In the maelstrom of architectural ideologies in the Soviet Union of the 1920s and early 30s, there were few winners, and YAKOV GEORGIEVICH CHERNIKHOV (1889–1951) was not one of them.
While Constructivism fell victim to Socialist Classicism in 1932, Chernikhov never even won favor even among the former’s protagonists because his designs were too fantastical—a dirty word for any branch of dialectical materialism.
But nothing, it seems, could have stopped Chernikhov’s inventiveness. Writes the historian Dmitry S. Khmelnitsky in the recent MEGA-monograph on the architect, Graphic Masterpieces of Yakov G. Chernikhov:

“He regards fantasizing as something wholly pragmatic which has nothing to do with the creation of utopias or romantic social fantasy, but is a professional way of identifying design possibilities which will resolve specific project-related problems.”

For Chernikhov, fantasy was always to be bolstered by scientific rigor.
Following the war, there was scant opportunity for Chernikhov to go near actual “project-related problems,” undoubtedly because of Stalin’s decrees for neoclassical urban renewal. Instead, he labored as a typographer, creating dozens of Latin and Slavic scripts, as well as obscure types for ancient alphabets, such as Phoenician and Persian cuneiform. It is, however, the recent interest in his Kafkaesque illustrations and architectural plans made largely during the last decade of his life that has earned Chernikhov the moniker “the Soviet Piranesi.” Mixing Gothic forms and Rembrandt-like compositions into a spirographic baroque, Chernikhov’s work shows just how different the Soviet Union could have looked.

Collected and edited by Chernikhov’s son, Dmitry Y. Chernikhov, the previously unpublished works and documents are presented in a large-format, hardcover edition from DOM. Included are 60 written drafts, 50 drawings and sketches, 200 ornaments, facsimiles of diary entries, and private photos from the family album. Clocking in at over 400 pages, Graphic Masterpieces not only offers full immersion in the life of a relatively unknown figure in architecture history, but also achieves that rare effect for historical documentation: having its own dizzying logic.

A selection of Chernikhov’s illustrations, among other works, will be exhibited in the upcoming “032c workshop Report No. 1″ exhibition at Baibakov Art Projects in Moscow, opening July 14, 2010.