FEATURES OF ART NOVELTIES AND ECLECTICISM IN THE ARCHITECTURE OF SOVIET BELARUS IN THE 1920s

Abstract

The article examines the development of formative features of the Belarusian architecture of the first years of Soviet power. It is determined that along with single avant-garde buildings in the 1920s, there were a significant number of Art Nouveau and eclectic buildings. A. Voinov, A. Shamruk and other researchers did not refer to this empirical material, creating a limited understanding of the predestination of processes in architecture by events of political history. Based on special research by domestic and foreign theorists (A. Lakotka, A. Ikonnikov, E. Kirichenko, V. Vlasov), the author of this article has formed a model of eclectic and modern styles. It is proposed to use the term "eclecticism" to describe buildings in which it is impossible to note the obvious features of Art Nouveau or academic classicism. At the same time, "Modern" is considered as a style initially focused on creating a fundamentally new, modern formal language designed to mark a new stage in the development of architecture. A specific feature of the Soviet avant-garde, which replaced modernity, is shown – the doctrinal rejection of all kinds of adornment, i. e. from traditional decorative elements, which was compensated by the use of relevant materials and technical solutions at that time. The features of Art Nouveau are noted in a wide range of buildings: from unique representative to ordinary buildings. It is emphasized that the limited development of eclecticism was facilitated by the conventional perception of this trend as bourgeois. When creating eclectic images, the architects turned to earlier construction experience, to folk tradition, which was most successfully embodied in wooden architecture. The few remaining buildings dating back to the first years of Soviet rule require further study, protection and careful reconstruction.