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Monument to the Third International
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Monument to the Third International (1920)
In 1919 and 1920, Vladimir Tatlin
produced sketches and a model for what was projected to be a Monument
to the Third International. This utopian design, so typical for
the frenzied mood of Russians in the years immediately following
the Bolshevik revolution was, in theory, to have been taller than
that great symbol of modernity, the Eiffel Tower. Its spiraling
structure, however, was to lend the Monument a structural dynamism
lacking in Eiffel's more symmetrical (and more stable) design.
In theory, the Monument was to house a telegraph office, and other
office space, but Tatlin, who was no architect, did not even attempt
to work out the engineering problems that would have had to be
overcome. Instead, like so many other early Soviet projects of
utopian intent, Tatlin's tower (as it came to be called) never
went past the planning stages. The model was exhibited--and photographed--in
Petrograd in November 1920, at the same time as the mass theatrical
action, The Staging of
the Winter Palace, was performed.
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