On the History of the Organization of Design in the USSR: the Activities of the Architectural Workshop "Soyuztransproekt" of the People's Commissariat of Railways (1936–1951)

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the organization of departmental architectural designing in the second half of the 1930s –
early 1950s. It reconstructs the history of one of the largest design studios of the mid-twentieth century – the Architectural Studios
of the All-Union Project and Research Association, which was under the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat of Railways of
the USSR (NKPS) and known as Soyuztransproekt. The article is based on the archival documents from the Russian State Archive
of Economics and Russian State Archive of Literature and Art funds, which are being introduced into scientific circulation for the
first time, as well as memoirs of participants in the events. The author explores the legal framework that regulated the creation
and further work of the Studio. The names of its leaders, K.S. Alabyan, G.B. Barkhin and A.N. Dushkin, are not always associated
with transport infrastructure facilities (with the exception of the latter), so it is very important to highlight this page of their
activities. Although the Studio ceased to exist in 1951, its activities were sharply criticized in the famous resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Central Committee of the Communist party of the Soviet Union of 1955 “On the elimination of
excesses in designing and construction”, which cancelled, among other things, the architectural career of A.N. Dushkin.