University of Virginia Library

5. L'ARCHITECTURE RUSSE EN U.R.S.S.

The summer 1930 issue of l'Architecture Vivante included an announcement
stating that the Fall and Winter fascicules would contain "the most complete
record available of contemporary Russian architecture." Both issues would be
available in December, and would include articles by Badovici and Le Cor-
busier. Like the double issue of Spring/Summer 1929 devoted to Le Corbusier
and Pierre Jeanneret, this special issue would not carry any additional cost to
subscribers, despite its higher price when offered as a separate publication. 40
Although produced simultaneously, in this instance the two fascicules were not
combined in a single cover, but as separate AUTOMNE and HIVER issues. The for-
mer included the complete front matter, all text and documentary drawings, a
table of contents covering bothissues, plus twenty-five plates; the latter contained
plates 26–50 and nothing else. The essay by Le Corbusier never materialized.

The special Russian-themed issue parallels the earlier Le Corbusier issue
in another aspect aswell: it too had been preceded by earlier fascicules on the
same subject-in this case the first halfof the Spring 1926 issue and the entirety
of the Winter 1928 issue. In repackaging the 1930 fascicules to join the growing
collection of extraits, Morancé avoided the out-of-sequence publication that had
occurred in the Corbusier series by publishing two volumes together, withthe
1926 and 1928 material together forming the first volume. Publication was in
early 1931, and the two volumes were initially offered only as a set. 41

The individual portfolio covers, possibly designed by Badovici, inaugurate
the design that would formthe basis of ten of the twenty-one extrait titles. A large,
hand-drawn, white L'AV fills the width of the yellow cover. Overlapping this, in a
curveless lettering reminiscent of De Stijl, in black and running vertically, is the
title: L'ARCHITECTURE RUSSE ENURSS. A black square in the lower right hand cor-
ner carries the publisher's name; below it a black rectangle and triangle form a
large arrow pointing back to the title. Below the arrow isthe volume number: IE
SÉRIE or 2E SÉRIE. The overall effect is that of a handmade version of Bauhaus
typography, the arrow particularly reminiscent of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy's work of
the 1920s. The rear cover is blank, except for the EAM lotus device.

The first of the two volumes is one of the few extraits that do not match the
contents of a single parent fascicule, and so constitutes a more original publication
than most (fig. 5.1, plate 6). The title page, as is typical, has been changed, and
reads L'ARCHITECTURE RUSSE EN U.R.S.S., and on the publisher's page opposite,
EXTRAIT DE L'ARCHITECTURE VIVANTE. There follow ten pages of text and draw-
ings, renumbered from the originals. The sole article,Le mouvement constructif russe,

is taken from the Spring 1926 issue; left out from that issue is Badovici's article
Entretiens sur l'Architecture Vivante, as well as both articles from the Winter 1928 is-
sue: André La Roque's À propos de l'art contemporain and Badovici's Le probléme de toit
plat. The five original pages of drawings which illustrate the Russian work of both
issues are carried over to the extrait, while drawings of an office building by Erich
Mendelsohn and illustrations for Badovici's article on the flat roof are removed.
The final two pages of the signature comprise the table of contents, which includes
a note explaining the sources of the plates to follow, which would otherwise seem
incomplete: plates 1–13 are from the Spring 1926 issue, followed by plates 26–50
from the Winter 1928 issue. The second volume, already set up as a complete
double issue, needed only a substitution of the front matter, with the new title, in
order to make the transition from quarterly review to stand-alone book (fig. 5.3).

In the Summer of 1933, another fascicule of the review was dedicated to Rus-
sian work, bringing the total to four and a half. This issue, with forty pages of text
and drawings, but only twenty plates, focuses on theaters, in particular the 1930
competition for a new Ukranian State Theater, won by the Vesnin brothers. This
issue, too, was republished in the same year, as the third volume of the l'Architecture
russe en URSS series. 42 It gained a new title, Salles et spectacles, but otherwise re-
mained unchanged in content. New front matter was printed, and the text and
plates were all renumbered to begin at one (fig. 5.6, plate 7). The cover for this
volume, as mentioned earlier, takes on a new form, with a diagonally placed pho-
tograph wrapping around to the rear cover, where the publisher's emblem has
now changed to the bull's-eye design, all on the same yellow background as the
first two. The lettering for both the series title and the title of this volume appear
orthogonally, justified right, in contrast to the dynamic form of the photograph.
The first two volumes of the series were reissued, either simultaneously or within
the next three years, with new covers matching the layout of the third volume. 43
On the covers of these, with no individual title, the series title regains prominence:
I'ARCHITECTURE RUSSE follows the diagonal of the photograph, while URSS
is enlarged and given more weight, balancing the bull's-eye emblem when the two
covers are seen as a single composition; the interior remains unchanged (figs. 5.2,
5.4). The second volume was also issued in a green cover (fig. 5.5). There is a final
variation with the third volume, where again the cover alone changes: the back-
ground is now blue, and the typographical elements are rearranged, with SALLES
ET SPECTACLES following the angle of the photograph, along with a new subtitle:
PROGRAMMES ET SOLUTIONS TECHNIQUES (fig. 5.7, plate 7). 44