ADOPTION OF EUROPEAN EXPERIENCE IN URBAN PLANNING AND CONSTRUCTION IN THE SOVIET RUSSIA IN THE 1920-1930s: PHASES AND FORMS

The article focuses on the exploitation of foreign experience in the sphere of urban planning and civil construction engineering which is one of the insufficiently explored aspects of the Soviet town-building in the 1920-1930s. The author discloses and analyses the three main phases of the adoption of the Western experience: initial period of concessions was replaced by intentions to acquire Western knowledge and technologies through their in-depth study; finally, there came a period of mass and direct offers for foreign architects and construction engineers to work in the USSR. For each of the phases the author defines their chronological frameworks and inner culminating periods (the years of 1926-1927, 1927-1929 and 1929-1932, correspondingly); the whole cycle embraces the years from 1923 to 1937. Besides, it is shown that there were no rigid barriers between the phases: each of them in many ways originated from the previous one. The definite shift of priorities was typical only for the above-mentioned culminating dates. So, there were simultaneously multidirectional trends and complex pictures during each phase. The author examines priority tasks and forms of collaboration with foreign partners for each of the phases. In general, the author depicts a rising vector of activity in the adoption of foreign experience, from the usage of some finished results to the comprehension of foreign practices and their adaptation to the Soviet circumstances; in such context, the growing role of state institutions in organizing and stimulating collaborative activities is also shown. The author argues that the evolution was closely tied with the needs of the Soviet industrialization, which was accompanied by strong connections between industrial and civic design and construction. Achievements and failures in the adoption of foreign experience are illustrated through many examples and the analysis of statistical data.