Item #838 [RODCHENKO DESIGN] Chudesa stroitel’nogo iskusstva / per. c fr. s dop. Pod red. E.V. Blizniaka [i.e. Wonders of Construction Art / Translated from French with Additions. Ed. by E.V. Blizniak. L. Fournier.

[RODCHENKO DESIGN] Chudesa stroitel’nogo iskusstva / per. c fr. s dop. Pod red. E.V. Blizniaka [i.e. Wonders of Construction Art / Translated from French with Additions. Ed. by E.V. Blizniak

Moscow: Transpechat’, 1926. Item #838

230 pp.: ill. 17x11 cm. In publisher’s photomontage wrappers. Very good. Spine is restored, front cover is rubbed, contemporary owner’s marking on the title page.

First and only edition. One of 7080 copies. Very rare. Constructivist cover design by Alexander Rodchenko.
The book describes various structures built in Western countries: bridges, canals, dams, tunnels, subways and other gigantic structures, as well as bridge construction and tunneling in the USSR. It consists of nine chapters each dedicated to one kind of structure. Last chapter by professor P.A. Velikhov was dedicated to bridge and tunnel construction in USSR. The information is general but provides many names of people involved in bridge engineering of the time. It also interesting to see a pretty poor state of the infrastructure on the brink of the first pyatiletka (five-year plan), especially in comparison with described in the book infrastructures of other countries. To show materials which may be helpful for engineers was one of intentions of this publication by the editor Evgeny Bliznyak (1881-1958), Russian and Soviet professor, hydrologist and hydro technician, head of Volga-Don Canal project and construction. He was also a compiler of GOELRO plan.
Pavel Apollonovich Velikhov (1875-1930), Russian and Soviet scientist in the field of structural mechanics and bridge construction, professor. He was executed in 1930 during the Stalinist repression. WorldCat locates one copy at Yale University.

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