By Yuri Avvakumov

It is a century ago to this year that the October Revolution of 1917 brought about an upheaval in society, politics and culture all over the world. The revolutionary character of the early Soviet regime, its communist ideas, the striving for accelerated industrialisation and the abolition of private property in land and buildings attracted many artists who, for ideological or economic reasons, were keen to take part in constructing a new society. At this time several avant-garde styles and theories arose that continued to influence and shape the art of the twentieth century. It was exactly in this period, the 1920s, that the term ‘Paper Architecture’ was used for the first time, initially as a somewhat derogatory term for projects that were too utopian to be built and only existed on paper.