Our excursion walk starts at the Regional Centre of Trade-Unions. This building was constructed in 1953 by design of architects A.A. Lepkovsky and N.A. Lamauri.

The view of four monumental columns at the entrance is the first thing that attracts our attention. This colonnade portico creates a dynamic illusion of an orderly movement. An architectural column is one of the oldest structures and its utilitarian prototype has been the trunk of a tree used as a primitive support for the canopy-roof of ancient dwellings. As the architecture art was developing, column underwent structural changes and attained its perfection in sculptures of atlantes and caryatids like those in the Acropolis of Athens and Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The most popular column types include the Doric order named for the tribe of the Dorians, Ionic order named for the tribe of the Ionians, and the Corinthian order named for the city of Corinth. The architectural concept of order is highly important and implies the structural harmony of column's elements and décor motives.

The most important structural constituents of column include its base, fust and capital or head, and in our case it is the Corinthian capital.

As we can see, each column has square section, and the column fust is cut with cannelures or grooves, which enhance the impression of lightness and slenderness of these massive columns. The base of the column performs two functions: it distributes the structural load and is also a harmonic completion of the lower part of the structure. At the very bottom of the column, there is a massive square slab, which serves as a perfectly reliable support of the entire construction. Three different-sized rollers above it smoothly pass into each other as if light sea waves, and the same smoothly they pass into the column's fust. The column is crowned with a composite Corinthian capital, which is a magnificent and graceful completion of its upper part. The bas-relief images of massive carved acanthus leaves sound in unison with the entire column design.

There is a well-known legend about sculptor Kallimah, who lived in Corinth in the second half of the 5^th century B. C. Once he saw on the tomb of a young girl a wicker basket braided with broad leaves of acanthus that is a common plant in the Mediterranean. Kallimah used this motive to create the Corinthian capital of a column. As you can see, the capital widens in its upper part like a wicker basket, and the flowing curls or volutes of stems harmonizing with shaped leaves enhance its splendor.

And now let's take a closer look at the column's capital. We can distinguish the well-known Soviet symbols, which are the Sickle and Hammer harmonically fringed with stem volutes, and somewhat above them there is a five-pointed star. The most remarkable thing is that the Soviet symbols do not introduce any dissonance into the classical bas-relief composition but just naturally enrich the original décor motive with the ideas of a new era. Perhaps, some centuries later new researchers won't just admire the beautiful samples of ancient architecture but will also use such dИcor elements to understand and study periods of the Communist ideology in our country. That is why, irrespective of someone's beliefs and preferences, we must preserve architectural creations and protect them from destruction.

The harmonious proportions of the column make us feel respectful and appreciative of the talent of architects.

The next structural element of our interest is the classical triangular fronton or gable that is the natural completion of the building's façade. Tympan is the interior area of the fronton and it bears the stucco relief with the image of a heraldic shield framed with imitations of torn edges of a paper scroll. In the middle of the shield or cartouche there is the Sickle and Hammer, which are the main Soviet symbols, and the bowed Red Banners are on the sides. The composition is complemented with the garland of interwoven wheat ears, which symbolize the wealth and prosperity. And again we can see here an unobtrusive combination of artistic motives of different epochs.

Finally, we can see several bas-relief panels, which show the everyday life of Soviet people. There are images of gambling athletes, enthusiastic design engineers, miners, and other personages. Children are playing fun games, chess players are thinking hard about moves, and someone is resting. The ideological goal of these art panels was to make people feel pride for their Soviet motherland, which had just few years before won German fascism, also to inspire them with the faith into a brighter future and make them striving for new labor victories.

And let's once again admire the creative energy of architects embodied in this magnificent structure that is the architectural masterpiece full of constructive and compositional harmony.

Photo 9-12. Bas-relief panels