Why read Moscow Monumental?

Book cover of Moscow Monumental: Soviet Skyscrapers and Urban Life in Stalin's Capital

Book description

An in-depth history of the Stalinist skyscraper

In the early years of the Cold War, the skyline of Moscow was forever transformed by a citywide skyscraper building project. As the steel girders of the monumental towers went up, the centuries-old metropolis was reinvented to embody the greatness of Stalinist society.…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Moscow Monumental as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Brandon M. Schechter

Author

If you have spent any time in Moscow, you can’t help but notice the seven Stalinist vysotki (“tall buildings” – not to be confused with capitalist skyscrapers) that dot the landscape. I love how this book provides a full history and context of how these buildings embodied many aspects of Soviet ideology, with all of its contradictions.

Zubovich combines this with the stories of the people connected with them – those displaced to make way for their construction, Gulag inmates who were key to their construction, and the Soviet elites who lived in them.

From Brandon's list on books about Soviet stuff.