Which Russian avant-garde school was founded in Moscow in 1920?

The Russian avant-garde school founded in Moscow in 1920 was Vkhutemas.

Its name is an acronym for the Russian phrase meaning “Higher Art and Technical Studios.” The school was created by a Soviet government decree under Vladimir Lenin, partly to train artists, designers, architects, and engineers for modern industry. It replaced the Moscow Svomas and united the former Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture with the Stroganov School of Applied Arts.

Vkhutemas taught both fine art and practical design. Students studied graphics, sculpture, and architecture alongside textiles, ceramics, metalworking, woodworking, and printing. Its experimental foundation courses and emphasis on geometric form made it a major center of modernist design.

It is often compared with Germany’s Bauhaus, but the two were separate institutions. Vkhutemas operated in Moscow from 1920 until 1930, when political and educational changes led to its dissolution and reorganization.