The Resolution of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) “On the organization of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow” adopted

On the last day of the 2nd All-Union Congress of Collective Farmers, held in Moscow on February 11-17, 1935, People's Commissar of Agriculture of the USSR Mikhail Chernov made a proposal to organize an All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow in 1937. It was conceived as a temporary exhibition designed to demonstrate the achievements of the Soviet government over 20 years and reflect the successes of collectivization. The idea was supported by the participants of the congress, and on February 17, 1935, the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) adopted a resolution On the organization of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow and entrusted this work to the People's Commissariat for Agriculture of the USSR.

On August 17, 1935, the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR adopted Resolution № 1821 On the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, which established the Main Exhibition Committee. The commission was headed by Chairman Mikhail Chernov, and Vyacheslav Oltarzhevsky was appointed chief architect. Initially, the People’s Commissariat for Agriculture and the Moscow City Council chose the area around the School Campus of the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy as a place for the future exhibition. After complaints from the architects about the inconvenience of the site for development, the territory to the east of Ostankino Park, near Yaroslavskoye Highway, was chosen. Famous architects from Moscow – Ivan Zholtovsky, Grigory Barkhin, Konstantin Melnikov, Ilya Golosov, Daniil Friedman and others, as well as architects from Leningrad, Kiev and Kharkov were invited to participate in the competition for the development of the general plan of the exhibition and pavilions. The final version of the master plan was approved by the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR on April 21, 1936. The opening was scheduled for July 6, 1937 – the Day of the Constitution of the USSR. The future exhibition was supposed to reflect such topics as: socialist reconstruction of agriculture and the victory of the collective farm system; socialist agriculture of republics, territories, regions; sovkhozs; mechanization and electrification of agriculture; grain and technical crops; socialist animal husbandry; folk art and mass amateur art of the peoples of the USSR.

Due to technical difficulties and a large amount of work, which included not only the creation of pavilions, but also the general improvement of the territory and the creation of the necessary infrastructure in the area (water supply, sewerage, transport links), the opening of the exhibition was postponed until August 15, 1937, and then – until August 1, 1938. In the summer of 1937 at the People's Commissariat for Agriculture, employees were arrested in connection with the investigation of the circumstances of “sabotage on the construction of an agricultural exhibition”. People’s Commissar for Agriculture, Chairman of the Exhibition Committee Mikhail Chernov and Chief Architect of the exhibition Vyacheslav Oltarzhevsky were arrested as well. The buildings constructed by that time, some of which were recognized as “harmful”, were dismantled or rebuilt, which again postponed the opening of the exhibition.

The first All-Union Agricultural Exhibition was inaugurated on August 1, 1939. At the opening, the song of the composer Isaak Dunayevsky Hail, Abundant Motherland was performed, and from the northern entrance visitors were greeted by the sculptural group of Vera Mukhina Worker and Kolkhoz Woman. The architectural complex of the exhibition was based on the main alley with three squares: Kolkhoz, Mechanization, Ponds. In addition to the pavilions dedicated to the regions of the RSFSR and the Union republics, one had an opportunity to visit pavilions covering the branches of Soviet agriculture and industry, mainly food: Viticulture and Winemaking, Animal Husbandry, Grain, Potatoes and Vegetables, Canned Food, Meat, Oil, Beer, Beekeeping, Fishing Industry, Tobacco, Peat, Khladoprom, etc. Restaurants, cafes, cinemas, a concert stage, a greenhouse and recreation areas were also presented to visitors. The exhibition worked for 86 days and was closed on October 25. In the first year, it was visited by more than 5 million people.

During the following season in 1940, the exhibition ran for 5 months. The next exhibition of 1941 was closed on July 1, shortly after the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Some of the exhibits were handed over to military and party organizations, the workers of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition went to the front or were evacuated to Omsk, and the pavilions were adapted for military needs. In 1950-1954, a large-scale reconstruction of the exhibition complex took place, during which, among other things, fountains Fraternity of Peoples, Stone Flower and Golden Spike were created. On May 28, 1958, by the decision of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, agricultural, industrial and construction exhibitions were merged into the Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy of the USSR (VDNKh of the USSR), and under the new name the exhibition opened on June 16, 1959. In the 1960s-70s-80s, the exhibition complex became a centre for demonstrating the successes of science, industry and agriculture not only of the USSR, but also of socialist countries. From 1989 to 1992, it functioned under the name All-Union Exhibition Centre. On June 23, 1992, it was renamed into the State Joint-Stock Company All-Russian Exhibition Centre.

Lit.: Всероссийский выставочный центр // Большая российская энциклопедия; Выставочные ансамбли СССР. 1920–1930-е годы: материалы и документы / Отв. ред. В. П. Толстой. М., 2006; Зиновьев А. Н. Ансамбль ВСХВ: Архитектура и строительство. М., 2014; Зиновьева О. А. Восьмое чудо света. ВСХВ–ВДНХ–ВВЦ. М., 2014; О ВДНХ // ВДНХ – официальный сайт Выставки достижений народного хозяйства. Режим доступа: https://vdnh.ru/visitors/about/

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

Industrial and Agricultural Exhibitions // Russian State and Economy: [digital collection]