The Vesnin brothers: Leonid Vesnin (1880–1933), Viktor Vesnin (1882–1950) and Alexander Vesnin (1883–1959) were the leaders of Constructivist architecture, the dominant architectural school of the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s. Exact estimation of each brother's individual input to their collaborative works remains a matter of dispute and conjecture; nevertheless, historians noted the leading role of Alexander Vesnin in the early constructivist drafts by the Vesnin brothers between 1923 and 1925. Alexander also had the most prominent career outside of architecture, as a stage designer and abstract painter.
The brothers’ earliest collaboration in architecture dates back to 1906; their first tangible building was completed in 1910. Between 1910 and 1916 the Moscow-based family firm designed and built a small number of public and private buildings in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod, stylistically leaning towards neoclassicism. During the Russian Civil War Leonid and Victor concentrated on industrial projects and teaching while Alexander had a successful solo career as theatre stage designer.
In 1922 the three brothers reunited, embraced avant-garde concepts and developed their own vision of modern architecture that emphasized functionality of buildings and modern construction technology. The Vesnin brothers won professional leadership through winning architectural contests of 1922–1925, and activities and publications of the OSA Group chaired by Alexander Vesnin. When the economy recovered from post-war depression, they were rewarded with high-profile real construction projects like the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station and Likhachev Palace of Culture in Moscow.
The death of Leonid Vesnin in 1933 coincided with the government's crackdown on independent art unions and modernist architecture. Victor continued a successful if unremarkable career in industrial architecture and administration of the Union of Soviet Architects, becoming the first President of the Soviet Academy of Architecture (1939–1949). Alexander failed to adjust to the rise of official Stalinist architecture and quietly withdrew from public professional activities.
Family and education (1880s–1905)
Alexander Alexandrovich Vesnin, father of the Vesnin brothers, came from a Nizhny Novgorod merchant family. Shortly after marriage he relocated to his wife's home town Yuryevets on the Volga River where he established a distillery. The business ran successfully until the 1905 Russian Revolution; the Vesnins were wealthy enough to provide high school and graduate level education to all their children. The historical Vesnin House in Yuryevets became the Vesnin brothers museum in 1986.
Three sons: Leonid (born 1880), Victor (born 1882) and Alexander (born 1883) received basic home schooling and demonstrated talent in drawing since early childhood. At the age of 10 – 12 years their father sent them to a boarding school at the Academy of Commerce in Moscow where they perfected their drawing skills in the class of M. V. Mamistov.
Leonid, the older brother, enrolled at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg in 1900. The father hoped that at least one of his sons would continue the family business, or at least obtain a business-like profession, and insisted that Victor and Alexander chose a different college, the Institute of Civil Engineers (also in Saint Petersburg). Architectural training at the Institute was clearly subordinate to engineering courses and practical construction training. Difference in age and training caused stylistic differences between Leonid and his junior brothers, at least in the early stages of their professional work. Leonid embraced Art Nouveau, which flourished from 1900–1905, Alexander and Victor leaned towards the Russian neoclassical revival that emerged around 1902 and gained widespread recognition after 1905.
The Vesnin family business was ruined by the 1905 revolution; from now on the brothers had to earn their own living and support two sisters and father (their mother died in 1901 giving birth to Anna Vesnina). Alexander and Victor dropped out of the Institute and moved to Moscow where they worked for architectural firms of Roman Klein, Illarion Ivanov-Schitz, Boris Velikovsky and other architects, building a reputation for their energy and dependability. Leonid stayed in Saint Petersburg and graduated from the class of Leon Benois in 1909.
Early architecture (1906–1916)
In 1906 the brothers created their first public architectural draft – a neoclassical competition entry for the tram terminal at Strastnaya Square. The second, a 1908 draft for a church in Balakovo by Alexander and Victor, combined elements of medieval architecture of Uglich and Kolomenskoye. This draft was recommended by the commission, however, none of the brothers had an architect's license and the church was built by Fyodor Schechtel. Later, Victor Vesnin asserted that Schechtel executed the Vesnin brothers’ design, but contemporary authors give credit to Schechtel alone, citing different proportions and a simplified tented roof alignment. Other Vesnin drafts of this period lean towards traditional 19th century eclecticism with formal neoclassical trim. Each of these drafts bears personal stylistic clues, but exact attribution to Alexander, Leonid or Victor remains a matter of conjecture.
The first tangible building by Vesnin brothers, designed for Boris Velikovsky's firm, was a neoclassical six-storey apartment block on Myasnitskaya Square, completed in 1910. One year earlier, Leonid obtained an architect's licence and the brothers went independent. Their first building, the City Post Office on the same Myasnitskaya Street, was based on an earlier draft by Oscar Muntz, was approved for construction in 1911 and completed in 1912. The Vesnins retained the original planning and redesigned the facades in an eclectic Romanesque-Byzantine style.
