Green cities and orderly streets: Space and culture in Moscow, 1928-1933

Journal of Urban History

Volumn 25, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 22-56

  Bittner, Stephen V ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0039110575     PISSN: 00961442     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/009614429802500102     Document Type: Article

References (115)

1. N. Bliskovksaia, Moskva: gody obnovleniia i rekonstruktsii (Moscow, 1977), 9.
2. Statisticheskii ezhegodnik goroda Moskvy i Moskvoskoi gubernii, vyp 2 (Moscow, 1927), 15. For an analysis of Moscow during these years, see Diane P. Koenker, "Urbanization and Deurbanization in the Russian Revolution and Civil War," in Party, State, and Society in the Russian Civil War, ed. Diane Koenker, William G. Rosenberg, and Ronald G. Suny (Bloomington, 1989), 90.
3. Statisticheskii ezhegodnik goroda Moskvy i Moskvoskoi gubernii, vyp 2 (Moscow, 1927), 15. For an analysis of Moscow during these years, see Diane P. Koenker, "Urbanization and Deurbanization in the Russian Revolution and Civil War," in Party, State, and Society in the Russian Civil War, ed. Diane Koenker, William G. Rosenberg, and Ronald G. Suny (Bloomington, 1989), 90.
4. William J. Chase, Workers, Society, and the Soviet State: Labor and Life in Moscow, 1918-1929 (Urbana, 1990), 19.
5. S. Frederick Starr, "Visionary Town Planning during the Cultural Revolution," in Cultural Revolution in Russia, 1928-1931, ed. Sheila Fitzpatrick (Bloomington, 1984), 208, citing Ezhegodnik literatury i iskusstva na 1929 g. (Moscow, 1930), 541 (reprinted as "The First Declaration of the Association of Urbanist-Architects," in Iz istorii Sovetskoi arkhitektury, 1926-1932, ed. K. N. Afanas'ev (Moscow, 1970), 125.
6. S. Frederick Starr, "Visionary Town Planning during the Cultural Revolution," in Cultural Revolution in Russia, 1928-1931, ed. Sheila Fitzpatrick (Bloomington, 1984), 208, citing Ezhegodnik literatury i iskusstva na 1929 g. (Moscow, 1930), 541 (reprinted as "The First Declaration of the Association of Urbanist-Architects," in Iz istorii Sovetskoi arkhitektury, 1926-1932, ed. K. N. Afanas'ev (Moscow, 1970), 125.
7. S. Frederick Starr, "Visionary Town Planning during the Cultural Revolution," in Cultural Revolution in Russia, 1928-1931, ed. Sheila Fitzpatrick (Bloomington, 1984), 208, citing Ezhegodnik literatury i iskusstva na 1929 g. (Moscow, 1930), 541 (reprinted as "The First Declaration of the Association of Urbanist-Architects," in Iz istorii Sovetskoi arkhitektury, 1926-1932, ed. K. N. Afanas'ev (Moscow, 1970), 125.
8. Anatole Kopp, Town and Revolution: Soviet Architecture and Town Planning, 1917-1935, trans. Thomas E. Burton (New York, 1970), 94, citing "Resolution of the Ideological Section of the O.S.A.: First Conference of the Association of Contemporary Architects, April 25, 1928," Sovremennaia arkhitektura 3 (1928), 78.
9. Anatole Kopp, Town and Revolution: Soviet Architecture and Town Planning, 1917-1935, trans. Thomas E. Burton (New York, 1970), 94, citing "Resolution of the Ideological Section of the O.S.A.: First Conference of the Association of Contemporary Architects, April 25, 1928," Sovremennaia arkhitektura 3 (1928), 78.
10. Richard Stites, Revolutionary Dreams: Utopian Vision and Experimental Life in the Russian Revolution (Oxford, 1989), 190-1.
11. Selim O. Khan-Magomedov, Pioneers of Soviet Architecture: The Search for New Solutions in the 1920s and 1930s, trans. Alexander Lieven, ed. Catherine Cooke (New York, 1987), 284, 333-6.
