The architecture of discipline and mobilisation: a contribution to an interpretation of the neo-classicism of the Stalinist era

Abstract

During the interwar period, Czechoslovakia was virtually the promised land of modern architecture. Its promising development was interrupted by the Second World War and the subsequent communist coup of 1948. In the straitened circumstances of a Soviet satellite state, where there were no private architectural studios or private clientele, every aspect of society was subject to strict ideological supervision. The author of this article attempted to prove that the ostentation of military uniforms and totalitarian architecture may have something more in common than a historical context. Undoubtedly, the common denominator of both phenomena is their political function – the expressly formulated task of educating the broad masses. In an intellectual system wherein “struggle” was synonymous with “progress”, the entire culture was based on militancy.