Aleksei Nikolaevich Dushkin. Architecture from the 1930-1950

The 100th anniversary exhibition

The Enfilade of the Main Building
April 07 - July 11, 2004

The work of Aleksei Nikolaevich Dushkin is an important phenomenon in the history of the Russian architecture of XX century. At the first sight, it had combined contradictory trends. The architect was an innovator and a seeker who knew excellently and used all the possibilities of the modern techniques. He asserted that architecture had to strive for a permanent modernisation, development and creation of new forms. Still he was searching for a modern architectural language simultaneously with the interpretation of the architectural heritage.

A.N. Dushkin stepped into the architecture rapidly. In one year after his graduation from the Kharkov Technological Institute he took part in the International competition to design the Palace of Soviets in Moscow and won the first prize (in collaboration with Ya.N. Doditsa). Moved to the capital, Dushkin worked at the workshop of the Moscow Soviet (Counsel) headed by I. A. Fomin, took part in work on various objects: the Palace of Radio, the House of the Soviet of Labour and Defense, the Academic Cinema, residential buildings, schools etc.

But the main theme of Dushkin's work - and his main achievement also - was the architecture of the metro stations. He gave to it the most fruitful and happy years of his life. During 1930s - 1950s he designed and built six underground stations and six above-ground vestibules. But if he had created only two of them - 'Mayakovskaya' and 'Kropotkinskaya' (the latter was realized in collaboration with Ya.G. Lichtenberg) - it would have been enough for him to take a prominent position in the history of architecture. In these works the clarity of the constructional and artistic concept is combined with the logic of creation of a tense architectural form. The chief point of these two buildings is a luminiferous image of their architecture. Dushkin used the light that didn't exist at the underground as a material means for creating space and form, as a main element of composition.

The theme of the above-ground transport facilities was also of the great importance at Dushkin's work. During a long period he had been a chief architect of the project institutes of the Ministry of communication lines, he restored, reconstructed and built tens of railway stations - in Dnepropetrovsk, Simferopol, Sochi etc. The terminals created by him had become symbolical 'gates' of a city, they had an important role in the urban design.

The architect worked also on the theme of a tower: from the early, unrealized project of the Palace of Radio at the Miusskaya Square (1933-1934, in collaboration with A.G. Mordvinov, K.I. Solomonov) to the high-rise building at the Krasniye Gates also in the Russian capital (1948-1952, in collaboration with B.S. Mezentsev).

The store 'Detskiy Mir' (Children's world) (1954-1957) plays an important town-planning role in the centre of Moscow. The monumental scale, major rhythm of arches, combination of large glass surfaces and laconic structure of the façade unite heterogeneous spaces of the Lubianka Square and the Teatralniy drive-way and reflect the spirit of innovation immanent to the majority of the architect's works.

The work of Dushkin-painter is also varied and original. He was successful in the field of monumental art. He gave a lot of his time and strength to the teaching - at the Moscow Architectural Institute and the project workshops.

Aleksei Nikolaevich Dushkin was in fact a creator of an absolutely new sphere of architecture - underground urbanism. But the main thing consists in the master's humane approach.

The deep inner culture, love towards music and nature had helped the architect to understand a specific psychology of a man who found himself deeply underground and to create harmonic spaces filled with light.

A. P. Kudriavtsev
President of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction sciences 
President of the Moscow Architectural Institute

When the Schusev State Museum of Architecture had begun the preparations of an exhibition dedicated to the centenary of Aleksei Nikolaevich Dushkin, I supposed that he was one of the most gifted architects of the Soviet era. This position of mine had been then just a private case of the general opinion. Ultimately, the stations 'Mayakovskaya' and 'Kropotkinskaya' of the Moscow Underground are known and loved all over the world.

But now, after one and a half of year I have come to know the work of A. N. Dushkin much better: by means of his patrimony from our museum's depository and a catalogue prepared for the exhibition - and I have understood that I had mistaken.

Each of the master's works contains something marvelously strong whose objective presence could not be determined rationally. This quality is a sign of the highest achievements of the human spirit. I think that our exhibition should disseminate this notion.

The duty of our museum is to preserve Russian architectural heritage in all its forms. Our exhibitional activity is also defined by this grand task: we should establish a system of historic and cultural coordinates, create in the society a right attitude towards its own architecture. I deem that a centennial monographic exhibition of works by A. N. Dushkin answers perfectly to an aim of our museum's very existence. And therefore I present it with pride to our contemporaries.

David Sarkisayan
Director of the Schusev State Museum of Architecture

Russian version

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