A Giant Avant-Garde Stadium Project in Ukraine: The Enigma of the 1930s

Fortunately, an identical signature, but already with the name of the author, was found during further study of archival graphic documents from the same period on one of the projects (it was the interior of the lobby of the art education sector of Pioneers’ Palace in Kharkiv) [2] (Fig. 3).

Figure 3.

It was established in the course of research that Veniamin Kostenko was born on January 13, 1903 in Kharkiv. He graduated with honors from the Kharkiv Art Institute in 1928 and received a diploma of an architect-artist. The range of his projects was very wide: from factories to residential and public buildings. He was part of a group of Kharkiv architects who received the first prize for the project of Mass Musical Stage Theater with 4,000 seat capacity in Kharkiv at the international competition in 1931. He was the author of many significant buildings in the city. The most famous are: the administrative building of the Regional Council (before the Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine at 64 Sumska street, 1951–52, co-authored with architect V. Orekhov), the post-war reconstruction of the building of Kharkiv University on Dzerzhinsky square (Svobody Square now, co-authored with I. Ermilov, V. Livshits, V. Kamirny, 1951–52) and a number of many-storied residential buildings in the center of Kharkiv: Sumskaya street, 69 (1925) and 114 (1950 ets. In 1934–41 V. Kostenko worked in Moscow. At first, he was involved in the construction of the 1^st stage of the Moscow Metro (exterior and interior decoration of the vestibule of “Lenin Library” station, etc.). Then he participated in the design and construction of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition as an architect and artist of the pavilions “Western Siberia”, “Kazakhstan” and “Ukraine”. In 1939 he was engaged in the decoration of the interior and the exposition of the Soviet pavilion of the World Exhibition in New York [3, 4].

The study showed that the successful beginning of the architectural activity of V. Kostenko was associated with Kharkiv – the capital of Ukraine in those years. It was logical to assume that the gigantic stadium was supposed to be built there. In the 1930s, the professional career of the architect was on the rise, as evidenced by an invitation to Moscow to design the most important objects in the capital of the USSR. It is also obvious that he had authority not only as an architect, but also as an artist, was a master of interior decoration and exhibition displays of the highest level. However, no mention of his participation in the design of any stadium was been found in archival documents. An absence of information seemed suspicious: such a large object should have been reflected in the creative biography of the architect.

A sports complex of that great magnitude had to be marked in the master plan of the city. As it turned out, the original materials of the master plan for the reconstruction of Kharkiv in the 1930s were lost during the war. Its low-quality photographs were found in the course of the research: they were published in the professional press of those years [5]. The master plan was approved by the Kharkiv City Council in early 1936. However, in fact, it was developed before – in the early 1930s at the Ukrainian design institute “Giprograd”. Therefore, in 1931–35 new construction in the city had already been carried out in accordance with its main directions. Even in a bad photograph, it was not difficult to spot a large green area in the south-east of the city (the area of the “Selection Station” at the time) with a characteristic – unusual shape – plan of the stadium, resembling a huge inverted comma (Fig. 4).

Figure 4.

The next step was the search for this site on the modern geodetic survey of the city and its field studies. The area marked on the 1936 city plan is partially built up today. In the 1960s, the Sports Palace and the Tourist Hotel were erected there. But the location of the stadium itself remains abandoned, overgrown with bushes and trees, built up with garages in some places. It was a revelation to discover the remains of an earth mound prepared for the construction of the stands (Fig. 5). Geodetic survey confirmed its presence and the similarity of its shape to the shape of the stadium (Fig. 6). This meant that the construction of the stadium began in those years.

Figure 5.

Figure 6.

What was the name of that sports complex? The Petrovsky All-Ukrainian Stadium with a complex of gyms for the Institute of Physical Education is mentioned in some Internet resources dedicated to the sports life of Kharkiv in the 1930s [6]. A huge territory was allotted for its construction. It was just the right location, coincidentally, which was marked on the general plan of the city in 1936, and confirmed during field studies.

To find information about the object, the study was again focused on the analysis of the architectural press of those years. Finally, an article in the journal “Soviet architecture” for 1933 [7] gave answers to many questions. Architect Nikolay Zvegilsky was the author of the project “The G. I. Petrovsky All-Ukrainian Physical Culture Center in Kharkiv”. The complex was really planned on a grand scale. The stadium with the stands was its heart. It had a major sports core of international proportions and a field of mass actions, with different sports grounds flanking it. The complex also included a cycle track with a cycling and ski station, a palace of physical culture, a swimming pool measuring 50 × 20 m, and a children’s sector. Places of mass cultural and educational work and a theater for 2500 people were located near the main entrance. The middle of the site was set aside for athletics and football fields, volleyball, basketball, handball, gymnastics, possession of cold weapons and weightlifting. The southeastern part of the site was occupied by a military town, a tent camp, a military sports hippodrome, an airfield, a place for sports cars and a combat shooting range. The Institute of Physical Culture, hostels and hotels were to be located on the territory.

