Moscow: from the first taxis to Olympic construction sites
Moscow, 3.04—4.06.2025
exhibition is over
Share with friends
Curators: Anna Zaitseva, Maria Lavrova
For the press
NAUM GRANOVSKY
Moscow: From the First Taxis to Olympic Construction Sites
Curators: Anna Zaitseva, Maria Lavrova
Selection of chronicles: Maria Lavrova, Olga Mikhalchuk
Editing of chronicles: Ilya Flyarkovsky
Texts for the photographs: Polina Baulina, Anastasia Kuvyrtalova, Svetlana Mezentseva, Elvira Ramazanova, Nikita Slinkin, Yulia Tikhomirova
Co-organiser: Lumiere Gallery
The Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow presents an exhibition by classic of Russian photography Naum Granovsky, dedicated to his 115th anniversary. Granovsky is one of the finest architectural photographers, and Moscow was always the focus of his attention. Granovsky’s photographs are unique evidence of how rapidly the architectural appearance of the capital changed from the mid-1920s to the 1980s, and with it the life of the city and the Muscovites. The exhibition also features rare newsreels of Moscow, showing life in the capital over the years: the work of market squares, cabbies and taxis, the opening of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (now VDNKh) and the Moscow Swimming Pool, the construction of new houses and districts, the advertising of Soviet hotels, shops, etc.
Naum Granovsky was born in 1910 in the city of Alexandria. He became interested in photography in his youth and took pictures with a Kodak camera given to him by his father. In 1926 Granovsky moved to Moscow, where he got a job as laboratory assistant in the newly opened Press Cliché workshop at the TASS agency. A year later he was hired as a photojournalist.
The 1920s marked a period of tectonic changes in the architectural appearance of Moscow and its way of life. In 1918 it received the status of capital city and became the centre of a cultural revolution. Utopian ideas of the new government about the ‘reforging’ of man and society were reflected in the architectural projects of avant-garde constructivist architects. In 1930 the Narkomfin House was built according to a design by Moisei Ginzburg as an experimental communal house for the ‘new way of life’ with shared kitchens, dining rooms and laundries, as well as a solarium on the roof. In just three years (1927-1930), Konstantin Melnikov, a genius of the Russian architectural avant-garde, built six workers’ clubs in Moscow – cultural and educational centres of a new type, including theatres, cinemas, libraries, etc. Among them are the Rusakov House of Culture and the Burevestnik Factory Club. From 1929 to 1936 the Centrosoyuz Building was under construction in Moscow, designed by the world-famous architect Le Corbusier.
At the same time, Moscow in the mid-1920s and early 1930s retained the features of a mercantile trading city with low-rise buildings and narrow, crooked streets crowded with people. During this period Naum Granovsky’s attention was drawn to the architectural monuments and spaces of old Moscow, such as the Strastnoy Monastery and the square of the same name, the famous Sukharev Tower and the adjacent market. They would soon be demolished or rebuilt beyond recognition as part of the total reconstruction of the city in the mid-1930s.
Granovsky’s early photographs show the evolution of the capital’s transport, which changed in line with the accelerating pace of life of Muscovites and the population growth. Slow horse-drawn trams and cabbies could not compete with trams, which by 1934 carried 2.6 million people daily. Tram traffic jams became a frequent occurrence on the city streets. In 1925 the Moscow authorities established the first state taxi service, and a dozen and a half Renault cars, purchased specifically for the taxi depot, began to ply the capital. By the mid-1930s there were already about five hundred of them. In 1933 the first trolleybuses also appeared.
In 1931 Naum Granovsky was appointed head of the mass printing shop at Soyuzfoto, the largest association responsible for the production of photo illustrations for Soviet and international printed publications. From 1934 he worked at the State Publishing House of Fine Arts (IZOGIZ). The fundamental task of IZOGIZ was to demonstrate the successes of the new Soviet state. Photographing grandiose construction sites and architectural views was considered one of the most important tools of visual propaganda, so the best photographers were involved in the task: Alexander Rodchenko, Mikhail Prekhner, Eleazar Langman, and others.
In the 1930s it was necessary to create a new official style of art and architecture in the developing Soviet state. The starting point for its formation was the 1932 decree ‘On the Restructuring of Literary and Artistic Organisations’, which declared socialist realism as the only style for all types of art, including architecture. Moscow became the most important platform in searches for the Grand Style.
