Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This fifth episode discusses the massive construction in the USSR during the first Five Year Plan (early 30s), and the fight against "aesthetic nihilism".
Playlist with all episodes in this series:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbnLysSug0vTTYxx76kBZcN8ZLNCNdEZl
Script:
mltheory.wordpress.com/2025/04/13/history-of-soviet-architecture-and-city-planning-part-5-against-aesthetic-nihilism-1928-34
SOURCES*
Ksenia Choate, From "Stalinkas" to "Khrushchevkas": The Transition to Minimalism in Urban Residential Interiors in the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964
James H. Bater, The Soviet city: ideal and reality
Михаил Цапенко, О реалистических основах советской архитектуры
archive.org/details/tsapenko_mp_o_realisticheskikh_osnovakh_sovetskoi_arkhitektu/page/224/mode/1up
Christina E. Crawford, Spatial Revolution: Architecture and Planning in the Early Soviet Union
Anatole Kopp, Town and revolution; Soviet architecture and city planning, 1917-1935
Ella Winter, Red Virtue
archive.org/details/RedVirtue/page/n1/mode/2up
Н. В. Баранова, Архитектура СССР 1933—1941 гг. Архитектура промышленных сооружений tehne.com/event/arhivsyachina/arhitektura-sssr-1933-1941-gg-arhitektura-promyshlennyh-sooruzheniy
A. Bazdyrev, History of Soviet Architecture: From Palaces to Boxes revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv21n1/architecture.htm
Andreĭ Vladimirovich Ikonnikov, Russian architecture of the Soviet period
N. Ya. Kolli, Tasks of Soviet architecture: The main stages of development of Soviet architecture, 1937
tehne.com/library/kolli-n-ya-zadachi-sovetskoy-arhitektury-osnovnye-etapy-razvitiya-sovetskoy-arhitektury-moskva-1937
Hannes Meyer, On Marxist Architecture, 1931
“Main trends in the development of architecture in capitalist countries after 1917” in Vol. 11 of General history of architecture in 12 volumes (1966-1977) ed. A. V. Ikonnikov
Hans Blumenfeld, "USSR Postwar Reconstruction", TASK Planning and Architecture, Vol. 7-8, special issue on Reconstruction (published by Harvard University), 1948
archive.org/details/1948-blumenfeld-ussr-postwar-reconstruction-task/mode/1up
Heather DeHaan, Stalinist City Planning: Professionals, Performance, and Power
*Bater, Crawford, Kopp and Dehaan are anti-communist writers who I don't recommend. Choate is not terrible, despite being bourgeois. Meyer is an opportunist. The other sources are recommended.
---------------------------------
My patreon
patreon.com/TheFinnishBolshevik
My discord
discord.gg/88JwkF5UhK
My blog
mltheory.wordpress.com
My Email
thefinnishbolshevik@gmail.com
This fifth episode discusses the massive construction in the USSR during the first Five Year Plan (early 30s), and the fight against "aesthetic nihilism".
Playlist with all episodes in this series:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbnLysSug0vTTYxx76kBZcN8ZLNCNdEZl
Script:
mltheory.wordpress.com/2025/04/13/history-of-soviet-architecture-and-city-planning-part-5-against-aesthetic-nihilism-1928-34
SOURCES*
Ksenia Choate, From "Stalinkas" to "Khrushchevkas": The Transition to Minimalism in Urban Residential Interiors in the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964
James H. Bater, The Soviet city: ideal and reality
Михаил Цапенко, О реалистических основах советской архитектуры
archive.org/details/tsapenko_mp_o_realisticheskikh_osnovakh_sovetskoi_arkhitektu/page/224/mode/1up
Christina E. Crawford, Spatial Revolution: Architecture and Planning in the Early Soviet Union
Anatole Kopp, Town and revolution; Soviet architecture and city planning, 1917-1935
Ella Winter, Red Virtue
archive.org/details/RedVirtue/page/n1/mode/2up
Н. В. Баранова, Архитектура СССР 1933—1941 гг. Архитектура промышленных сооружений tehne.com/event/arhivsyachina/arhitektura-sssr-1933-1941-gg-arhitektura-promyshlennyh-sooruzheniy
A. Bazdyrev, History of Soviet Architecture: From Palaces to Boxes revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv21n1/architecture.htm
Andreĭ Vladimirovich Ikonnikov, Russian architecture of the Soviet period
N. Ya. Kolli, Tasks of Soviet architecture: The main stages of development of Soviet architecture, 1937
tehne.com/library/kolli-n-ya-zadachi-sovetskoy-arhitektury-osnovnye-etapy-razvitiya-sovetskoy-arhitektury-moskva-1937
Hannes Meyer, On Marxist Architecture, 1931
“Main trends in the development of architecture in capitalist countries after 1917” in Vol. 11 of General history of architecture in 12 volumes (1966-1977) ed. A. V. Ikonnikov
Hans Blumenfeld, "USSR Postwar Reconstruction", TASK Planning and Architecture, Vol. 7-8, special issue on Reconstruction (published by Harvard University), 1948
archive.org/details/1948-blumenfeld-ussr-postwar-reconstruction-task/mode/1up
Heather DeHaan, Stalinist City Planning: Professionals, Performance, and Power
*Bater, Crawford, Kopp and Dehaan are anti-communist writers who I don't recommend. Choate is not terrible, despite being bourgeois. Meyer is an opportunist. The other sources are recommended.
---------------------------------
My patreon
patreon.com/TheFinnishBolshevik
My discord
discord.gg/88JwkF5UhK
My blog
mltheory.wordpress.com
My Email
thefinnishbolshevik@gmail.com
