On August 1, 1939, the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (VSHV) opened in Moscow. This exhibition complex, replenished with new buildings every year, soon became an integral part of the capital of the USSR ,and now it is the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy (VDNH).

The history of the creation of the VSHV dates back to 1923. Then, on the site of the current Central Park of Culture and Recreation named after A.M. Gorky, on the initiative of V. I. Lenin and in accordance with government decision 1, an ensemble of the All - Union Agricultural and Handicraft-Industrial Exhibition was built. "I attach great importance to the exhibition," Lenin wrote, "and I am sure that all organizations will give it their full cooperation." 2 The appearance of the All-Union Construction Exhibition in the 1930s, and then the All-Union Exhibition of Fine Arts, was a natural continuation of the exhibition practice of the first post-revolutionary years, just as VDNH, in turn, crowned the work of its predecessor. Their continuity is symbolized today by exhibit No. 1 at the stands "From the First All-Union to VDNKh" - a 20-horsepower wheeled tractor with the brand of the Putilovsky Plant, first shown in 1923.3 .

The VSHV had a huge political, national economic and cultural significance. It summed up the decade at the beginning of which the peasant masses of the U.S.S.R. finally turned from small-scale individual farming to large-scale collective farm production, and was intended to play a major organizing role in the rise of agriculture and the fulfillment of the tasks of the third five-year plan .4 "This exhibition," it was noted at the XVIII Congress of the CPSU (b), " will be attended by leaders of all branches of agriculture... To obtain the right to participate in the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, certain indicators are set for collective farms, MTS and state farms, as well as for certain categories of agricultural workers, with differentiation of these indicators by crops, industries and agricultural zones... The All-Union Agricultural Exhibition provides a whole program for the development of agriculture. " 5
The initiative of the organization of the All-Union Agricultural Congress belonged to the II All-Union Congress of collective farmers-udarnikov, held in 1935. Its decision was approved by the Resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) of February 17, 1935 "On the organization of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow" 6 And then fixed by the Law adopted by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on August 21, 1938. The opening of the complex was planned in the fall of 1937, to mark the 20th anniversary of Great October. Its creation was based on the long-standing traditions of the national exhibition business. Agricultural expositions have always formed the core of major all-Russian exposes7 . In the country of victorious socialism, their significance was especially great. In order to popularize them, a series of lectures was given in Moscow by the museum scientist G. L. Malitsky during the preparation of the All-Russian Exhibition of Fine Arts .8
Back in July (1934), the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) obliged local land authorities to create regional and district livestock and seed-growing expositions. Bright, catchy exhibitions.-

1 SU, 1923, N 95, article 938.

2 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 45, p. 298.

3 Moskovskaya pravda, 11. VIII. 1983.

4 See more details. Moruchkov S. The All-Union Agricultural Exhibition of 1939-40 and its significance in the development of socialist competition in agriculture. Author's abstract of the cand. diss. M. 1954.

5 XVIII Congress of the CPSU (b). Stenogr. otch. M. 1939, p. 298.

6 NW OF the USSR, 1935, No. 11, Article 83.

7 Nikitin Yu. A. Pervoe vystavochnoe zdanie Rossii [The first exhibition building in Russia]. - Problems of synthesis of arts and architecture, L. 1978, issue VIII; see also: Description of the first public exhibition of Russian manufactory products, which was held in St. Petersburg in 1829. SPb. 1829, p. 36.

8 TSGANKH SSSR, f. 7857. op. 1, d, 10, l. 2.

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but they complemented various festivals. In the first half of the 1930s, the editorial staff of Krestyanskaya Gazeta developed special scenarios for collective farm holidays. As a rule, such a celebration included a demonstration of agricultural achievements, military-physical culture events, a system of spectacular performances and entertainment .9 In those years, peripheral exhibition construction became particularly important. Many significant economic and artistic issues for the future WSHV arose and were resolved immediately on the spot. Thus, when organizing the exhibition in Ufa in the autumn of 1935, the problem arose whether the buildings at the exhibition should be capital and exemplary, or whether they should be built light, temporary 10 . In some cities and even large villages, permanent exhibition pavilions were erected.

VSHV was originally intended to be built near the Timiryazevskaya Academy. In the spring of 1935, leading architects of the capital developed its architectural and artistic program. The collection of exhibits was managed by departments of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture of the USSR. The central Palace of the exhibition (House of Collective Farms) was to become the dominant part of the ensemble 11 . Many believed that the Palace of Soviets 12, which was planned for construction at the same time, would serve as a model for it . The points set out in the document "Program and conditions of the All-Union Open Competition for drawing up a draft design for the 1937 All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow on the territory of the Timiryazevskaya Agricultural Academy and adjacent areas" allow us to present the scale of the planned construction 13 . But the survey of the site showed its unsuitability for creating a VSHV.

To select a suitable site, a government commission was organized under the leadership of V. I. Mezhlauk; among the architects, it included A. V. Shchusev14 . Several sites were proposed to be explored within Moscow: Poklonnaya Gora, Otradnoye State farm, Butyrsky Khutor, Leninsky Gory (near the Kiev Railway), Luzhniki, Izmailovo, a site near the future Khimki Reservoir, the territory of the 1923 exhibition, etc. The site in Ostankino was chosen, because of the convenience for development, the availability of access roads and a beautiful natural environment, it was recognized as the most successful. This place was at one time intended to start a new "rationalized construction" in the capital 15 .

The Main Exhibition Committee under the People's Commissariat of Agriculture of the USSR, headed by the People's Commissar of Agriculture of the USSR, was entrusted with the management of the organization of the VSHV . The architectural group of the committee was subordinate to V. K. Oltarzhevsky, who in 1923 was the deputy chief architect of the exhibition; the chief artist of the VSHV was the master of exposition ensembles L. M. Lisitsky. In September 1936, he was replaced by the theater artist V. A. Shestakov.

