Hi Folks,
Last post from Volgograd focuses entirely on the Battle of Stalingrad museum and panorama. Not only is it another very powerful and moving testament to the war-time experience of the Soviet Union in battle, it's also another example of stunning - or at least interesting - late-Soviet design. The museum could stand to be reorganized before 2018 World Cup. It has the sort of layout, hodgepodge of facts, figures, and maps that left this Russian-speaking Soviet historian scratching his head, saying, "so, what happened at Stalingrad again?" The battle is a perfect and dramatic narrative, and the museum should take the visitor through the narrative in a chronological march, in my opinion. Also striking for me were the arrangements of artifacts against red curtains and back lit in a way that lent them a semi-religious significance.
The museum is located on the ground floor and the top floor is an airy cylinder topped with a panorama. The panorama is a nice, military panorama that is quite fitting since it depicts the view from the top of the Mamaev-Kurgan hill, naturally with a 360 degree view. In addition to the pinched cylindrical shape, the lobbies, bathrooms, and cafe of the museum were all done in a spacious, late-Soviet modernist style, creating some intriguing spaces, and clearly with an unlimited budget for marble. As I did for the memorial hill complex, let me now take a moment to salute the architect, Vadim Efimovich Masliaev, who completed the museum in 1982. (If you aren't familiar with the book "CCCP: Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed," check out the link: http://www.rferl.org/soundslide/1118.html ). I'm not sure if this museum makes it into the final book, but it probably deserves to.
Apparently the city planners of Stalingrad/Volgograd were faced with the decision of what to do with the ruins of the city when faced with the task of post-war rebuilding. Some wanted to leave the whole city center in ruined testament to the catastrophe, others wanted to retain only a ruined district. In the end, the choice was made to preserve only a few key buildings and to move forward proudly, confidently, and pragmatically like good Soviets. The ruined brick building below is one of the few structures preserved in place. It's a mill whose significance I fail to remember. The contrast between the cylinder of the panorama and its ruined brick is striking.
And with that, we bid adieu to Volgograd, until next time.
- museum at left; mill at right.
- bathroom lobby
- museum cafe
- former smoking area, next to the bathrooms.
- the panorama
- poster reading: "battle menu for the enemy, every day....starts with Russian hospitality and hors d'oeuvres.....then a little soup: navy-style borscht and okroshka.....for the second course: Cossack chops and Caucasians kebabs....and for dessert: fool" ("kisel'" in Russian is apparently "fool," but perhaps my Russian friends can explain this last bit).
- the battle was serious business, but that doesn't mean you can't poke fun at the enemies.
- with Soviet generals - iconastisis-like - in the background.
- Stalingrad was Hitler's....Stalingrad.
VDNKh, the Exhibition for the Achievements of the National Economy, opened in 1935 to be a sort of permanent Soviet state fair, where the state could show off the latest and greatest in agriculture, technology, physical culture and other spheres of Soviet achievement. In addition to pavilions for each major industry (including my favorites - meat and space), there are pavilions for each national republic and many autonomous regions, each intended to reflect the national architectural traditions of republics even when they did not have national architectural traditions to speak of, such as Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
