Word: vlasov
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...year-old gilded Shwe Dagon, peace-loving Nikita Khrushchev was busily easing world tensions once again. "The oldest British church," he sneered, eying the Burmese shrine, "is only 1,000 years old, yet the British call you barbarians." Then, recalling the recent unpleasantness about Moscow Chief Architect Vlasov, who was blasted by his government while visiting the U.S., he singled out another Russian architect in Rangoon to cry, "Look out, comrade, I see you are standing with American and French reporters. They may try to persuade you to stay with the West as the stupid Americans and stupid Frenchmen tried...
...monarch before him, Dictator Joseph Stalin was obsessed by the desire to commemorate his long reign in monuments of stone. Gathering together a team of architects, he set them to designing riotously ornamental plazas, parks and skyscrapers, without regard for expense. Among his chief architects: Party Member Alexander V. Vlasov...
...accused of building "utterly unjustified tower superstructures, decorative colonnades and porticoes . . . as a result of which, state resources have been overspent to an amount with which more than one million square meters of living floor space could have been built." Singled out for special mention: Moscow Architect Alexander V. Vlasov, who "not only failed to conduct a proper struggle against this extravagance, but [was] guilty of superfluities in designs he drew...
Where was Architect Vlasov? A top member of a Soviet delegation studying U.S. building methods, he was in Manhattan, checked in at the Plaza Hotel and on a shopping expedition, when the news of Khrushchev's decree came through. "I do not believe what has been printed in the American press," said Delegation Leader Koziulia. "It's not true." Next day, boarding the Queen Elizabeth on his way home, Vlasov, smiling nervously, cracked: "As you see, I'm alive, and I'm in good humor." Added Russia's chief specialist in Stalinist baroque...
Work Harder. After watching portly A. V. Vlasov, head of the Soviet Academy of Architecture, struggle good-naturedly with a tippety butterfly chair, the delegates were shown by pretty, pink-clad hostesses around a futuristic pink kitchen. The Russians were unimpressed. Noting a built-in radio, Kozuilia ventured to suggest that housewives might be distracted and let the lunch burn. When he saw a built-in cosmetics drawer near the sink, he cracked: "And do you also sleep in the kitchen?" Again a builder explained: "You'd be surprised how this helps sell houses." Said Kozuilia...