Lizzie Spanjer

20^th Century Planning Under Communism

Factors Leading to the Rise of Communism

The political, social and economic circumstances predating the establishment of a socialist state in Russia and China were turbulent, causing unplanned urban growth. A significant increase in industrial development in Russia, during the decades preceding the 1917 October Revolution, caused the migration of rural peasants to cities. According to French (1995) the rapid increase in urban population caused unplanned slum-suburbs to develop, surrounding the workers’ factories. These communities lacked access to amenities and proper sanitation, emphasising a social and economic dislocation between the workers, bourgeois and aristocratic classes within Russia.

Similarly, Wu and Gaubatz (2013) argue that the political unrest predating the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 permitted unbalanced urban development, and unequal distribution of wealth, resources and employment opportunities throughout the districts of China. Diener & Hagen (2012) assert that the increasing urban inequalities within the two totalitarian nations frosted a growth in alternative socialist thinking; which campaigned to provided regulated, serviced and planned urban living environments.

USSR: Planning Under Communism

Socialism under Lenin, beginning in 1917, endeavoured to nationalise living standards amongst rural and urban communities, in order to conform to Marxist ideology. This was achieved by assuming responsibility for the development, planning and control of the urban environment (Diener & Hagen, 2012). The households of the wealthy aristocratic and bourgeois classes were commandeered and subdivided to provide housing relief for within the overpopulated worker slums (French, 1995).  However, political unrest produced by War Communism and the internal conflicts of Civil War did not permit practical development, within the initial decade of Bolshevik socialism (French, 1995).

The establishment of the new socialist state inspired a intense debate on the nature of urban planning, with most soviet architects desiring to separate their ideas and techniques from those practised under the rule of the Tsar (Diener & Hagen, 2012). Further, the availabilities of new building materials, such as concrete and glass allowed for changes in traditional structures, such as the use of curvature (French, 1995).

The concept of the Garden City proposed by Ebenezer Howard 1898, provided great influence to early socialist planning, as it coincided with Marxist ideologies, by eliminating the distinction between urban towns and rural farms (French, 1995).  Governmental organisations were formed to plan new urban areas in accordance with Howard’s philosophies, and as such the International Garden City Society formed in 1922.  These organisations aimed to implement policies for planning and erecting metropolises, one such decree being that one tenth of residential areas must be maintained as green-space, and every residence must be within sixty meters of a park (French, 1995).  The concepts of the garden city were able to influence the planning of several green-space city suburbs, such as Tver’, in 1924. The physical imprint of Howard’s Garden City in Soviet Russia was limited, however it allowed for many new ideas and philosophies of planning to form, affecting the creation of future developments.

Two schools of planning arose during the 1920s, commonly classified as the “Disurbanists” and “Urbanists”, although often the ideals of each would intertwine. French (1995) argues that, Disurbanist ideology focused on marrying the town and country, illuminating densely consolidated urban areas. The town planner Kirillov (1976) stated that the inspiration for a city should be “not greenery in the town, but the town in green plantations”. This statement highlights the fancifulness and romanticism of Disurbanist views. The beliefs of the Urbanists, coincided with that of the Disurbanists’ in some regards, as they agreed that towns should be generously endowed with access to greenery. Despite this, Urbanists’ did not believe in the complete eradication of built metropolises, but rather to transform densely populated cities into properly planned smaller urban towns (Diener & Hagen, 2012).  Further, many key Urbanist architects believed that individuals should reside in communal living quarters, with separate sleeping dorms, and shared fatalities (French, 1995).

(Urbanist suburb in Moscow, 1984, via Friends-partners.org, 2015)

French (1995) states that the decades after the revolution accomplished little significant physical development of buildings and towns, as the arguments and designs of the Disurbanists and Urbanists remained predominantly theoretical. However, these concepts and ideas, influenced by Marxist ideology, allowed the development of the principle structure for future urban town planning (French, 1995).

China: Planning Under Communism

Over the 20^th century, Chinese cities have undergone dramatic physical and geographical changes. According to Wu & Gausutz (2013) before the 1949 establishment of the People’s Republic of China, over 80% of the urban population lived along the east coast, with the remainder of the country being utilised for agricultural land. However, urban development during the period of 1949-79 allowed for a change in the traditional chinse town planning styles.

The turbulent political events faced by the People’s Republic of China in the begging of the 20^th century caused extensive damage to the political, social and economic structure, causing many citizens to live and work in overcrowded, unserviced slums.  Socialism, under the leadership of Mao, encouraged the development of smaller cities in central China and away from coastal areas. This was achieved by expanding in the rain transport, coal and petroleum industries (Wu & Gausutz, 2013). The availability of jobs in these trades encouraged significant growth in rural-urban migration, increasing the presence of small to medium urban municipalities. Further, Wu & Gausutz (2013) argue that the development in a more extensive and efficient national railway allowed the individual access to more expansive areas of China.

The environment of urban planning in China remained fluid over the preceding decades. In the late 1950s, there was reversal in the trend of central urban migration and growth due to the failure of small industry, natural disasters. Eastern cities then returned to supporting the full strain of providing economic prosperity to the remainder of the country (Wu & Gausutz, 2013).

The People’s Republic of China has allowed for the development of hundreds of new urban centres to form, allowing wider China to become more accessible and provide jobs to its ever-increasing population. However, Wu & Gausutz (2013) state that the changing political structure of China will affect the manner in which cities and towns are planned.

References List

Diener, A., & Hagen, J. (2015). From socialist to post-socialist cities. London: Routledge.

French, R. (1995). Plans, pragmatism and people. London: UCL Press.

Friends-partners.org,. (2015). My Russian Adventure, Ostankinskaya Bashnia. Retrieved 20 April 2015, from http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/skipevans/atl/russia/st03.htm

Weiping Wu and Poper Gaubatz. (2013). The Urban System Since 1949’ in The Chinese City. London/ New York Routledge. pp 71-92