A modo de conclusión: Relaciones entre el desarrollo bioló-

Throughout the 20th century in the Soviet Union a particular approach towards the understanding of the human condition was developed philosophically and deployed socially a particular

approach towards the understanding of the human condition. This approach assumed that the complexities of the body can be studied, understood and changed through a shallow

investigation and architectural intervention. Such an attitude fed into the development of

Marxism into its political manifestation: Communism. To understand this era I have relied mostly on secondary sources studying the research concerning this aspect of the doctrine in the Soviet field of influence. Those include research conducted by contemporary scholars such as Paperny, Chantal Mouffe, Ernesto Laclau and Zenovia Sochor. The presented scholars give a rich

multiplicity of information and interpretive analysis of sources giving a variety of examples of case studies from the Soviet Union that evidence in their arguments.

A valuable source of knowledge for this part of my investigation was the text which came to inspire Structuralist ideologies and the pragmatics of implementing a Communist economy in the Soviet empire. This was a publication by Friedrick Taylor entitled: Principles of Scientific

Management (1998), first published in 1911. Taylor thought of the human condition as being

care for self and a novel (for his era) approach towards spatial relationships of management. Catherine Cooke analyses Taylor’s theories in the Soviet context and in particular

Constructivism. Her writings include: Russian avant-garde: theories of art, architecture and

the city (1995), Fantasy and construction (1984), Architecture and revolution: contemporary perspectives on Central and Eastern Europe (1999), Architectural drawings of the Russian avant-garde (1990). Most literature on the Soviet Union revolves around the idea of creating

a new reality and a completely new human race, which Alexander Zinoviev refers to as: ‘homo-sovieticus’. Zinoviev’s book theorises the projection of one’s self as a Soviet citizen. His writing is a satirical piece aimed to ridicule the West. The phrase that he appropriates: ‘homo-sovieticus’ is in this thesis used to name the development of architectural thought in the Soviet Union in the 20th _century.

The problem of the individual in the social atmosphere of Communism was always a troubling issue. Laclau and Mouffe present an understanding of the relevance of the social aspect over Eastern Europe at the time of Communism (2001). Their book: Hegemony and Socialist Strategy is an excellent introduction to the atmosphere of the state of politics and its relationship with architecture and the body in the Soviet Union. Laclau and Mouffe reflect upon the belonging of the self to a collective, and the responsibility of a sovereign power to the individual. They also claim that the Soviet fascination with the body never reached beyond a conceptual theorisation as it remained an exterior force of social determination. The micropolitics relating to the body were controlled via quasi-scientific methods by an external, centralised organ. This was, they claim, the basis for Trotsky’s ‘eternal revolution’ mechanism that circulates power due to persisting divisions within the class system.

Foucault refers to architecture as being part of a regulating mechanism in several books and lectures, e.g. Discipline and Punish, the birth of the prison, first published in 1975 (1995) where he describes the regulating techniques in a prison, hospital, school and military camp; Security,

Territory, Population: Lectures at the College de France, 1977-1978 (2007) where he describes the

functioning of a Capitalist city; The birth of the clinic: an archaeology of medical perception (2003), where he describes the mechanisms of a hospital; Manet and the object of painting (2009), where he interprets strategies of manipulating spatial perception in Manet’s paintings; The

Order of Things: Archaeology of the Human Sciences (2002), where he discusses the importance

of enunciation in the formation of epistemological flows; and History of Madness (2009) where he explores the state of rejection from society and gaining ownership of one’s own self as a

sovereign. His most poignant writing on spatial qualities that reflect the circulation of power is his paper entitled ‘Of other spaces’ (1984), which outlines the space for subversions to the norm. Foucault’s theories of power relating to architecture are often used in the field of International Relations. His presence is also noted in research concerning architecture, conducted by scholars such as Eyal Weizman who writes on Israeli architecture, referring to the cities designed as

panoptic environments (2003). In Weizman’s interpretation, ‘panoptic space’ is one that is controlled by an overseeing authority that can literally look into the space it supervises. The politics and form of the cities in that part of the Middle East are similar to Soviet concepts. In

Hollow land: Israel's architecture of occupation (Ibid.) one of the architects of an urban project

claims to have taken inspiration from Soviet interventions and the five year plan.

Foucault’s theories are often used to describe power structures. An example of this practice is an article written by Hazem Ziada in the essay ‘Undulating grounds, undisciplined bodies: the Soviet Rationalists and Kineasthesia of revolutionary crowds’ published in the volume 4 of the The Journal of Architecture of 2013 as well as other journals and books published more recently to describe the post-World War situation in Europe. Ziada, like many other scholars, notices a relationship between Soviet architecture and art and the way it was controlled. He picks up on the way theatrical sets (in particular those in Meyerhold’s plays) are designed, and relates ideas of controlling the body of the actors to transform them into character, to actualized architectural projects. Through this, Ziada claims that architecture was supposed to change people’s identities to become new Soviet citizens.

