VDNH is not only the most important landmark of Moscow and one of the 50 largest exhibition centers in the world, but also a real architectural reserve. Each of the pavilions at VDNKh, which will celebrate its 85th anniversary next year, has an amazing story to tell – for example, the legendary Pavilion No. 15 Radio Electronics and Communications, which has been restored to its original appearance.
I must say that the “appearance” of the fifteenth pavilion of VDNKh has changed dramatically several times, as well as the name. The first version was built in 1939: the architect Sergei Znamensky designed the building in the form of a bridge across the Volga, and the pavilion itself was called the Volga Region. During the war years, this building was badly damaged, and in 1949 it was decided to erect a new building. Architects Yevgeny Yakovlev and Iosif Shoshensky built it in 1952 in the style of the Stalinist Empire style, with sculptures and porticos, and finishing work continued for another two years.
They revealed the theme of the Volga region with the help of fountains and pools: this is how water flowed from under the stained-glass windows with images of the Stalingrad and Kuibyshev hydroelectric power stations on the walls of the side wings of the pavilion. The facade was decorated with bas-reliefs depicting the battles for Tsaritsyn (during the Civil War) and Stalingrad (during the Great Patriotic War) and scenes of the peaceful labor of the victorious people. The main entrance was crowned with a sculptural composition “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” with the coat of arms of the RSFSR. The building had eight exhibition halls dedicated to the Volga regions, a staircase and utility rooms.
A few years later, when the decree “On the elimination of excesses in design and construction” was issued and the fight against “decoration” in architecture began, the building was reconstructed again: the decor was partially dismantled, the roof structure was changed, the facades were covered with aluminum plates and glass. A successful design find was a trussed mast 57 meters high, to which a television antenna was attached. The pavilion was named “Radioelectronics and Communications”.
The interiors have also been changed. Previously, the walls and ceiling of the building were covered with paintings. They were made on linen canvases with casein-oil tempera, and then pasted onto plaster. The main subjects of the canvases were harvesting in gardens and animal husbandry. Now some of them were painted over with water-based paint, and some were puttied or covered with whitewash. Rectangular lamps were hung in the plafonds, for fixing which holes were made in the paintings.
In 2014, work began on returning the historical appearance of the 1950s to the pavilion. To do this, the first step was to dismantle the “overhead” aluminum facades. In 2019, restoration work began, including the elimination of various defects, the return of decor, the strengthening of structures and other necessary work.
A positive conclusion on the project of restoration and adaptation for modern use of the federal cultural heritage site “Radioelectronics and Communications Pavilion” (former “Volga Region”) was issued by the Glavgosexpertiza of Russia.
“In the course of the restoration work, trial work was carried out to reveal the painting on the plafonds in the halls of the Saratov and Kuibyshev regions. Based on the results of the study of painting, documentation was developed on the adjustment of the methodology for the restoration of the author’s monumental painting of plafonds in the halls of the Saratov Region, Kuibyshev Region, Chuvash (Chkalov (Orenburg) Region) and Ulyanovsk Region, – says Kirill Kunakov, the chief expert of the project of the GEP Service on objects of cultural heritage and engineering and technical infrastructure of the Glavgosexpertiza of Russia.
Specialists restored paintings that had been hidden for over 60 years, referring to archival photographs. In their complex and delicate work, they used original materials. Today, almost all the picturesque canvases of the famous VDNKh pavilion can be seen in their original form.
Photo: VDNKh press service, Nikolay Akimov/TASS
