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[CREATING MODEL SOVIET PARK] Za sotsialisticheskiy park. Obzor proyektov general’nogo plana Tsentral’nogo parka kul’tury i otdykha Mossoveta [i.e. In Support of a Socialistic Park. A Survey Proposals for the General Plan of the Central Park of Culture and Leisure of the Moscow City Council] / edited by Betty Glan

Item #969

Moscow: izdatelstvo Mosoblispolkoma, 1932. 32 pp., 7 folded plates. 28x21,4 cm. Original oversize wrappers. The edges of the wrappers are restored.
First edition. One of 4750 copies. Constructivist design of the edition by Boris Iordanoskiy (1903-1983) and Georgiy Rubliov (1902-1975), the artists widely known for their designs in Moscow metro, at the world fairs as well as participation in parade designs.
The book includes the projects for the legendary Gorky Park, when it was still called ‘The Central Park of Culture and Leisure’.
In 1931 the committee was created to choose the general plan of the park. The projects of the development of the park included the works by Konstantin Melnikov, Moisei Ginzburg, the project by Klang and Korobov as well as 7 other collective bids. All of the plans and the descriptions of the projects are included in the book. The book was published when the jury was deciding which project should be chosen, so the momentum gives the opportunity to observe the different possible scenarios of the future life of the park.
The author praises the projects by Melnikov and Ginzburg for the elegancy and the idea of creating special sectors within the park, although Melnikov receives the criticism of being too ‘formalist’ (the cliche that will haunt him for the rest of his life). Klang/Korobov project is seen as an interesting solution as well as they planned to include Moskva river actively in the park planning, moving a lot of the activities to its waters. Betty Glan also mentions the importance of forming the park around water, and including it in the planning.
The park’s aim was to bring the idea of the rest of the Soviet citizen to a new level, and the call for truly socialist park was led by Betty Glan (1903-1992), the 26-year old director of the park, appointed in 1929. Although her administrative work continued only for 9 years, as she was repressed and sent to the camps in 1937, it’s generally acknowledged nowadays that her impact on the development of the park was pivotal. Her article ‘In Support of the Socialistic Park’ on pp. 7-20 of the book could be regarded as the manifesto not only of Gorky Park, but of the park development in USSR in general.
Extremely rare. Worldcat shows physical copies at University of Cambridge, University of Chicago and Getty Research Institute.

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