SOVIET WORKER’S CLUBS
THE MANIFESTATION OF CARING ARCHITECTURE THROUGH PUBLIC SPACE
NO.12
GABRIELA ROBLES-MUNOZ
DATUM
60
Soviet worker’s clubs, gathering spaces for the working class and their families, were a unique class of building pioneered by Soviet modernist architects in the 1920’s and 30’s. The worker’s clubs (mainly centered in and around Moscow) served as flexible community spaces that provided resources for Russia’s working class to rest and enjoy leisurely activities. They were also a part of a larger mission to create a more unified culture within the Marxist society of Soviet Russia by striking down Bolshevik propaganda. However, the means of doing so was left open to interpretation, thus creating a diverse group of structures scattered across Moscow. Architects of each club were free to explore form and function as they saw fit; the interpretation of leisure as it related to the surrounding community the clubs would serve was freely decided by the designers. This freedom created what some people deem to be among the most important structures to reference when discussing the evolution of Soviet architecture; The ability of the architectural avant-garde to be made available to the masses fostered a design climate that was truly unique. Each club was completely different from the next. Some clubs explored principles of modernism and its offshoots; they sowed seeds of
ideas from Konstantin Melnikov’s experiments in modulation that were consistent though never stale. Others observed El Lissitzky’s prominent contributions to the Constructivist movement and its applications to modernist architecture, and yet others fit more clearly into the mold of the brutalist scheme that many consider to be the calling card of Soviet architectural design. Separate from the discussion of the significance of worker’s clubs to the development of an architectural identity that was unique to Soviet Russia, there remains the topic of the clubs themselves: How did they function? What was their goal? Ultimately, the answer to these questions depends on who you ask. El Lissitzky argues that the worker’s clubs intended to liberate the community from the oppression of the church and state. This thought holds validity, as the clubs served as a free space for people to gather and spend free time watching theatre, playing games, reading, etc.; a space where they could forget responsibilities that they owed their government. In contrast to Lissitzky, Marxist theorist (and founder of the subsequent Trotskyism) Leon Trotsky referred to worker’s clubs as institutions for the “culturalization of the masses”; factories of propaganda