Foucault’s theories were also utilized by James C. Scott in ‘Domination and the art of resistance’ (1990) where Foucault’s theory is used to describe the isolation of the individual in a hegemonised situation. He later goes as far as to describe a specific example from Poland from ‘before 1956’ (Political Thaw) where the workers of a factory sought spaces that were away from the invigilation of their supervisors to unravel the ‘hidden transcripts’, they detached themselves from the power structure.

Vladimir Paperny is an architectural historian and in his book: Architecture in the age of Stalin:

Culture Two (2002) he presents the situation of the Soviet power structures and conceptualises the

patterns that he found into two consecutive periods. He called the first: ‘Culture One’ (based on equality) and the one that followed: ‘Culture Two’ (based on a strong hierarchy and

reductionism). He draws out the hierarchical relationships that composed ‘Culture Two’ and juxtaposes them with the expressive and experimental nature of ‘Culture One’. Paperny, having Russian ancestry, understands the subtleties of the language used at the time of ‘Culture Two’. His research is a combination of analysis of prime sources, written texts, his own interpretations and experience of living in Russia. His theory is that the practice of architecture in the Soviet Union was inherently political due to the vast centralisation of the government and everyday life. The control over the architectural practice, according to him, was possible thanks to the ‘Union of Soviet Architects’ (SSA) which regulated the design directives in the country. The most vivid example is in his thorough analysis of the unbuilt project of the ‘Palace of the Soviets’, which inspired a twin in Poland called ‘Stalin’s tower’.

Other key texts include the comprehensive history of Russian architecture presented by James Cracraft and Daniel Rowland in their book Architectures of Russian identity (2003)

which is a relational presentation of the changes in general trends in architecture that followed the social changes in Russia; Dimitry Shvidkovsky who writes on the relationship of

Russian architecture and the West (2007); Irina Chepkunova (1989) who provides a

description of housing strategies after the Russian revolution.

A focused approach to the materiality of Soviet architecture is presented by Adrian Forty, who writes a chapter on the significance of concrete in the philosophy of Nikita Khrushchev in

Concrete and Culture: A Material History (2012), examining architecture and the way the qualities

of the material shaped its place in the profession.

As suggested by Paperny, a new wave of scholars started to emerge after the fall of the Berlin Wall, with studies focusing on the scientific principles that the SSA adopted and enforced in architecture in the Soviet Union. Examples include Sochor who writes on Aleksej Gastev and his role in developing Soviet Taylorism (1981); McLeod who concentrates on the architectural side of that managerial practice (1983); and Maier who determined it as one of the mechanisms of oppressive power (1970). Another source of information about the Soviet field of influence are essays written by Vaclav Havel on the situation of Communism in

Czechoslovakia, in which he refers to the Soviet hegemony as ‘living in a lie’ (1990). These are not specifically related to architecture but present the nature of Communism in Eastern Europe.

1.6.4 Poland

To draw conclusions about the extent of the influence of the Soviet hegemony in Poland, I used a combination of primary and secondary sources. There is a distinct lack of direct statements explaining the relationship between Poland and the East, however all scholars seem to be explicit about the Soviet presence. It might be said that this part of history is far too recent to be

objectively analysed and the reluctance of Russia to grant access to evidence of the Soviet history in Eastern Europe opens the field to further deliberation.

A helpful conceptualisation that is useful in describing the history of Poland is presented by Deleuze and Guattari in their book A Thousand Plateaus (2004). The book describes a key theory of diverging attention from normally understood hierarchies and provides a definition of

rhizomatism that is a non-normative structure of operating. The theory has been elaborated by Woods et al. (2013).

Jan Behrends and Marin Kohlrausch wrote a book: Races to Modernity: Metropolitan Aspirations

in Eastern Europe, 1890-1940 (2014) in which they discuss the late urbanisation of Eastern Europe

and the development of cities including Warsaw. Their argument implies that a high level of involvement from the government was prevalent however the civil societies in Eastern Europe were at the time weak. Anne Applebaum in her book Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe

1944-1956 (2012) writes on the situation on the continent under the Soviet hegemony, gathering a

multiplicity of sources (ranging from interviews to archival sources) from Eastern Europe. The book is somewhat one-sided as the material presented and the questions she asks seem to be implying an outcome of the thesis, but her argument is overall convincing and supported by vivid

evidence. An example of this is her fascination with the ‘National Archive of Memory’ in Poland which almost exclusively holds information on collaborators with the Soviet regime. She describes how the philosophy was to change people into Soviet subjects and how that was to be policed. Her understanding of the situation is that of an unprecedented attempt to destroy past habits and build a new Communist world. Her argument is supported by ‘Between East and West: Geographic Metaphors of Identity in Poland’ (2004) written by Marysia Galbraith who suggests that even simple architectural changes in the country were seen as dissent.

