Star-topped Spires and Cardboard Heroes. Soviet Socialist Realism in Arhitectura R.P.R.
Star-topped Spires and Cardboard Heroes. Soviet Socialist Realism in Arhitectura R.P.R.

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the portrayal of Soviet Socialist Realism in Arhitectura R.P.R., and its effects on the development of Socialist Realist architecture in Romania. During the first three years of post-war publication, the numerous articles on the subject featured in Arhitectura amounted to a theoretical guide to the method of Socialist Realism (illustrated with recurring Soviet architecture models), meant to facilitate translation into local architectural language. But this call for the creative discursive exchanges needed to attune Socialist Realist principles and local cultural context elicited less critical engagement than expected, as suggested by the period’s theoretical works and architectural production. The portrayal of Socialist Realism in Arhitectura contributed to this outcome. In theory, Socialist Realism remained entrenched in ideology and political jargon, operating with terms relevant in a Russian cultural context (radiance, clarity, optimism), perpetuated in Romanian interpretations of key theoretical texts as conceptual abstractions with little formal implication. Practice, however, was ruled by economic and technical constraints, and hinged on deference to the Soviet architecture canon, despite Arhitectura’s promotion of Socialist Realism as method calling for conceptual and formal flexibility. This contrast (and distance) between theoretical permissiveness and the rigid framework of practice further destabilized the discourse of Socialist Realism in Romania.

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