Soviet urban planning ideologies of the 1920s

During the 1920s, Soviet urban planning ideologies established along two competing lines: the urbanist
and disurbanist schools. Whilst the proposed form of the city differed between the two ideologies, their
visions of social organization for communal living overlapped.

Background
In the decades before the formation of the Soviet Union, Tsarist Russia had experienced a rapid period of
industrialisation and urbanisation, tripling in size between 1850 and 1914.[1] At the 1917 October
Revolution, the new State inherited overcrowded cities characterized by poor sanitation and disease, and
class divide.[2]

The 1917 revolution brought Marxist attitudes that rural life was backward and resulted in inequality.[2]
Such ideals required the distinction between rural and urban be abolished so as to raise the population to a
common standard of living. All land was nationalized and socialized, and on 20 August 1918 all urban
property was transferred by decree to the State or local authorities.[2] Houses and apartments once
belonging to the bourgeoisie were subdivided to provide accommodation for the proletariat, providing some
initial relief to overcrowding.

The collapse of the old spatial order required that new planning approaches to the city be created.[1] Whilst
the economic and labour demands of World War I and the ongoing Civil War meant that the
implementation of physical urban outcomes were prevented, a debate as to the desired form the socialist
city was initiated.[2] The debate continued throughout the 1920s, with two broad opposing schools of
thought emerging: the urbanists, and the disurbanists.[1]

Urbanist school
The urbanist school was led by Leonid Sabsovich, and included significant architects of the time including
the brothers Viktor, Leonid and Alexander Vesnin, and the brothers Panteleymon and Ilya Golosov.[2] They
opposed the expansion of existing cities and instead advocated for a partial decentralisation to a system of
self-contained, compact centres located around industry,[3] of a fixed population of approximately 50,000
people.[1]

These new cities would embody strict land-use zoning, development of both housing and industry,
walkable journeys to work, green spaces and leisure facilities, and a non-commercial centre.[1] Both
Bater[1] and French[2] acknowledge the influence of the Garden city movement on the concept, though the
degree is debated.

Such a city would break down distinctions between the agriculturalist and proletarian, and dissolve the
nuclear family to create a completely communal way of life.[1] Key to the concept was the creation of
communal houses, each accommodating two to three thousand people in separate sleeping units – ‘cells’ of
5 to 6 square metres each.[3] All other activities, including kitchens, eating halls, crèches and kindergartens,
would be accommodated in communal facilities attached to or nearby the communal house.[2] An extreme
example was Ivan Kuznin’s proposal in which the day for each age group would be ordered with precisely
regulated timing for each action, such as waking up, washing, dressing, walking to dining hall.[3]
Design competitions for communal houses include Kharkiv in 1924-5, Moscow in 1925-6 and Leningrad
in 1930.[2]

Disurbanist school
The disurbanist school was led by the theorists M. Okhitovich and M. Ginsburg.[1] In contrast to the
urbanists, the disurbanists saw the achievement of the Marxist goal of the dissolution of the difference
between town and country as the total abolition of the traditional concept of the town.[2] They proposed
that settlement be dispersed across the whole of the Soviet Union in the form of continuous ribbon
developments. Individual dwellings would be distributed along roads in natural and rural surroundings, but
within easy reach of communal dining and recreation amenities.[1] Employment centres would be located at
road junctions, with bus services transporting workers from their houses.[2] Whilst individual living space
would be private, the disurbanists proposed a communal lifestyle similar to that proposed by the
urbanists.[2]

Proposals put forward by the disurbanists included Okhitovich’s 1930 plan for Magnitogorsk which
consisted of eight 25km long ribbons converging on a metallurgical plant.[2] Ginsberg imagined that
Moscow’s population be emptied and resettled in long linear zones of communal houses through forests,
serviced by bus stations and zones of recreation and service amenities at regular intervals.[2]

Abandonment
While many proposals were put forward by both the urbanists and disurbanists schools of thought, very
few were actually implemented. French[2] argues that the theoreticians failed to understand the social
working of groups. The majority of the working class rejected the idea of the collective dwelling and Stalin
being a political realist saw the proposals as too utopian - dangerous experiments that could be
economically crippling.[2] The planning ideas of the urbanists and disurbanists were subsequently
abandoned with the State reverting to classicism.

See also
Urban planning in communist countries
Sotsgorod: Cities for Utopia

References
1. Bater, J (1980). The Soviet City: Ideal and Reality. London: Edward Arnold. p. 17.
2. French, R (1995). Plans, pragmatism and people: The legacy of Soviet planning for today’s
cities. London: UCL Press. p. 29.
3. Macel, O (1989). "Tradition, Innovation and Politics". In Kloos, M. (ed.). Soviet Architecture.
Amsterdam: Art Unlimited Books. p. 18.

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