Soviet constructivism is a particular style of abstract art, which grew out of a movement known to most art historians as cubism and futurism. While the origins of cubism and futurism were forged in Paris and Italy in the late nineteenth century, the beginnings of soviet constructivist art can only be traced to the Bolshevik revolution of the early twentieth century. The Bolsheviks, obsessed with the idea of creating a culturally unified Russia, began their process of "russification" which involved creating a central censorship office to oversee and censor all of the arts. The office was responsible for the strict censorship of all of the arts; only the arenas of visual and literary arts were given a relative margin for originality and creativity on the conditions that the artists did not include any overly political content. This was a time of experimentation for the soviet artists; a time in which they could test the limits of the power of the censorship office. The art and aesthetics of the constructivists would come to bother the soviet government more than they had ever imagined.

El Lissitzky "Proun" c. 1922-1923

Therefore, out of the birth of soviet Russia, came an art movement which took off with uncontrollable momentum. But to understand this movement, the term "constructivism", from which the movement grew must be examined. It was originally from the Realist Manifesto written by the constructivists Tatlin, Pevsner, and Gabo, that the term constructivism was coined; the derivative of the phrase was "to construct art." Constructivists looked upon themselves as engineers and not necessarily artists, they believed they were the engineers of vision. They constructed art from materials such as steel, glass, rope etc. previously not popular with artists (except for the cubists.) Two of the main facets upon which the basis of constructivism was originally conceived were functionalism and non-representation in art. The materials that the constructivists used were symbolic of the functionalist aspect of the style; most of the materials were previously industrial devices and tools. The concept of non-representational art was founded by Wassily Kandinsky and was built upon the principle that one shouldn't be able to define the image that one sees in a work of art; on the contrary, one should be looking at pure abstraction and extracting ideas (stimulated by the work) from one's own subconscious. However, the pioneering artists of the movement, each had very unique and individual styles that were contributed to the constructivist movement.

Malevich "Untitled" c. 1916

The most notable constructivist artists were Vladimir Tatlin, El Lissitzky, Kazimir Malevich, and Aleksandr Rodchenko. It is general knowledge that the constructivist movement had been initiated by the aforementioned artists, but there were many others who actively participated in the construstivist movment. Most art historians would consider the token piece of soviet constructivist art to be Tatlin's "Monument to the Third International" which was made out of iron and glass and meant to be a monument to soviet artists. The intracately abstract structure was eventually supposed to be a building which would enclose lecture halls and rooms for meetings and conferences, but the Soviet government deemed the model too abstract to be made into a real building.

Tatlin "Monument to the Third International" c. 1920

Lissitzky, El Proun c. 1922-1923, gouache, india ink, pencil, conte crayon, and varnish on buff paper. Guggenheim Museum, New York. http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_work_md_902.html.

Malevich, Kazimir, Untitled c. 1916, oil on canvas. Guggenheim Museum, New York. http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_work_md_942.html.

Tatlin, Vladimir, Monument to the Third International c. 1920, glass and iron. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. http://search.eb.com/bol/topic?idxref=45727.