Soviet Union at the World Exhibition in the USA

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The history of the World Exhibitions began in the middle of the 19th century. At first, at the Expo, states simply measured their industrial achievements, but by 1939 the futurological aspect came to the fore. Now the countries wanted not only to show what they had achieved, but also to present "teasers" of upcoming projects, as well as to predict the future - preferably the entire planet at once. The theme of the exhibition was formulated accordingly: "The world of tomorrow."

Socialist realism flourished in the USSR by that time. Art of the 1930s persistently showed the path to communism to Soviet citizens, and participation in the World Exhibition allowed demonstrating this yellow brick path to foreigners.

Soviet pavilion

The pavilion, which presented the current and future achievements of the USSR, was invented by Boris Iofan. In the late 1930s. he was perhaps the main Stalinist architect. He had already built the House of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (aka the House on the Embankment), the Soviet pavilion for the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris, and designed the Palace of the Soviets that never appeared.

The main facade of the Palace of Soviets. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Iofan's style is easily recognizable. In fact, his main projects - no matter how large-scale they were - served as pedestals for monumental sculptures. The Paris pavilion was crowned by the sculptural group of Vera Mukhina "Worker and Collective Farm Woman", at the Palace of Soviets there was supposed to be a 100-meter Lenin by Sergei Merkurov. At the same time, the pedestal buildings seemed to consist of allegorical steps, along which one could climb to the bright communist future.

Soviet pavilion in New York, 1939 Source: theatlantic.com

The exhibition pavilion in New York was not formally a pedestal, but in fact it encircled and visually complemented the obelisk with the sculpture "Worker with a Star". The pavilion was made in the shape of a horseshoe or a broken ring, in the center of which there was an open amphitheater, where one could watch a newsreel or just take a break. For the cladding of the building, marble was used.

Worker with a star

The sculptural worker made of stainless steel, who became the crown of the Soviet pavilion, held a ruby star in his raised hand - almost like Gorky's Danko. The 22-meter sculpture stood on a 54-meter porphyry obelisk. The author of the project was Vyacheslav Andreev, not the most famous Soviet sculptor (unlike, for example, his older brother Nikolai). In the competition, Andreev bypassed such masters of monumentalism as Mukhina and Merkurov.

Sculpture "Worker with a Star". Source: The New York Public Library

The image of the worker turned out to be a successful propaganda find. His images were replicated in booklets, posters and leaflets. Most often, printed products with a worker were exported. The most famous poster with the sculpture of Andreev was created by El Lissitzky.

It contains the words of Vyacheslav Molotov: “Look how peacefully our five-pointed Kremlin stars are burning. Their light shines far and confidently … In the event of a military attack on the Soviet Union, the attacker will experience both the power of our iron self-defense and the power of the light of Soviet ruby stars that shine far beyond the borders of our country. Molotov makes it clear that the ruby star is an ember from which the fire of the world revolution should flare up.

Lissitzky's poster. Source: etsy.com

After the completion of the exhibition (it lasted a year and a half, from April 30, 1939 to October 27, 1940), the sculpture was returned to the USSR along with the rest of the pavilion: it was planned to re-erect it on the site of the main entrance to the V. M. Gorky. However, the Soviet Union soon entered World War II, and this task ceased to be relevant. What happened to the sculpture is unknown. After the return transatlantic voyage, her tracks are lost.

Lenin and Stalin

At the end of 1939, Stalin turned 60. Even before that, his portraits were everywhere, and in the jubilee year there were even more images. This was reflected in the exteriors, interiors and exhibits of the Soviet pavilion. The propylaea were decorated with four-meter bas-reliefs of Lenin and Stalin, in one of the paintings presented, Stalin was depicted surrounded by Soviet children, and it was not without leaders in granite.

Let's start with the background. In 1937, in front of the entrance to the gateway No. 1 of the channel named after V. I. Moscow erected 25-meter monuments to Lenin and Stalin by Merkurov. The chiefs greeted the approaching ships from opposite shores. In 1961, Stalin was overthrown from the pedestal, and the granite Lenin still stands in its place and is even the second highest monument to Ilyich in the world.

Monuments to Lenin and Stalin on the channel them. Moscow. Source: totalarch.com

Reduced copies of these monuments (about 3.5 m) in 1939 went to New York. After returning to the Union, the leaders divided: a monument to Lenin was erected on Bessarabskaya Square in Kiev. In 2013, it was pushed off the pedestal and destroyed.