One of the Soviet government’s most ambitious urban development projects was the General Plan of 1935 for the reconstruction of Moscow, which turned the capital into a gigantic construction site. With some adjustments it would remain in effect until the 1970s. The plan included the expansion of streets and squares, including Red Square and Manege Square, the creation of new types of parks, the construction of the Moscow-Volga Canal, bridges and the Metro, the construction of multi-storey residential buildings and the cyclopean Palace of Soviets on the site of the blown-up Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. This modernisation, which cost Moscow many unique historical monuments, including the Simonov Monastery, the Red Gate and Kitay-Gorod Wall, as well as dozens of churches and pre-revolutionary mansions, was supposed to reflect the ‘grandeur and beauty of the socialist era’. Most famous is the reconstruction of Gorky Street. The roadway was widened by almost 40 metres (when work began the old street was just 17.5 metres wide in some areas), and a few buildings were placed on rails and moved behind the new red lines along with their residents, but the vast majority of buildings were demolished. Implementation of the General Plan was interrupted by the Great Patriotic War.
During the war Naum Granovsky served as a photojournalist for the Trevoga (Alarm) newspaper, photographing on the front lines and in the rear, while also continuing to chronicle the life of the city and its defence. After the war he returned to TASS Photo Chronicle, where he worked almost until his death in 1984.
The post-war years were the heyday of the Grand Style or Stalinist Empire. Its apotheosis was the construction of seven (according to the original design, eight) high-rises. On 7 September 1947, the day of the 800th anniversary of Moscow, foundation stones were laid for the future buildings. Construction of the last high-rise, the Hotel Ukraina, was completed in a new era, in 1957.
In the mid-1950s there was an acute shortage of mass housing in the country, particularly in Moscow. Most of it consisted of communal apartments and wooden barracks, which, unlike Stalinist high-rises, lacked a sewer system and central heating. Housing reform implied a transition to standard flow construction and its reduction in cost. The decree ‘On the elimination of excesses in design and construction’ stated that “the externally ostentatious aspect of architecture <…> does not correspond to the Party line <…> Soviet architecture should be characterised by simplicity, rigour of forms and the cost-effectiveness of solutions”.
The new tasks were met by architectural modernism, interest in which was renewed on the wave of the Khrushchev Thaw. New micro-districts appeared in Moscow (Noviye Cheryomushki, Khoroshevo-Mnevniki, Khimki-Khovrino, etc.), with mass construction of five-storey buildings known as ‘khrushchyovkas’. Today these buildings are seen as wholly inadequate and many are subject to renovation, but in the second half of the 1950s to 1960s they were a style-forming phenomenon based on the legacy of Soviet modernism of the 1920s.
The iconic ensemble of Soviet modernism was the ‘exemplary’ Kalinin Avenue (now Novy Arbat). Its construction was conceived back in 1935 as part of the General Plan, but only realised in the 1960s. The design and building of the new thoroughfare (1962-1969) was implemented by a group of architects led by Mikhail Posokhin. The street with an abundance of shops, restaurants and modernist residential or administrative buildings was supposed to represent Moscow as an international city in line with global urban trends.
The 1980 Olympics gave a new impetus to changing the appearance of the capital. Active construction began soon after Moscow was chosen to host the Summer Olympic Games in 1974. In preparation for this event the Olympic Sports Complex, the Cosmos and Salut Hotels, the Central Tourist House, the Olympic Village with 18 residential panel houses for athletes from different countries, and other facilities were built.
Architectural photography is a very complex genre. It is both art and documentation, requiring impeccable technical skills. Moscow was often photographed by outstanding photographers, including representatives of Russian avant-garde photography such as Alexander Rodchenko, Boris Ignatovich, Georgy Petrusov and Dmitry Debabov. However, the peak of their work came in the 1920s and 1930s. Naum Granovsky worked until the mid-1980s and therefore had the opportunity to return to certain shooting points in different years.
The photographer carefully prepared for the shooting and devised the planned scenario in advance. It indicated the objects, time and shooting points. Granovsky took into account the position of the sun at different times of day and chose the right hour to achieve the desired light effect. Recognisable features of his style are the clearly constructed perspective, internal dynamics of composition and a high shooting point.
Naum Granovsky created photo chronicles of the architectural appearance of Moscow for more than half a century. This unique heritage allows us to trace how the same urban spaces have radically altered over time. Over the last 15 years the architectural appearance of Moscow and its social infrastructure have changed dramatically and dynamically. A new photo chronicler is required to capture these changes.
