Russian Utopia: a depository

Monument of the Third International
Tatlin V. Monument of the Third International 1919-20

Lost
"The monument’s underlying concept is rooted in the organic synthesis of architectural, sculptural and landscaping principles and should present a new form of monumental construction, combining a purely artistic form with a utilitarian composition. In accordance with this principle, the project for the monument comprises three glass premises constructed according to a complex system of vertical pivots and spirals. These premises are laid out one on top of another in various harmoniously linked shapes. Due to the particular mechanisms of this sort of structure, these should all move at different velocities. The lower section of the building, laid out in cuboid form, rotates around its axis at the rate of one revolution per annum and is intended for use by the legislative. This space could accommodate the International’s conferences, sessions of international conventions and other broad based legislative congresses. The middle section takes the form of a pyramid, and rotates around its axis at the rate of one revolution per month, and is set aside for employment by the executive 9the International’s executive committee, secretariat and its other administrative organs.) Finally, the upper cylinder, rotating at a rate of one revolution per day, is intended as a centre of mass information services: an information bureau, newspaper office, publishing house for proclamations, brochures and manifestos, in short, the whole range of means of mass information of the international proletariat, part telegraph office, with big screen projectors housed in the axis of the spherical segment, part radio station, whose antennae can be raised above the monument".
(N. Punin, Monument for the 3rd International. 1920)

Utopia Foundation, Moscow




		`Tatlin V. Monument of the Third International 1919-20` Lost "The monument’s underlying concept is rooted in the organic synthesis of architectural, sculptural and landscaping principles and should present a new form of monumental construction, combining a purely artistic form with a utilitarian composition. In accordance with this principle, the project for the monument comprises three glass premises constructed according to a complex system of vertical pivots and spirals. These premises are laid out one on top of another in various harmoniously linked shapes. Due to the particular mechanisms of this sort of structure, these should all move at different velocities. The lower section of the building, laid out in cuboid form, rotates around its axis at the rate of one revolution per annum and is intended for use by the legislative. This space could accommodate the International’s conferences, sessions of international conventions and other broad based legislative congresses. The middle section takes the form of a pyramid, and rotates around its axis at the rate of one revolution per month, and is set aside for employment by the executive 9the International’s executive committee, secretariat and its other administrative organs.) Finally, the upper cylinder, rotating at a rate of one revolution per day, is intended as a centre of mass information services: an information bureau, newspaper office, publishing house for proclamations, brochures and manifestos, in short, the whole range of means of mass information of the international proletariat, part telegraph office, with big screen projectors housed in the axis of the spherical segment, part radio station, whose antennae can be raised above the monument". (N. Punin, Monument for the 3rd International. 1920)