The monument to Stalin was a little more fortunate. The sculpture was transported to Izmailovsky Park in Moscow (then it bore the name of Stalin). After the cult of personality was debunked, the monument was removed, but in 1991 it was decided to install it in a new place - in the Muzeon art park. There you can see the work of Merkurov even today - albeit with a chipped nose and missing fragments of feet.

Noble people of the Land of the Soviets

Granite Lenin and Stalin stood at the exhibition for a reason: they framed the 17-meter panel "Noble People of the Land of the Soviets." The huge painting was painted by a team of artists under the leadership of Vasily Efanov in just a month and a half. The work went on around the clock, the craftsmen worked in the GUM building on Red Square.

Panel "Noble People of the Land of Soviets". Source: Pinterest

The panel depicts 60 people that the Soviet Union was proud of. Among them are pilots, polar explorers, labor shock workers, writers, artists, scientists and many others. The name emphasizes that in the USSR they became “noble” not by birthright, as in the Russian Empire, but by the totality of their achievements. Alas, now the panel can only be seen in photographs: it burned down during the Great Patriotic War.

Station "Mayakovskaya"

Monuments and bas-reliefs are great, but what about something even more impressive? For example, a life-size section of the Mayakovskaya metro station was presented at the World's Fair in New York. Of course, there was no way to show the entire station - this would require a second pavilion. But with the help of mirrors, architect Alexei Dushkin achieved the desired visual effect: the visitors seemed to find themselves inside a huge hall.

Compartment of the Mayakovskaya station at the exhibition. Source: Pinterest

Mayakovskaya, opened even before the exhibition, in 1938, became the world's first deep column-type station. The mosaic panels for the vault were created according to the sketches of Alexander Deineka. In New York, Dushkin's project was awarded the first prize.

Stalin and children

Especially for the World Exhibition, Vasily Svarog painted the painting “I. V. Stalin and members of the Politburo among children in the M. Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure . The plot is based on a semi-legendary case - as if in 1935 Stalin, Molotov, Kaganovich, Ordzhonikidze, Andreev and Yezhov were walking in the park, and they were surrounded by children.

The guys were, of course, cheerful, cheerful and smart, and the members of the Politburo were wise, kind and open to dialogue. After talking with the children, Stalin and company talked to the workers who were resting nearby. At least that's what they wrote in the Soviet newspapers.

Painting by Svarog. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Svarog made adjustments to the management team. Yezhov had to be removed for obvious reasons: in 1938.he was already in disgrace, by the beginning of the exhibition - under arrest. The deceased Ordzhonikidze was not on the canvas either. The vacant places on the canvas were taken by Kalinin and Voroshilov.

Crystal fountain

One of the main points of attraction in the Soviet pavilion was the crystal fountain. It was four meters of pure magic - it seemed to admiring visitors that the fountain had arrived not from across the ocean, but straight from a fairy-tale country.

Fountain in the Soviet pavilion. Source: konstantinovka.com.ua

Soviet technologists under the leadership of Fyodor Entelis achieved such grace and lightness effect with great difficulty. The work on the fountain took seven months - a very tight schedule for such a large-scale project. Crystal fragments - 77 pieces - were made at several factories. Among them is the Avtosteklo plant in the city of Konstantinovka, Donetsk region. The plant stopped working in 1996, but the coat of arms of Konstantinovka is still adorned with the image of that very crystal fountain.

Gem Map

Another famous exhibit of the Soviet pavilion is the mosaic panel "Industry of Socialism". This is a physical-geographical map of the USSR with a size of 5, 91 × 4, 5 m, created using the technique of the Florentine and Russian mosaics. The map, by the way, is not symbolic, but absolutely reliable.

The panel consists of more than 45 thousand plates of colored stone; the main industrial enterprises of the USSR are marked on it with jewelry stones. The frames, lettering and various lines are made of platinized silver (gilded). The mass of all this splendor is 3.5 tons. The map was developed by the mosaic artist Vladimir Frolov. The panel was collected by 150 people.

Panel "Industry of Socialism". Source: vsegei.ru

The map was not created specifically for New York City. The work began in May 1936, a year later the panel was presented at the World Exhibition in Paris. The success of the exhibit turned out to be overwhelming, so it was decided to repeat the tour of the Industry of Socialism.

After all the travels, the card was supposed to take pride of place in the main lobby of the Palace of Soviets. Now the panel is in the Central Scientific Research Geological Prospecting Museum. Academician F. N. Chernyshev.

Fragment of a panel. Source: vsegei.ru

During the World's Fair in New York, World War II broke out. For a long time, countries did not have time to demonstrate technical and cultural achievements and predict the image of the future. The next exhibition took place only in 1949-1950. in Port-au-Prince - the capital of Haiti.

Daria Paschenko