MAMM thanks the Lumiere Gallery and personally Natalia Grigorieva-Litvinskaya for the generous gift of 40 works by Naum Granovsky, which has expanded the museum’s collection.
Moscow: From the First Taxis to Olympic Construction Sites
Curators: Anna Zaitseva, Maria Lavrova
Selection of chronicles: Maria Lavrova, Olga Mikhalchuk
Editing of chronicles: Ilya Flyarkovsky
Texts for the photographs: Polina Baulina, Anastasia Kuvyrtalova, Svetlana Mezentseva, Elvira Ramazanova, Nikita Slinkin, Yulia Tikhomirova
Co-organiser: Lumiere Gallery
The Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow presents an exhibition by classic of Russian photography Naum Granovsky, dedicated to his 115th anniversary. Granovsky is one of the finest architectural photographers, and Moscow was always the focus of his attention. Granovsky’s photographs are unique evidence of how rapidly the architectural appearance of the capital changed from the mid-1920s to the 1980s, and with it the life of the city and the Muscovites. The exhibition also features rare newsreels of Moscow, showing life in the capital over the years: the work of market squares, cabbies and taxis, the opening of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (now VDNKh) and the Moscow Swimming Pool, the construction of new houses and districts, the advertising of Soviet hotels, shops, etc.
Naum Granovsky was born in 1910 in the city of Alexandria. He became interested in photography in his youth and took pictures with a Kodak camera given to him by his father. In 1926 Granovsky moved to Moscow, where he got a job as laboratory assistant in the newly opened Press Cliché workshop at the TASS agency. A year later he was hired as a photojournalist.
The 1920s marked a period of tectonic changes in the architectural appearance of Moscow and its way of life. In 1918 it received the status of capital city and became the centre of a cultural revolution. Utopian ideas of the new government about the ‘reforging’ of man and society were reflected in the architectural projects of avant-garde constructivist architects. In 1930 the Narkomfin House was built according to a design by Moisei Ginzburg as an experimental communal house for the ‘new way of life’ with shared kitchens, dining rooms and laundries, as well as a solarium on the roof. In just three years (1927-1930), Konstantin Melnikov, a genius of the Russian architectural avant-garde, built six workers’ clubs in Moscow – cultural and educational centres of a new type, including theatres, cinemas, libraries, etc. Among them are the Rusakov House of Culture and the Burevestnik Factory Club. From 1929 to 1936 the Centrosoyuz Building was under construction in Moscow, designed by the world-famous architect Le Corbusier.
At the same time, Moscow in the mid-1920s and early 1930s retained the features of a mercantile trading city with low-rise buildings and narrow, crooked streets crowded with people. During this period Naum Granovsky’s attention was drawn to the architectural monuments and spaces of old Moscow, such as the Strastnoy Monastery and the square of the same name, the famous Sukharev Tower and the adjacent market. They would soon be demolished or rebuilt beyond recognition as part of the total reconstruction of the city in the mid-1930s.
Granovsky’s early photographs show the evolution of the capital’s transport, which changed in line with the accelerating pace of life of Muscovites and the population growth. Slow horse-drawn trams and cabbies could not compete with trams, which by 1934 carried 2.6 million people daily. Tram traffic jams became a frequent occurrence on the city streets. In 1925 the Moscow authorities established the first state taxi service, and a dozen and a half Renault cars, purchased specifically for the taxi depot, began to ply the capital. By the mid-1930s there were already about five hundred of them. In 1933 the first trolleybuses also appeared.
In 1931 Naum Granovsky was appointed head of the mass printing shop at Soyuzfoto, the largest association responsible for the production of photo illustrations for Soviet and international printed publications. From 1934 he worked at the State Publishing House of Fine Arts (IZOGIZ). The fundamental task of IZOGIZ was to demonstrate the successes of the new Soviet state. Photographing grandiose construction sites and architectural views was considered one of the most important tools of visual propaganda, so the best photographers were involved in the task: Alexander Rodchenko, Mikhail Prekhner, Eleazar Langman, and others.
In the 1930s it was necessary to create a new official style of art and architecture in the developing Soviet state. The starting point for its formation was the 1932 decree ‘On the Restructuring of Literary and Artistic Organisations’, which declared socialist realism as the only style for all types of art, including architecture. Moscow became the most important platform in searches for the Grand Style.
