American architect who helped build the whole USSR

In 1928, an American architect named Albert Kahn arrived in Soviet Moscow. He was invited to organize the construction of factories in the USSR, as the rapidly developing industry in the country required precisely his pace of work and his characteristic boundless energy.

Who was Mr. Kahn?

Albert Kahn changed industrial construction around the world. Together with his brother, he founded an architectural firm in 1902 and developed a design for reinforced concrete structures. They made it possible to design large open spaces for workshops with plenty of natural light. They were much more practical than wooden frames and cheaper than steel structures.

Kahn's design methodology accelerated the process of designing and building factories many times over, which meant costs could be reduced and profits increased. He moved architecture from the realm of art into the realm of commerce. Orders poured in and, in the early 20th century, he began building factories for the largest companies, including automotive giants ‘Packard’, ‘Ford’, ‘General Motors’, as well as over 900 buildings in Detroit.

Soviet factories by an American's hand

The USSR invited the innovative architect to assist with industrialization. The country lacked technology and production capacity. In just three years, Kahn organized the construction of over 500 industrial facilities in the USSR. These included the country's largest tractor plants in Stalingrad (now Volgograd) and Chelyabinsk, the ‘Moskvich’ automobile plant in Moscow and the ‘GAZ’ plant in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod), steel and mechanical workshops and other factories of various types.

Standardized designs helped accelerate construction here, as well. At the same time, Kahn sent 25 of his specialists to the USSR and they trained 1,500 Soviet engineers in new technologies.

The ideological background

The trip to the USSR was, however you spun it, a risky step for Kahn. The U.S. had not officially recognized the Soviet government by that time (this only happened in 1933) and many of Kahn's clients in the United States were staunch anti-communists. He was well aware that his work in the USSR could harm his firm and reputation in the U.S., but he could not refuse a project of such magnitude.

“The Russian people, regardless of their form of government, needed help, especially after all their suffering under the tsarist regime,” he said.

During and after World War II, Soviet propaganda downplayed the American involvement in industrialization and the achievements were attributed solely to Soviet engineers. This was despite the fact that it was largely thanks to Kahn's factories that the USSR was able to build up its military power before the war.