya Okhta was totally changed. The engineering system of Leningrad was partly destroyed. The bombing and artillery fire totally destroyed 3174 and severely damaged 7143 buildings, including the number of the magnificent monuments of Russian and world architecture, industrial enterprises, scientifical institutions, museums, clubs, hospitals and other buildings. Many famous buildings and architectural monuments had suffered much: the Admiralty, the Hermitage, The Kazan Cathedral, the Russian Museum, tre former Senate and Synod, the Academy of Sciences, the Mining Institute, the Engineer's Castle , Smolny Monastery, Yelagin Palace and other buildings. Many palaces-museums and historical parks were damaged and destroyed in the suburbs of Leningrad.

The reconstruction works, started during the War, were developed after it. Many thousands of leningraders worked on the voluntary basis on the living houses reconstruction. During 1944-1945 1568 thousand m2 of the living space was reconstructed. The reconstruction was mainly completed by 1948 and totally ended by 1950 . After the end of the war the new construction works began. In 1959-1961 the new projects ( architect Kamensky, Naumov) on the increase of living houses and cultural objects construction was elaborated ( introducing typical projects). The widely opened square near the Finland Railway Station was constructed, Primorsky Victory Park was designed on Krestovsky Island, Moskovsky Victory Park was designed instead of the former wasteland. During 50-60-s many large public constructions were designed.The great attention was drawn to the problems of the functional, technical and economical tasks in combination with the compositional solution and new materials use by means of the monumental and decorative art, the best examples of this type of modern construction are : the Big Concert Hall "Oktyabrsky", Sports Palace "Yubileiny", the complex of TV-center (1962 , architect Speransky and others.) In the 60-s the construction of the memorial ensembles on Piskarevskoye and Serafimovskoye Cemetries was completed. The large public constructions of the 70-80s with the interesting compositional solutions and expressive forms are organically combined with the existing ensembles or subjugate the existing buildings.The network of the cultural buildings is still expanded : the Palace of Youth , Sports-Concerts Complex, The Palace of Sports Games "Zenit" (1974-1976, architect V.S.Maslov).

The Victory Square with the Monument to Heroic Leningrad Defenders in the center is organically included into the ensemble of Moskovsky avenue. Among the multiple monuments of the last decade the most significant are: the "Nevsky Memorial" on the right bank of the Neva river (architects Goldgor, A.V.Allannais, A.P.Izotov, sculptor L.G.Mogilevsky) and the obelisk "To the City-Hero Leningrad" on the Uprising Square.