One of the Soviet government’s most ambitious urban development projects was the General Plan of 1935 for the reconstruction of Moscow, which turned the capital into a gigantic construction site. With some adjustments it would remain in effect until the 1970s. The plan included the expansion of streets and squares, including Red Square and Manege Square, the creation of new types of parks, the construction of the Moscow-Volga Canal, bridges and the Metro, the construction of multi-storey residential buildings and the cyclopean Palace of Soviets on the site of the blown-up Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. This modernisation, which cost Moscow many unique historical monuments, including the Simonov Monastery, the Red Gate and Kitay-Gorod Wall, as well as dozens of churches and pre-revolutionary mansions, was supposed to reflect the ‘grandeur and beauty of the socialist era’. Most famous is the reconstruction of Gorky Street. The roadway was widened by almost 40 metres (when work began the old street was just 17.5 metres wide in some areas), and a few buildings were placed on rails and moved behind the new red lines along with their residents, but the vast majority of buildings were demolished. Implementation of the General Plan was interrupted by the Great Patriotic War.
During the war Naum Granovsky served as a photojournalist for the Trevoga (Alarm) newspaper, photographing on the front lines and in the rear, while also continuing to chronicle the life of the city and its defence. After the war he returned to TASS Photo Chronicle, where he worked almost until his death in 1984.
The post-war years were the heyday of the Grand Style or Stalinist Empire. Its apotheosis was the construction of seven (according to the original design, eight) high-rises. On 7 September 1947, the day of the 800th anniversary of Moscow, foundation stones were laid for the future buildings. Construction of the last high-rise, the Hotel Ukraina, was completed in a new era, in 1957.
In the mid-1950s there was an acute shortage of mass housing in the country, particularly in Moscow. Most of it consisted of communal apartments and wooden barracks, which, unlike Stalinist high-rises, lacked a sewer system and central heating. Housing reform implied a transition to standard flow construction and its reduction in cost. The decree ‘On the elimination of excesses in design and construction’ stated that “the externally ostentatious aspect of architecture <…> does not correspond to the Party line <…> Soviet architecture should be characterised by simplicity, rigour of forms and the cost-effectiveness of solutions”.
The new tasks were met by architectural modernism, interest in which was renewed on the wave of the Khrushchev Thaw. New micro-districts appeared in Moscow (Noviye Cheryomushki, Khoroshevo-Mnevniki, Khimki-Khovrino, etc.), with mass construction of five-storey buildings known as ‘khrushchyovkas’. Today these buildings are seen as wholly inadequate and many are subject to renovation, but in the second half of the 1950s to 1960s they were a style-forming phenomenon based on the legacy of Soviet modernism of the 1920s.
The iconic ensemble of Soviet modernism was the ‘exemplary’ Kalinin Avenue (now Novy Arbat). Its construction was conceived back in 1935 as part of the General Plan, but only realised in the 1960s. The design and building of the new thoroughfare (1962-1969) was implemented by a group of architects led by Mikhail Posokhin. The street with an abundance of shops, restaurants and modernist residential or administrative buildings was supposed to represent Moscow as an international city in line with global urban trends.
The 1980 Olympics gave a new impetus to changing the appearance of the capital. Active construction began soon after Moscow was chosen to host the Summer Olympic Games in 1974. In preparation for this event the Olympic Sports Complex, the Cosmos and Salut Hotels, the Central Tourist House, the Olympic Village with 18 residential panel houses for athletes from different countries, and other facilities were built.
Architectural photography is a very complex genre. It is both art and documentation, requiring impeccable technical skills. Moscow was often photographed by outstanding photographers, including representatives of Russian avant-garde photography such as Alexander Rodchenko, Boris Ignatovich, Georgy Petrusov and Dmitry Debabov. However, the peak of their work came in the 1920s and 1930s. Naum Granovsky worked until the mid-1980s and therefore had the opportunity to return to certain shooting points in different years.
The photographer carefully prepared for the shooting and devised the planned scenario in advance. It indicated the objects, time and shooting points. Granovsky took into account the position of the sun at different times of day and chose the right hour to achieve the desired light effect. Recognisable features of his style are the clearly constructed perspective, internal dynamics of composition and a high shooting point.
Naum Granovsky created photo chronicles of the architectural appearance of Moscow for more than half a century. This unique heritage allows us to trace how the same urban spaces have radically altered over time. Over the last 15 years the architectural appearance of Moscow and its social infrastructure have changed dramatically and dynamically. A new photo chronicler is required to capture these changes.
MAMM thanks the Lumiere Gallery and personally Natalia Grigorieva-Litvinskaya for the generous gift of 40 works by Naum Granovsky, which has expanded the museum’s collection.
