Post-Socialist Urban Development: The Socio-Spatial Remodelling of Soviet Infrastructure in the 1990s

The urban infrastructure of the Soviet Union continues to shape the everyday life of residents in post-socialist cities today. Some buildings are directly reminiscent of large-scale industrialisation, affordable housing programmes or the Soviet Union’s goal of establishing a communist society. Although much of Soviet infrastructure is still in use today, many buildings are empty or have been completely transformed under the impact of neoliberal capitalism.

As part of the collaborative project »CitiesBuildingCulture: Built Heritage in Post-Soviet Urban Development« and in cooperation with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the RWTH Aachen, this doctoral project focuses on communal infrastructures that were multifunctional public facilities for entertainment and leisure activities. When they were built in the 1930s, buildings such as houses of culture served as an instrument of state propaganda to create the »new Soviet man«. They not only formed the centre of communal life, but also of the architectural ensembles of the microdistricts (mikroraion) and socialist cities (sotsgorod). This project examines how the value and functions of communal buildings from the Soviet Era have evolved in response to new political and economic circumstances since 1991, and how this has impacted the everyday lives of the urban population.