“NEW KHARKIV” AND “GREAT ZAPORIZHZHIA” PROJECTS AS REPRESENTATION OF THE URBAN PLANNING SEARCHES DURING THE PERIOD OF INDUSTRIALIZATION
Authors: Rybachok Volodymyr 
Published: February 2020

In 1929 there was launched an all-Union public campaign to discuss the prospects for the development of Soviet urban planning, known as the Socialist Settlement Discussion, in the USSR. Its main participants were not only the leading architects and urban planners of the time, but also the highest party and state figures. Under the influence of the urban development ideas arose during the discussion on the problems of socialist displacement, Ukrainian constructive architects have developed master plans for the reconstruction and expansion of residential infrastructure of two industrial centers – Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia. However, the construction projects of “Great Zaporizhzhia” and “New Kharkiv” by I. Malozemov, P. Khaustov and P. Aloshyn were not fully realised as their planning decisions undercut the basic provisions of the existing urban planning policy of the Stalinist leadership.

There appeared the idea that the plans of “New Kharkiv” and “Great Zaporizhzhia” by Ukrainian architects were the implementation of author’s view of the ideal model of a socialist town.  Based on the leading ideas of the Soviet avant-garde, the project authors proposed an original architectural and planning concept of development that had nothing to do with the urban planning experience of previous times. However, these architectural proposals were irrelevant in the USSR in the late 1920’s. In the context of Stalin's industrialization, the party apparatus attached secondary importance to housing. As a result, large-scale projects of "New Kharkiv" and "Great Zaporizhzhia" were declared "false".

Methodology. In the article we have used the historical and genetic method to determine the genesis of the concept of linear development, to find out the origin of the idea of a housing estate and to reveal the circumstances of the idea of unification of urban infrastructure, embodied by Ukrainian avant-gardists in architectural and planning decisions of “New Kharkiv” and “Great Zaporizhzhia” projects. The comparative method made it possible to determine the inconsistency of the content of the idealistic views of the Soviet constructors with the real essence of Stalin's urban policy. Thanks to the historical and systematic method, we have understood that the objects of urban infrastructure planned in the “New Kharkiv” and “Great Zaporizhzhia” projects had to enter into functional interaction, forming a single urban mechanism.

Summary. The beginning of the 20s of the XX century was marked by the emergence of interesting scientific, artistic, architectural projects both in the history of Ukraine and in the history of the whole Soviet Union.  The euphoria of belief in creating a “new” world, building a “just” society for the representatives of all social strata characterized the general sentiment and inspired intellectuals and artists to seek creative work. However, the period of “flirting” of Soviet authorities with the elites was short. Its authoritarian nature, with its actualization to the militarization of the country, left no room for creative initiative and development of individuality. At the beginning of the first five-year schedule, the government decided to abandon the massive construction of comfortable housing for workers. All resources were planned to focus on the construction of heavy industry facilities. Therefore, futuristic projects of “New Kharkiv” and “Great Zaporizhzhia” were rejected because of their inconsistency with the true state urbanistic doctrine of the industrialization period.