Architecture and Ideology in Eastern Europe During the Stalin Era: An Aspect of Cold-War History

Western critics usually dismiss the architecture of the Stalin-era Soviet bloc, executed in the style known as socialist realism, as aesthetic totalitarianism or as embarrassing anachronisms. Aman, an art professor in Sweden, argues rather that socialist realist architects of East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria drew on their respective national traditions to create hybrid forms that often differed markedly from Soviet architecture. Decked out with 253 illustrations, this illuminating study focuses on such projects as Bucharest's enormous, Byzantine-arched Casa Scinteii and Warsaw's Palace of Culture, which many Poles despise as a symbol of Soviet domination. Aman profiles architects who strove for originality despite government restrictions. He draws interesting parallels between Soviet-bloc architecture and socialist realist paintings, which adhered to a hierarchy of subjects and themes. (Oct.)