12. Lazar Kaganovich, The Socialist Reconstruction of Moscow and Other Cities in the USSR (Moscow, 1931), 39.
13. Ibid., 52.
14. Ibid., 21; Starr, "Visionary Town Planning," 228.
15. Ibid., 21; Starr, "Visionary Town Planning," 228.
16. James H. Bater, The Soviet Scene: A Geographical Perspective (London, 1989), 110.
17. Engels and Lenin concerned themselves primarily with the elimination of the differences between town and country. See Khan-Magomedov, Pioneers of Soviet Architecture, 271.
18. Khan-Magomedov, Pioneers of Soviet Architecture, 341; Stites, Revolutionary Dreams, 200; Starr, "Visionary Town Planning," 230, 239.
19. Khan-Magomedov, Pioneers of Soviet Architecture, 341; Stites, Revolutionary Dreams, 200; Starr, "Visionary Town Planning," 230, 239.
20. Khan-Magomedov, Pioneers of Soviet Architecture, 341; Stites, Revolutionary Dreams, 200; Starr, "Visionary Town Planning," 230, 239.
21. Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Cultural Front: Power and Culture in Revolutionary Russia (Ithaca, 1992), 183-215; S. Frederick Starr, Red and Hot: The Fate of Jazz in the Soviet Union (New York, 1983).
22. Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Cultural Front: Power and Culture in Revolutionary Russia (Ithaca, 1992), 183-215; S. Frederick Starr, Red and Hot: The Fate of Jazz in the Soviet Union (New York, 1983).
23. I. V. Stalin, Sochineniia 11 (Moscow, 1946-49), 248-9.
24. Anatole Kopp, "Foreign Architects in the Soviet Union during the First Two Five-Year Plans," in Reshaping Russian Architecture: Western Technology, Utopian Dreams, ed. William C. Brumfield (Cambridge, 1990), 201.
25. Milka Bliznakov, "The Realization of Utopia: Western Technology and Soviet Avant-Garde Architecture," in Reshaping Russian Architecture, 151.
26. Jeffrey Brooks, "The Press and Its Message: Images of America in the 1920s and 1930s," in Russia in the Era of NEP: Explorations in Soviet Society and Culture, ed. Sheila Fitzpatrick, Alexander Rabinowitch, and Richard Stites (Bloomington, 1991), 231-52.
27. Moskovskaia gorodskaia planovaia komissiia, Moskva v tsifrakh (Moscow, 1934), 5.
28. Khan-Magomedov, Pioneers of Soviet Architecture, 15.
29. Vsia Moskva, 1928, IV (Moscow, 1928), 155.
30. Vsia Moskva, 1929, IV (Moscow, 1929), 156.
31. Douglas R. Weiner, Models of Nature: Ecology, Conservation, and Cultural Revolution in Soviet Russia (Bloomington, 1988), 34-5.
32. For a discussion of the links between the socialist city, the green city, and a healthy city, see Vecherniaia Moskva, May 13, 1930.
33. This writer's name was B. Zybin. For a representative article, see Vecherniaia Moskva, February 26, 1929.
34. Ginzburg and Barshch submitted the second place entry in the Green City contest sponsored by the journal Stroitel'stvo Moskvy in 1929 and 1930 (Nikolai Ladovskii took first place). See S. Frederick Starr, Konstantine Melnikov: Solo Architect in Mass Society (Princeton, 1977), 171-2; Khan-Magomedov, Pioneers of Soviet Architecture, 336.
35. Ginzburg and Barshch submitted the second place entry in the Green City contest sponsored by the journal Stroitel'stvo Moskvy in 1929 and 1930 (Nikolai Ladovskii took first place). See S. Frederick Starr, Konstantine Melnikov: Solo Architect in Mass Society (Princeton, 1977), 171-2; Khan-Magomedov, Pioneers of Soviet Architecture, 336.
36. Kopp, Town and Revolution, 178, citing Mosei Ginzburg and Mikhail Barshch, "Zelenyi gorod," in Sovremennaia arkhitektura 1-2 (1930), 17.
37. Kopp, Town and Revolution, 178, citing Mosei Ginzburg and Mikhail Barshch, "Zelenyi gorod," in Sovremennaia arkhitektura 1-2 (1930), 17.
38. Vecherniaia Moskva, May 5, 1933.
39. Ibid., July 7, 1933.
40. Ibid., January 30, 1929.
41. "Kurorty," in Bol'shaia Sovetskaia entsiklopediia 35 (Moscow, 1937), 545-50.
