sixtiers

Abstract

I love it more consciously,

I love it more dearly -

This bright generation

Hardened severely…

Yuri Levitansky

These words said by a sixtier poet were addressed to another generation, that was born in the time of the Great Russian revolutions, as the new history textbooks begin to call it. The 20s and the 60s also correlate in architecture: the time of hope, romance and avant-garde. Brave ideas, internationalism and sociality, and attempt at freedom.

New genres and subcultures appeared: tourists and hiking (214), bard songs (98), and under the necessity – underground press. The other cinema captured the other architecture (64). By the way, the cinematograph, which was not very generous towards architects, showed the collisions and tragedies of the 1960s in the films “To Love a Man” by Gerasimov and “With Good Faith and Fidelity” by Smirnov.

The sixtiers are a significant phenomenon in the Soviet culture in general and in architecture in particular. Like in the 1920s, creative associations were formed around innovative ideas and personalities. As T. Umnova said, if it were not for the sixtiers, the XX century would have lost half of its charm.

Now it is time to recognize the value of the contribution made by the sixtiers to urban planning and architecture, to theory and practice. Modernism has become of interest in times of crisis and aspiration for careful attitude towards resources (44). In the first section of the main topic there is a selection of articles on modernism and the time.

The second section is devoted to one of the brightest representatives of that generation. We said farewell to him last September. Architect Vladimir Bukh.

In the third section of the main topic there is an anthology of Irkutsk architects of the Mid-20th century and their works. How did a score of graduates from high schools of the capitals and Sibstrin manage to leave such a big imprint? What kind of phenomenon were the sixtiers? A Siberian poet Yevtushenko in his poem “Sixtiers” gave the following version of the answer: 

Who were we, the sixtiers?

Atop a breaking wave,

Like twenty-first century troops

Parachuted into the twentieth.