The Leningrad Avant-Garde and Its Legacy

This article describes the belated flowering of the Constructivist avant-garde in Leningrad, where classical architecture remained the dominant style for almost a decade after the October Revolution. Kirikov analyzes the ties of Leningrad architects to Constructivist leaders in Moscow, and summarizes the careers of the key figures of the Leningrad school, among them Lazar Khidekel, Alexander Nikolsky, Grigory Simonov, and Noi Trotsky. Kirikov argues that the appreciation for the constructed works of the Leningrad avant-garde has lagged behind the reappraisal of the rest of Soviet modernism, and that even a much-needed campaign to landmark threatened structures might not result in their acceptance in the generally conservative architectural environment of twenty-first-century Saint Petersburg.