42. Vecherniaia Moskva, February 15, 1929.
43. Ibid., March 30, 1929.
44. Ibid., April 4, 1929.
45. Ibid., May 3, 1929.
46. Ibid., May 16, 1929.
47. Ibid., May 28, 1929.
48. Ibid., March 30, 1929.
49. Ibid., July 26, 1929.
50. Ibid., September 24, 1929.
51. Ibid., March 25, 1930.
52. "Kurorty," 549.
53. New York Times, September 29, 1929.
54. Moscow Daily News, May 26, 1932.
55. Denise J. B. Shaw estimates that during the summer of 1935, more than 500,000 Muscovites left the city for vacations in other parts of the oblast. See "Recreation in the Soviet City," in The Socialist City: Spatial Structure and Urban Policy, ed. R. A. French and R. E. Ian Hamilton (New York, 1979), 132.
56. Vecherniaia Moskva, February 26, 1929. The article is fittingly titled "Pustynia pod Moskvoi."
57. Ibid.
58. Vecherniaia Moskva, March 8, 1929.
59. Ibid.
60. Vecherniaia Moskva, May 11, 1929.
61. Bliskovskaia, Moskva, 31.
62. Shaw, "Recreation in the Soviet City," 125.
63. P. V. Sytin, Iz istorii Moskovskikh ulits (Moscow, 1952), 345-6.
64. Rosalinde Sartorti, "Stalinism and Carnival: Organisation and Aesthetics of Political Holidays," in The Culture of the Stalin Period, ed. Hans Gunther (New York, 1990), 42.
65. I found far too many descriptions of Park kul'tury to provide a complete listing. For the year 1929, when the park was still a novelty and appeared almost daily in the newspapers, see Vecherniaia Moskva, January 12, 1929; May 12, 1929; June 7, 1929; June 13, 1929; July 9, 1929; August 17, 1929; October 22, 1929.
66. New York Times, August 19, 1928.
67. Vecherniaia Moskva, January 12, 1929.
68. Ibid., January 25, 1929.
69. According to Vecherniaia Moskva (September 20, 1929), this money was allocated in the fall of 1929. More than 70 percent of the park's budget for capital improvements was to go to the construction of street lamps and a new cinema.
70. Vecherniaia Moskva, June 7, 1929.
71. Excerpted from a speech made in front of 14,000 people at a meeting on the future of the park. Vecherniaia Moskva, May 26, 1930.
72. Vecherniaia Moskva, June 7, 1929; June 10, 1929.
73. Ibid., June 13, 1929.
74. Ibid., October 18, 1929.
75. D. Pisarevskii, "Parki kul'tury i otdykha," in Bol'shaia Sovetskaia entsiklopediia 44 (Moscow, 1939), 199-202.
76. Vecherniaia Moskva, March 20, 1929.
77. Pisarevskii, "Parki kul'tury i otdykha," 200.
78. Vecherniaia Moskva, August 1, 1933.
79. Ibid., April 22, 1930.
80. Moskva i Moskovskaia guberniia: statistiko-ekonomicheskii spravochnik, 1923/24-1927/28 (Moscow, 1929), 287.
81. Vecherniaia Moskva, July 20, 1929.
82. A good map of Moscow around the time of the first five-year plan can be found in Moskva v planakh: spravochnik-putevoditel' (Moscow, 1929), cover insert.
83. New York Times, June 21, 1931.
84. Vecherniaia Moskva, February 22, 1929.
85. Ibid., March 20, 1929.
86. Ibid., August 1, 1933.
87. Ibid., August 8, 1929.
88. Moscow Daily News, July 5, 1932.
89. New York Times, June 21, 1931.
90. Vecherniaia Moskva, May 5, 1933.
91. Ibid., September 8, 1933.
92. New York Times, November 19, 1933.
93. See, for instance, David Pinckney's description of Paris in 1850 in Napoleon III and the Rebuilding of Paris (Princeton, 1958), 3-24.
