The Architecture of Ivan Leonidov Between “Russian” Tradition and Universalism

This article examines the influence of tradition, particularly Orthodox thought and icons, on the “Russian” and Soviet avant-garde. This field of research was systematically initiated in the 1990s and continues to this day, as evidenced, among others, by recent articles in the Arts Journal. The present article contributes to this field by broadening the perspective, which has overwhelmingly focused on art. The step towards architecture is taken with a case study on the famous Soviet architect Ivan Leonidov. The article positions him in the context of contemporary debates on icons led by theorists Evgeniy Trubetskoy, Pavel Florensky and Nikolay Tarabukin, but also in connection with the emergence of Suprematism, which was introduced by Kazimir Malevich and further developed by El Lissitzky. Leonidov’s geometric bodies, which dynamically “float” in space, prove to be relevant to “Russian”/Soviet aesthetic interpretations of icons and “Russian”/Soviet artistic forms of expression. Just as the icon aimed at bringing believers closer to God, or Suprematism sought to reveal to the masses a higher spiritual or scientific truth, Leonidov’s architecture offered a metaphysical spectacle for a corresponding universalist goal: the creation of a pan-humanist utopia.