The Volga-Don Canal as a Battle Field of Architectural Styles in the USSR in the 1950s

The article discusses the construction of the Volga-Don shipping canal named after V.I. Lenin. The author analyzes the contradiction between new construction techniques and architectural form, which was, to one degree or another, inherent in many industrial buildings of the 1940s and early 1950s. The architects turned, first of all, to examples of Russian neoclassical architecture, trying to adjust them to the structures of a modern engineering complex. The architecture of this building was the focus of a significant creative debate that emerged in the mid-1950s, in connection with efforts to combat what was then known as “ornamentation.” The intricate water-engineering systems of the Volga-Don canal reflect the heroic spirit of historical events associated with the Great Patriotic War.