Carpet and Slogan: Bricklayers’ Craft on the Margins of Soviet Housing Industry

Abstract

The article examines the phenomenon of Soviet sand-lime ouzorotché—slogans, patterns, and figures made of white and red bricks that had an important, albeit slightly marginal, place in the visual appearance of the Soviet city. The material affordance of this phenomenon is explored, explaining the specific material conditions in which this type of murals was produced and the factors that led to the emergence of such conditions, which were related to the peculiarities of Soviet construction industry. The authors also investigate the technique of decorative masonry itself, showing that it was practiced by both professional bricklayers and members of voluntary student construction brigades who made brick panels on their own initiative, which allows them to refer to Soviet silicate patterning as folk muralism. Departing from the “submission or resistance” paradigm, the authors explore the way in which the bricklayers treated the symbols of authoritative discourse; they also trace the representation of elements of the visual complex of Soviet holidays in brick patterning and the gradual change of the symbolic repertoire as the Soviet era approached its end.

Text in Russian