The Reconstruction of Moscow

THE STYLE OF NEW MOSCOW

Socialism will put you in barracks! Socialism will take all the joy out of life! These are slogans by means of which defenders of the capitalist system seek to antagon- ize the toilers against the socialist order. In the sphere of architecture the Leftist phrasemongers tried to ascribe views to the proletariat which are foreign to it. Instead of utilizing to the full the cultural heritage of past centuries, and critically assimilating it, the yulgar- izers in architecture proposed to dump everything onto the dust heap of history, discarding even the best of what has remained from the past. The decision of the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the C.P.S.U. decisively re- jects any such attitude towards architecture, and demands the utilization "of the best examples of classical and mod- ern architecture." The planning of the city will establish for many de- cades in advance the layout of the city, of its individual districts, its main thoroughfares, squares and its entire system of streets, its blocks of houses and public build- ings, its transportation system, particularly in respect to the vast undertaking of the new railroad junction, the subway and the Moscow-Volga Canal.

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