"Angelic psalms" of a Soviet architect: practice of urban planning and architectural design of the 1930s in the perception and evaluation by European specialists

The article poses the problem of perception and assessment of the practice of Soviet urban planning and architecture of the 1930s by foreign specialists who worked in the the USSR. The article shows some problematic sites of the Soviet architectural and town-planning practice, which became the subject of analysis and evaluation by European specialists. The object of research is limited to public and detailed statements of European architects in the Soviet professional press and professional forums. As speakers, such authoritative figures of European architecture as E. May, B. Taut, A. Lurcat and H. Schmidt were elected. The publication concludes that the European architects, showing the divergence of the ways of Soviet and Western architectural and town-planning practices, emphasized not the conflict of style forms, but the understanding of the goals of architectural creativity, the role and tasks of the architect, architectural and town-planning methodology.