The project was approved by the Presidium of the Supreme Council of Physical Culture of the USSR on 7^th December 1932. The article noted: “The general solution of the master plan is interesting and successfully linked to the city, the surrounding industrial area and the Chuguev highway. The design of the stands and action fields is fresh and bold. The project makes satisfactory use of the favorable terrain conditions. The field of mass action is of exceptional importance here, since it will be the only foothold in the city for mass demonstrations, republican parades, etc.” [7]. Graphic documents were also published: the perspective/view of the sports complex from the main entrance, master plans of the entire territory and sports arena (Fig. 7).

Figure 7.

Earlier mentions of the stadium project were found in the mass press of 1930–1931. It was interesting to discover that at first the stadium was supposed to be built in a completely different place near the municipal park in the northern part of the city. The area allocated there was much smaller – 61 hectares, and the stadium itself was designed for 40 thousand spectators – half as many.

An illustration of very poor quality nevertheless leaves no doubt that the master plan of the site, published in 1931 [8] (Fig. 8), was different from the master plan of 1933 [7] (Fig. 7). Therefore, it can be argued that between the end of 1931 and the end of 1932 (when the project was approved by the Presidium of the Supreme Council of Physical Culture) the decision to locate the stadium on a new territory and increase its capacity was made. Architect N. Zvegilsky revised his project in accordance with new requirements and a different urban planning situation.

Figure 8.

The Kharkiv City Council published an album designed in a modernist style and representing the achievements of the city economy in 1931. Photos of projects that had already been completed or were under construction for various purposes had been published there. Fragments of the project of the All-Ukrainian stadium: the facade and the perspective of the stands (without mentioning the author-architect) were presented in the section “National-cultural construction” in connection with the beginning of its erection (Fig. 9). The laconicism of the architectural language of the project leaves no doubt about the author’s commitment to constructivist ideas [9].

Figure 9.

The luxurious park was to become an integral part of the sports center. Information about it was found in a study dedicated to its author – the famous Ukrainian dendrologist Professor A. I. Kolesnikov. He wrote in 1937: “Here, on 70 hectares (out of 280) of steppe soil, green spaces have already been created, in which there are many valuable species and interesting combinations associated with the nature and purpose of sports grounds and facilities” [10]. Much of the work on the creation of the park had already been completed when the construction of the stadium was stopped. Unfortunately, today there is no trace left of the park, although various compositions of decorative trees and bushes with artificial hills, pools and ponds were laid here in due time, flower beds were laid out, many unique species of green spaces were planted.

The file “On the appropriation of funds for the construction of the Petrovsky All-Ukrainian Stadium in Kharkov 10/17/1930 - 01/11/1934” is kept in the funds of the State Archive of the Russian Federation in the materials of the Secretariat of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR [11]. Consequently, the design and start of construction work was supposed to be carried out in the period from the end of 1930 to the beginning of 1934. But in January 1934 the plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine decided to transfer the capital of Soviet Ukraine from Kharkiv to Kiev. The relocation of the government, central sports institutions, and the reduction in appropriations had a detrimental effect on the idea of implementing a grandiose sports complex. Its construction was stopped.

The turn came to learn more about the architect Nikolay Zvegilsky. He was not even mentioned in the directory of Kharkiv architects. Information about him had to be collected bit by bit in the literature of the 1920s–1930s and the archives of various cities of Ukraine and Russia, incl. Moscow. The study found that N. Zvegilsky was born in 1897, received an architectural education in Kharkiv in the same years as V. Kostenko. Most likely, they knew each other well. He was the author of projects for several sports facilities, incl. stadium “Dynamo” in Odessa (1932), Regional stadium in Saratov (1937), etc. [7]. There was unverified information that at the very end of the 1920s the architect taught at the Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute at the architectural department of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, which coincides with the period of his work in Kharkiv on the project of the All-Ukrainian Physical Culture Center. After 1934 (probably when the construction of the stadium was suspended) he moved to Moscow, becoming a graduate student at the Institute of Postgraduate Studies of the Academy of Architecture of the USSR (V. Kostenko worked in Moscow in the pre-war years also). Together with other colleagues, N. Zvegilsky took part in the competition for the design of the Pavilion of the Ukrainian SSR at the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in 1937 (Second Prize, Fig. 10) [12]. Like all other competitive designs of the mid-1930s, that project was executed in a neoclassical manner in accordance with the official style change. In the 1950s-1970s, several books were published in central Moscow publishing houses, where Zvegilsky coauthored sections on sports facilities [13, 14, 15]. In the same years he taught at the Moscow Institute of Architecture at the Department of Architectural Design of Public Buildings.

Figure 10.

Where did the signature of the architect V. Kostenko come from on the colorful architectural perspectives of the stadium? And why was their caption written in French? In the 30s, the architect worked in Moscow on important projects. He participated in the creation and design of the pavilion exposition for the New York Exhibition of the 1939. It would be logical to assume that Kostenko was involved in the design of the exposition for the previous World Exhibition of Arts and Technology in Paris in 1937, where, as it is known, the works of Kharkiv architects were demonstrated. In particular, he completed the graphic design of the two main images of the stadium.

It is not difficult to see that the perspective view of the main entrance of the stadium, made by V. Kostenko in 1937 (Fig. 1), is identical to that chosen by N. Zvegilsky (Fig. 7) in his initial design of the early 1930s. However, the change in style is obvious: Kostenko decorated the facades of the buildings in the entrance group with columns, decor details, and sculptures in the spirit of the late 1930s.