Kazimir Mital: Constructivist, Social Revolutionary, Stakhanovite ...

Abstract

The article discusses the life and work of the Irkutsk architect K. V. Mital (1877–1938). His fate is both unique and typical at the same time: the son of Polish exiles who found themselves in Siberia was educated in St. Petersburg and, after returning to Irkutsk, made a brilliant career as an architect before and after the revolution, using the style trends that prevailed in different periods of the first third of the century: art Nouveau, eclecticism, constructivism. Despite the fact that in a certain period of time he had a direct relation to the socialist revolutionary party, in the 1930s he became a sought-after expert who performed important projects and administration and even an architect-stakhanovite. But still, in the end, he was arrested by the NKVD and died in a prison hospital. The article presents new, previously unpublished facts about K. V. Mital.