The Museum of Fine Arts Building in the Space of Reconstructed Moscow in the 1930s: Ideas and Projects

Abstract

The article describes a little-studied plot in the history of the reconstruction of Moscow in the 1930s, such as the movement of especially valuable buildings using the example of the building of the State Museum of Fine Arts, built according to the design of R.I. Klein at the beginning of the twentieth century. Due to circumstances, the museum building remained on its historical site and has not undergone any changes, but the very history of attempts of this kind serves as a clear illustration of the ways in which the city was planned to transform in the late 1930s. Special attention is paid in the article to the idea of creating a "museum town", which was discussed at the turn of the 1920s - 1930s in connection with A.V. Shchusev's design of the new building of the Tretyakov Gallery on Volkhonka street next to the Museum of Fine Arts building. This idea was revived again in the late 1930s in connection with plans to move the museum building to Gogol Boulevard, caused by the need to organize a square around the Palace of Soviets. It was about uniting on one site the Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Oriental Cultures, New Western Art Museum, etc.