Their father's death in 1910 and, perhaps, improved finances, prompted Alexander and Victor to return to classrooms and complete professional training. Alexander graduated in May 1912. Incidentally, Alexander's and Victor's graduation drafts of 1911-1912 are the only architectural drawings actually signed by each brother individually, and thus provide insight into each brother's own stylistic preferences that later blended under the ‘’Vesnin brothers’’ trademark. Specifically, Alexander demonstrated proficiency in Russian Revival art but clearly mediocre, run-of-the-mill work in the neoclassical manner. Nevertheless, in 1912–1913 the Vesnin firm established itself among the Neoclassical Revival movement, as evidenced by the 1913 Historical Exhibition where their drafts were displayed along with works by Ivan Fomin, Ivan Zholtovsky and other masters of the style.
Prior to the outbreak of World War I the brothers completed a bank building and a neoclassical mansion in Moscow and two country churches in Russian Revival manner. Their most visible building of the period, Mantashev Stables on Khodynka Field, mixes Petrine Baroque with Russian Revival and Neoclassicism, yet is clearly apart from mainstream eclecticism. The actual stables were demolished in the 2000s; the central core still stands.
At the beginning of World War I, Leonid was drafted and became a military engineer. Alexander and Victor stayed deep in the rear, in the factory belt on the Volga. Alexander was cashiered for poor eyesight, Victor worked in defence factory construction; his most important project of the period, a textile mill and adjacent worker's town in Kineshma, was completed in 1917. In 1914–1916 Alexander and Victor built the landmark neoclassical Sirotkin House in Nizhny Novgorod with elaborate internal paintings by Alexander. At the same time they collaborated with avant-garde artists Alexander Rodchenko and Vladimir Tatlin; the latter was initially Alexander's partner on Sirotkin House project but dropped out to pursue his futuristic experiments. By the time of the February Revolution Alexander was finally drafted but soon demobilized as the Imperial Army fell apart.
Revolution and Civil War (1917–1922)
In 1918 Alexander and Victor reunited for the prestigious decoration of Red Square for a May Day demonstration. Work for the Bolsheviks cost Victor his job for Nadezhda von Meck's heirs, but he and Leonid quickly found employment opportunities in industrial construction; Alexander stayed in starving Moscow.
Architectural drafts by Leonid and Victor Vesnin dated 1918-1922 clearly followed the pre-revolutionary neoclassical tradition. Yet, around 1923 the brothers emerged as leaders of a new, modernist, architecture. Selim Khan-Magomedov attributed this "instant" change to Alexander Vesnin's solo work in graphic arts and, in particular, in theatre. Leonid and Victor perceived themselves as primarily architects; when Civil War brought practical construction to a standstill, they joined the architectural faculty of MVTU and Vkhutemas, and continued exercises in “paper architecture”. Both (especially Victor) also worked on real-world industrial projects in Podolsk, Saratov, Shatura and other towns. Victor established ties with the textile industry of Ivanovo where he would build solo projects in the late 1920s.
Alexander, on the contrary, abandoned architecture for five years and dedicated himself to abstract art and stage design. In 1917-1918 critics placed Alexander on the "extreme left" of emerging modernist art, although Kazimir Malevich described his paintings as "too material". As Alexander moved from fringe abstract art to theatrical design, his sets for Alexander Tairov and Vsevolod Meyerhold shows regularly made headlines while his architectural past was nearly forgotten by contemporary press. Alexander actively experimented with "materializing" cubist art into three-dimensional, dynamic, tangible objects. Many contemporary artists (Malevich, Tatlin, El Lissitzky, Stenberg brothers) did the same, but, unlike them, Alexander had a solid background in structural engineering and practical construction management. His return to architecture in the end of 1922 explains the radical change in the Vesnin brothers' collaborative projects, first exposed to the public in February 1923.
Paper architecture (1922-1925)
From 1922–1925, the Vesnin brothers designed six entries for public architectural competitions. These buildings never materialized (or were not intended to be built at all) but became a statement of constructivism; their stylistic cues were eagerly copied in practical construction in the second half of the 1920s. Alexander Vesnin contributed to all six drafts; Victor and Leonid each contributed to four drafts. Palace of Labor and Arcos were the only drafts signed by all three brothers. According to Harry Francis Mallgrave, these early works were "the first indication of what constituted constructivist architecture" (as opposed to earlier concept of constructivist art).
Palace of Labor
In the end of 1922, Moscow City Hall announced a competition for the Palace of Labor on the downtown site of the present-day Hotel Moskva. It was the first national competition for a building perceived as the main building of the Soviet Union, with an 8,000-seat congress hall; ten years later, the idea resurfaced as the Palace of Soviets. Competition terms specifically ruled out any revivalist styles.