94. The best discussion of the cultural attributes of the traffic jam is in Vecherniaia Moskva, September 1, 1929.
95. Vecherniaia Moskva, February 9, 1933.
96. Ibid., January 5, 1933.
97. Ibid., February 6, 1930.
98. Ibid., August 8, 1933.
99. The following excerpt from the Moscow Daily News (February 16, 1931) is illustrative of just how treacherous the Moscow streets were: "Safety First" campaigns have been intensified with the advancement of mechanization. Street signs enjoin the pedestrian to cross streets only at corners and to watch out for speeding traffic. Ropes along main thoroughfares try to keep the Muscovite from using the road as a sidewalk. But in vain! The highways continue to be used as sidewalks and despite teaching the Muscovite where to walk, his old habits persist. Jumping on moving trolley cars, stealing rides by standing on couplers, tempting auto drivers to run them down by crossing directly in the path of speeding cars, they seem to do their utmost to get run over. And auto drivers do their best to run them down too. Huge buses plunging straight into crowds of people waiting for trolley buses is not an uncommon sight.
100. Vecherniaia Moskva, May 29, 1930; June 5, 1930; and June 15, 1930.
101. Ibid., May 22, 1930.
102. Ibid., June 23, 1930.
103. The Kremlin district is comprised of the Kremlin itself, the Manezh, Okhotnyi riad, and Kitai gorod. See Moskva v planakh, cover insert.
104. Sytin, Iz istorii Moskovskikh ulits, 114.
105. New York Times, July 31, 1929.
106. Vecherniaia Moskva, March 9, 1929.
107. New York Times, December 19, 1932.
108. Vecherniaia Moskva, January 16, 1929.
109. Vecherniaia Moskva, February 19, 1933. Consistent with the notion that the layout of the socialist city had to incorporate popular opinion, the design of Novo-Miasnitskii Prospekt was debated for several years in the press. In January 1929, the Central Club for Municipal Workers sponsored an exhibit on blagoustroistvo. Novo-Miasnitskii Prospekt was presented in miniature form for the Muscovite's perusal. Vecherniaia Moskva, January 28, 1929.
110. Vecherniaia Moskva, February 19, 1933. Consistent with the notion that the layout of the socialist city had to incorporate popular opinion, the design of Novo-Miasnitskii Prospekt was debated for several years in the press. In January 1929, the Central Club for Municipal Workers sponsored an exhibit on blagoustroistvo. Novo-Miasnitskii Prospekt was presented in miniature form for the Muscovite's perusal. Vecherniaia Moskva, January 28, 1929.
111. Vladimir Papemyi, "Moscow in the 1930s and the Emergence of a New City," in The Culture of the Stalin Period, ed. Hans Gunther (New York, 1990), 229-39; Greg Castillo, "Gorkii Street and the Design of the Stalin Revolution," in Streets: Critical Perspectives on Public Space, ed. Zeynep Celik, Diane Favro, and Richard Ingersoll (Berkeley, 1994), 57-70; R. A. French, "The Individuality of the Soviet City," in The Socialist City: Spatial Structure and Urban Policy, 95.
112. Vladimir Papemyi, "Moscow in the 1930s and the Emergence of a New City," in The Culture of the Stalin Period, ed. Hans Gunther (New York, 1990), 229-39; Greg Castillo, "Gorkii Street and the Design of the Stalin Revolution," in Streets: Critical Perspectives on Public Space, ed. Zeynep Celik, Diane Favro, and Richard Ingersoll (Berkeley, 1994), 57-70; R. A. French, "The Individuality of the Soviet City," in The Socialist City: Spatial Structure and Urban Policy, 95.
113. Vladimir Papemyi, "Moscow in the 1930s and the Emergence of a New City," in The Culture of the Stalin Period, ed. Hans Gunther (New York, 1990), 229-39; Greg Castillo, "Gorkii Street and the Design of the Stalin Revolution," in Streets: Critical Perspectives on Public Space, ed. Zeynep Celik, Diane Favro, and Richard Ingersoll (Berkeley, 1994), 57-70; R. A. French, "The Individuality of the Soviet City," in The Socialist City: Spatial Structure and Urban Policy, 95.
114. Vecherniaia Moskva, April 15, 1933.
115. David L. Hoffmann, Peasant Metropolis: Social Identities in Moscow, 1929-1941 (Ithaca, 1994), 147.