Important historical buildings are being threatened in Moscow. Preservationists are “concerned about the legacy of the Soviet avant-garde, the buildings designed in the 15 or so years following the 1917 October revolution, perhaps the most fertile period in Russian architectural history. These buildings range from the expressionistic forms of architects like Konstantin Melnikov to the machine-inspired, functionalist structures of the Constructivists. They are stunning for their eclecticism, yet they were united by an unfaltering optimism. The goal was to overthrow centuries of cultural history and to replace that past with an architectural order that would embody the values of a new, modern society.”