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Description of  Town and Revolution: Soviet Architecture and City Planning, 1917-1935

Anatole Kopp argues that the earliest socialist architecture stemmed not from European painting and sculpture but from revolutionary ideals. Neither prophets nor rebels against an established order, men like Melnikov, Leonidov, Ginzburg and the Vesnin brothers worked with their new state in seeking to change man by changing his environment. Despite internal strife, poor building materials, and technical difficulties, the twenties were years of experiments in a new way of life, both architecturally and socially. Students of history, politics, architecture, and urbanism will find Town and Revolution to be a unique source book as well as a pioneering history. The author supports his findings with 200 rare plans, views, and photographs, and with texts of articles, manifestos, and documents gathered in the Soviet Union and published here in English for the first time.