The key research material, which provided most information for analysing the Polish culture, was a journal published in the country in the inter-War period called: Architektura i Budownictwo

(Architecture and Construction). The journal narrates the evolution of the profession after the First World War and includes such architects and researchers from all over Poland as Edgar Norwerth, Lech Niemojewski, as well as Dr A. Hoening and other contributors.

The specificity of leisure spaces seems to be a reoccurring theme that is consistent across the Satellite states, as mentioned by Jacek Salwiński and Leszek Sibila in their book Nowa Huta;

przeszłość i wizja (Nowa Huta; past and vision), Maria Wąchała-Skindzier in PRL mieszka w nas? Kultura czasu wolnego (Communism lives in us? The Culture of free time), and Teatr w Nowej Hucie (Theatre in Nowa Huta) (Baran (ed.) 2013).

Tyrmand’s text presents accusations about the Communist leadership that include allegations of corruption and neglect. The atmosphere of post Second World War Poland is described in Tyrmand’s novel Zly (Evil) (2001), in which gangs and social disorder spread amongst destroyed cities and the firewalls which were the leftovers of demolished buildings. This is secondary source material that describes the situation just before Communism was formally announced in Poland. This was the state of the nation that the Soviet determinism changed. I am arguing that the situation described by Tyrmand resonates with the construct of the self, defined by Giorgio Agamben in Homo-sacer; Sovereign power and bare life (1998) and State of exception (2005), in which the author discusses the notion of exception from the rule of law. Tyrmand’s writing as well as Cywilizacja Komunizmu (Civilisation of Communism) (2013) was influential for this thesis. A valuable source of information about the situation in Poland at the time is art. One of the productions I investigated is the film: ‘Czlowiek z Zelaza’ (1981) by Andrzej Wajda in which there are a number of clips from archival material in Poland concerning interviews with people during strikes in 1980. The people present sentiments about the repression they were experiencing. The film is an exploration of the difficult situation of possible surveillance that the Polish people were subjected to. Films which provide fictional stories that explore the character of Polish Communism

include: Reverse (2009) that discusses the life of a common Warsaw citizen after the Second World War and her struggles with the policing strategies at the time; Dom Zły(2009) which discusses a situation of a rural dwelling in Communism. These, in spite of being fictional stories present the difference between the regulation of the urban and rural situation of Communist Poland typical of Soviet philosophy as argued by Stephen Kotkin (2001).

Another example of prime source material drawn upon herein is an article: ‘Zeznania byłego esbeka - minuta po minucie’ (2006), which gives the minutes from a trial where a former communist collaborator explains his reasoning behind the acts he has committed. This article paints an image of the relationship between the public and the private from the point of the view of the government. The minutes also show the other side of the argument. Following this track the book: GejErEl: Mniejszości sexualne PRLu (2012) presents interviews of people engaged in an operation organised by the Communist Police and the Secret Collaborators entitled ‘Hyacinth’ which show the hegemonic oppression from the point of view of individuals who agreed to contribute to the book with interviews. The author’s research is expanded by literary sources, films and published articles as well as archival research into the ‘Institute of National Memory’ in Poland. The institute holds information on former secret collaborators with the Communists. Those sources are particularly emotional and personal in nature.

Mark Dorrian presented his interpretation of Post-Communist Polish architecture in ‘Warszawa: projects for the post-socialist city’ (2009) and the Journal of Architecture February 2010. He analysed the architecture of Warsaw and draws parallels between Soviet architecture and the attitude towards it in Russia and Poland. He also analysed the situation of architecture after Communism. One step further is taken in October’s issue of the RIBA journal from 2013 where the contributors write on the state of architecture for leisure after the Second World War. the journal indicates that the approach to leisure on both sides of the Iron Curtain was similar. Grzegorz Piatek and Jaroslaw Trybus suggest a methodology of approach in their book Lukier i mieso;Wokół architektury w Polsce po 1989 roku (2015). Their approach seems to resonate with the

architectural language diverged into residential, municipal and industrial typologies. Trybus additionally wrote on the unbuilt buildings in Warsaw post 1930 in Warszawa niezaistniala (2012) which show the diversity of the architectural approaches in the capital.

A researcher who engages with the past and present of Polish cities is Michał Murawski, who investigates the impact of Socialist architectural strategies on the contemporary landscape. His writing includes: ‘Big affects; Size, sex and Stalinist ‘Architectural Power’ in Polst-Socialist

Warsaw’(2016) and ‘Placeology, or Place-as-Methodology: Ethnographic Conceptualism, Total Urbanism, and a Stalinist Skyscraper in Warsaw’ (2013). Those papers provide an insightful

evaluation of Warsaw’s Stalinist legacy in the form of Stalin’s Tower. His other writing such as ‘Crystallising the social condenser’ (2017) discuss strategies of Socialist city planning which influenced Polish design strategies. Marta Leśniakowska provides an image of Warsaw emerging

from the post-Second World War ashes in a new, Communist form that engaged subversive tendencies of modernists in Architektura w Warszawie. Lata 1945 -1965 (2003).