Reshaping Russian Architecture: Western Technology, Utopian Dreams

Reshaping Russian Architecture examines the development of twentieth-century Russian architecture as it relates to the transformation of the imperial Russia into an industrialised Soviet empire and shows how Western notions of style and technology were assimilated on a massive scale into a uniquely Russian vision. Among the issues examined in articles by four distinguished historians of architecture and urban planning are: the decline of imperial architectural design during the mid-nineteenth century as occasioned by fundamental changes in aesthetic values and the social structure; the denouncement of the European capitalist economic system and consequent rejection of modern urban architecture during the period immediately prior to the 1917 revolution; and utopian concepts of modern urban design that were implemented during the interwar years of phenomenal industrial development. An important contribution to our understanding of Russian and Soviet culture in a critical period of its evolution, Reshaping Russian Architecture will also appeal to those interested in modern architecture and urban planning in general.