In August 1935, the most intensive period of the creation of the Supreme Soviet began. The Exhibition Committee approved the preliminary program and design assignment for the WSHV master Plan for 1937. A creative competition was held for the design of the general exposition and decoration. Leading masters of design (L. M. Lisitsky, V. O. Roskin, etc.), monumental art (V. A. Favorsky, L. A. Bruni, A. A. Deineka, etc.), easel and theatrical - decorative painting (Yu. I. Pimenov, M. M. Sapegin, V. E. Tatlin, A. A. Shishkin, etc.) took part in the development of the figurative face of the exhibition. G. Tyshler, P. A. Shifrin and others) 17 . The master plan projects were based on the foreskiz of the 4th planning workshop of G. B. Barkhin.

Great importance was attached to the spatial and artistic design of squares as a place for holding "mass actions". They were born in Petrograd during the years of the socialist revolutions and the civil war, and in the pre-war 10 years remained popular, although their nature changed. VSHV was conceived as a chain of natural exhibits and as a folk show. The drama script was to be written by film directors A. P. Dovzhenko and S. M. Eisenstein, who participated in the discussion of architectural projects. At a meeting on the exposition held in December 1935, say-

9 Yudin B. Mass celebrations, Moscow, 1935.

10 Krestyanskaya gazeta, 12. X. I 935.

11 Architectural Newspaper, 27. II. 1935.

12 TSGANKH SSSR, f. 7857, op. 1, d. 2. l. 99.

13 Ibid., d. 16, ll. 37-38.

14 Ibid., d. 1. l. 4a.

15 Khazanova V. E. Sovetskaya arkhitektura pervoi pyatiletki [Soviet Architecture of the first five-year Plan]. Moscow, 1980, p. 304.

16 TSGANKH SSSR. f. 7857, op. 1, d. 1, l. 4a.

17 Ibid. d. 5, ll. 53-54.

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moose: "The exhibition should be poetic, fantastic, it should be some kind of poem, a hymn to work, to the soil, to what grows on it" 18 .

In the spring of 1936, the construction of the exhibition began according to the project made in the workshop of the Exhibition Committee (chief architect - V. K. Oltarzhevsky). The ensemble consisted of parts: entrance, Peoples ' Square of the USSR (later renamed Kolkhoz Square) and a production center with industry pavilions (since 1939 - Mechanization Square), departments of crop production, animal husbandry and outbuildings 19 . By the summer of 1937, more than 80 pavilions were erected, including the leading ones: the Main One, State Farms, Grain, Animal Husbandry, Ukraine, Belarus, etc. Small wooden buildings imitated the architectural forms of folk buildings in the national republics. In 1938, the new chief architect of the exhibition, A. F. Zhukov, sharply criticized some of the already constructed pavilions 20 .

On June 14, 1937, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU(b) issued a resolution "On the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition", which stated: "In order to better organize the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition and to expand socialist competition on a broad scale... the opening of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition is postponed to August 1, 1938 " 21 . The rough-built exhibition was already functioning and received delegations, although not in such numbers and not on such a large scale as later. Many pavilions were reconstructed or built according to modified projects. It was only as a result of the perestroika of 1938-1939 that the VSHV acquired the now well-known form22 .

This "school of socialist agriculture", as it was rightly called, met its guests, "walkers for advanced experience"with a bright appearance of pavilions, song, dance and music festivals, and theatrical mass performances.

VSHV played a huge role in promoting new farming methods. "The collective farmers who came to the exhibition listened to qualified lectures and reports, received consultations on the intensification of agriculture, and talked with leading people of the best collective and state farms in the country." 23 I was also impressed by the festive nature of the exhibition environment, the solemnity and picturesqueness of its structures: "A person enters under the canopy of a white arch with a gold ornament... It runs along straight avenues and spacious squares along pavilions, sometimes light and slender, sometimes monumental. " 24 This is how the VSHV was reflected in the well-known films of those years "The Bright Path", "The Pigsty and the Shepherd".

The exhibition in Ostankino lasted until June 30, 1941, and resumed its activity on August 1, 1954. Its pavilions were reconstructed. Since June 1956, the All-Union Industrial Exhibition (ERW) has been functioning there. In May 1958, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a resolution on combining the VSHV, ERW and the All-Union Construction Exhibition, which was located in Chelyabinsk during the war, into an Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy. Several expositions have merged at VDNH: industrial, agricultural, construction, transport, culture and healthcare. Today, VDNKh is a true exhibition city with 79 pavilions, 300 thematic exhibitions, and 35 information centers. It is visited annually by more than 10 million people25 . Here you can find all the best products produced in the USSR: from small handmade items to space stations. An integral part of Moscow, accumulating the best practices of the country of developed socialism, VDNH has become one of the symbols of modern Soviet life.

18 Ibid., l. 177.

19 Architectural Newspaper, 8. V. 1936.

20 TSGANKH SSSR, f. 7857, op. 1, 59, l. 1sl.

21 NW OF the USSR, 1937, No. 38, Article 153.

22 Review of the victories of socialist agriculture. Album. M. 1940.

23 History of the USSR from ancient times to the present day. In 12 vols. Vol. IX. Moscow, 1971, p. 358.

24 Dorosh E. The great man! - Ogonyok, 1939, N 27, p. 14.

25 Moskovsky Komsomolets Publ., 19. VIII. 1983. For more information, see: A. Gusakov, V. Ryndin. Ot I Vsesoyuznoy do VDNKh SSSR. 1923-1983. M. 1983.

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