UTOPIC IDEAS IN RUSSIAN ARCHTECTURE IN CULTURAL ASPECT

Abstract

Utopia is one of the most stable archetypical cultural concepts because it reflects the mankind’s desire to improve their world, find a better way of social organization and return to the paradise lost. The idea of the “general welfare domain” had been present in myths and religions of different peoples long before the term “Utopia” appeared as such. Utopian ideals were extremely typical of the European culture due to its extroversion and the aspiration for a more rational existence. Utopia demonstrates a number of very typical features including commonality, special isolation, timelessness (absence of historical times), autarchy (self-sufficiency, independence from the outer world, etc. including the separation from people), urbanism, regimentation and globality. Since XVI-XVII centuries the image of an ideal society has shaped as a city on an island. As a city quite often looks like an ideally transformable space, architectural Utopia plays a very specific role: it personifies the social Utopia. City-planning interpretation of Thomas Moor’s ideas presented a big interest for his contemporaries. Later there were many projects of “ideal” cities that were developed by Italian Renaissance architects. The XVIII century was marked by the appearance of Utopian socialist philosophy. A part of its supporters used to think that metropolitan cities could make a sound foundation for the development of industrial civilization, others advocated the networks of small independent communities. In Russia the first belletristic Utopias appeared in the XVIII century. They continued West-European traditions and preserved all traits of a classical Utopia, however, they acquired national color. All of them pictured an ideal future society that was embodied in new city types. Russian architectural Utopias are closely connected with social processes that predetermined the development of European culture in general. National Utopian architecture had its prime time after the revolution when architects got opportunities to implement their bold ideas