Dynamic Cityscapes

Contesting the Soviet City

Author(s): Heather DeHaan
Editor(s): Stephen Aris, Matthias Neumann, Robert Orttung, Jeronim Perovic, Heiko Pleines, Hans-Henning Schröder
Series: Russian Analytical Digest (RAD)
Issue: 85
Pages: 2-5
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen; Institute of History, University of Basel
Publication Year: 2010

Even in the Soviet period, Russian cities were negotiated entities, emerging from the complex intersection of institutional, social, and political interests. As seen in Nizhnii Novgorod in the 1930s, despite the Stalinist government's overarching economic and political power, no truly centralized program for the city's growth emerged. The conflict-ridden interplay of planners, municipal leaders, industrial interests, Politburo demands, and common residents determined the city's actual, as opposed to planned, development. In effect, as Soviet-era planners complained, the city built itself.

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