Moscow Monumental: Soviet Skyscrapers and Urban Life in Stalin's Capital

Katherine Zubovich

Published by Princeton University Press 2021

Moscow Monumental

Soviet Skyscrapers and Urban Life in Stalin's Capital

Katherine Zubovich

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691205298

Overview
Contents

About this book

An in-depth history of the Stalinist skyscraper

In the early years of the Cold War, the skyline of Moscow was forever transformed by a citywide skyscraper building project. As the steel girders of the monumental towers went up, the centuries-old metropolis was reinvented to embody the greatness of Stalinist society. Moscow Monumental explores how the quintessential architectural works of the late Stalin era fundamentally reshaped daily life in the Soviet capital.

Drawing on a wealth of original archival research, Katherine Zubovich examines the decisions and actions of Soviet elites—from top leaders to master architects—and describes the experiences of ordinary Muscovites who found their lives uprooted by the ambitious skyscraper project. She shows how the Stalin-era quest for monumentalism was rooted in the Soviet Union's engagement with Western trends in architecture and planning, and how the skyscrapers required the creation of a vast and complex infrastructure. As laborers flooded into the city, authorities evicted and rehoused tens of thousands of city residents living on the plots selected for development. When completed in the mid-1950s, these seven ornate neoclassical buildings served as elite apartment complexes, luxury hotels, and ministry and university headquarters.

Moscow Monumental tells a story that is both local and broadly transnational, taking readers from the streets of interwar Moscow and New York to the marble-clad halls of the bombastic postwar structures that continue to define the Russian capital today.

Author / Editor information

Katherine Zubovich is assistant professor of history at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. Twitter @kzubovich

Reviews

"Moscow Monumental is a significant study of one of the most important building campaigns of the early Cold War and the impact it had on the urban life of the Soviet capital."—Richard Anderson, University of Edinburgh

"Moscow Monumental is a richly researched and expertly crafted book that casts the Stalin era in a new light. Zubovich has written the first history of Moscow's skyscrapers, greatly enhancing our understanding of these monumental buildings and their role in Soviet history."—Steven E. Harris, author of Communism on Tomorrow Street: Mass Housing and Everyday Life after Stalin

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Note on Transliteration and Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Red Moscow Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	10
2. The Palace Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	28
3. The War Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
4. Moscow of the Plan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
5. Moscow of the Shadows Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
6. The Vysotniki Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
7. The View from the Top Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
8. De-Stalinization and the Battle against “Excess” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
Epilogue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	263