Frontier town into metropolis; red Moscow; from reurbanization to hyperurbanization; Stalin's Moscow; the limits of de-Stalinization; the politics of basic needs and of urban amenity; the mould shattered; toward a post-Socialist metropolis; appendices - the population of Moscow, composition and administrative structure of the municipal and Communist Party organs of Soviet Moscow, careers of municipal and Communist Party officials, housing construction and supply in Soviet Moscow.
[An] important book...[Colton] gives us an encyclopedic account of
how the 'socialist metropolis' was governed from the Bolshevik
seizure of power in 1917 to the victory of the 'democrats' in
1990...[The author takes] seriously two things that the dominant
social approach to the Soviet experiment largely neglects: the
party and socialism. -- Martin Malia "Washington Post Book
World"
[Colton's] writing reflects a significant amount of original
research--documents from the Moscow Party and city archives,
contemporary press accounts, oral histories and surveys--as well as
a mastery of current and past scholarship...[His] approach is
laudable. Colton pulls together disparate topics, those subjects
which are often treated by other scholars as if they have not
relation to each other...One of Colton's triumphs is that he
rescues architecture and urban planning from the purview of
aesthetes, charting how successive regimes attempted to use
Moscow's built environment as a tool in creating the socialist
metropolis..."Moscow" is a welcome addition to the ever-expanding
scholarship of Soviet history and serves as a helpful reference
book. -- Bay Brown "Moscow Times"
A short review can hardly do justice to the richness of this work.
It stands as a testimony to scholarship of the highest order. --
Richard Sakwa "Labour History Review"
A sprawling, affectionate history of who governed the socialist
metropolis, and how they did...a lively, judicious
analysis...[Colton's] felicitous phrases shine like polished onion
domes amid concrete-block high-rises. Startling revelations fall
thickly and accumulate...Timothy J. Colton has given us a blueprint
for reading the contemporary capital, superbly demonstrating the
depth of the Soviet-era contribution to the ancient city's outer
face and inner structure. -- Stephen Kotkin "New York Times Book
Review"
Colton's is a model narrative. A city emerges from it, at once
vital and deeply damaged, more at the mercy of ideologues and
fanatics than any other comparable settlement in this century
(more, for example, than Rome or Berlin), yet resistant to them
because its people could not in the end be marshalled into the
plans. -- John Lloyd "London Review of Books"
Here is a blockbuster of a book, massive in its exploration of the
fluctuating fortunes of a capital city long associated with
Stalin's urban massif of crenellated 'frosted wedding cakes' in
concrete and steel, yet also the home of the Kremlin, Red Square
and St Basil's Cathedral. This juxtaposition is...sufficient for
Timothy J. Colton not only to regard "Moscow" as unique but also to
embark on an astonishingly detailed and wholly absorbing
investigation of what this meant in the past and what present
changes mean for Moscow and for truncated Russia...[A] monumental
and absorbing study, furnishing rich material for the historian,
erstwhile Sovietologist, demographer, architect and well-tempered
traveller. -- John Erickson "Times Higher Education Supplement"
Moscow had a very different fate this century, as is documented in
Timothy Colton's exhaustively researched tome. A powerfully,
assertive Soviet Union rose from the ashes of the Russian Empire,
and Moscow was its capital. Colton provides a thorough social and
political history of the city's rise, with useful maps and
illustrations. The book is a mine of information that regular
visitors of Moscow will quarry with pleasure...The book, like the
city it documents is huge, a monumental history of a monumental
city. -- Peter Rutland "National Interest"
Truly [this] is a grand history of one of the world's ancient and
great cities, and, for that, it is also a major modern contribution
to the field of urban history. More significantly, however, by
digging so deeply into the history of Moscow under the tsars, the
communists, and the current rulers, Colton has created an important
angle on modern Russian history. This is Russia's story from the
bottom up, merging political with social history.
ÝAn¨ important book...ÝColton¨ gives us an encyclopedic account of
how the 'socialist metropolis' was governed from the Bolshevik
seizure of power in 1917 to the victory of the 'democrats' in
1990...ÝThe author takes¨ seriously two things that the dominant
social approach to the Soviet experiment largely neglects: the
party and socialism. -- Martin Malia "Washington Post Book
World"
ÝColton's¨ writing reflects a significant amount of original
research--documents from the Moscow Party and city archives,
contemporary press accounts, oral histories and surveys--as well as
a mastery of current and past scholarship...ÝHis¨ approach is
laudable. Colton pulls together disparate topics, those subjects
which are often treated by other scholars as if they have not
relation to each other...One of Colton's triumphs is that he
rescues architecture and urban planning from the purview of
aesthetes, charting how successive regimes attempted to use
Moscow's built environment as a tool in creating the socialist
metropolis..."Moscow" is a welcome addition to the ever-expanding
scholarship of Soviet history and serves as a helpful reference
book. -- Bay Brown "Moscow Times"
Colton has written a faithful chronicle of Moscow from revolution
(1917) to revolution (1989), adding a historical prefix and
postscript for both fleshing out a comprehensive biography of the
city...There is no comparable work, let alone one that uses the
newly accessible people and documents Colton has so successfully
mined...None match Colton's Soviet-period detail and analytic
insight...The book is essential for any academic library.
Truly Ýthis¨ is a grand history of one of the world's ancient and
great cities, and, for that, it is also a major modern contribution
to the field of urban history. More significantly, however, by
digging so deeply into the history of Moscow under the tsars, the
communists, and the current rulers, Colton has created an important
angle on modern Russian history. This is Russia's story from the
bottom up, merging political with social history.
From personal interviews to published memoirs, from newspapers to
statistical surveys, from official documents to literature, Colton
has made good use of them all. Furthermore, he openly admits having
received invaluable input from some of the finest minds in
academia, and his acknowledgements section reads like a 'who's who'
of international sovietology. The list includes scholars who have
also produced urban histories, but what is most significant about
the roster is that it includes representatives from many different
disciplines. This point not only highlights the inter-disciplinary
nature of Colton's work, but also the fact that his book should be
of great interest to people outside the history departments of the
world. To put it most simply, this 'city biography' contains
something for almost everyone.
[An] important book...[Colton] gives us an encyclopedic account of
how the 'socialist metropolis' was governed from the Bolshevik
seizure of power in 1917 to the victory of the 'democrats' in
1990...[The author takes] seriously two things that the dominant
social approach to the Soviet experiment largely neglects: the
party and socialism. -- Martin Malia "Washington Post Book
World"
[Colton's] writing reflects a significant amount of original
research--documents from the Moscow Party and city archives,
contemporary press accounts, oral histories and surveys--as well as
a mastery of current and past scholarship...[His] approach is
laudable. Colton pulls together disparate topics, those subjects
which are often treated by other scholars as if they have not
relation to each other...One of Colton's triumphs is that he
rescues architecture and urban planning from the purview of
aesthetes, charting how successive regimes attempted to use
Moscow's built environment as a tool in creating the socialist
metropolis..."Moscow" is a welcome addition to the ever-expanding
scholarship of Soviet history and serves as a helpful reference
book. -- Bay Brown "Moscow Times"
A short review can hardly do justice to the richness of this work.
It stands as a testimony to scholarship of the highest order. --
Richard Sakwa "Labour History Review"
A sprawling, affectionate history of who governed the socialist
metropolis, and how they did...a lively, judicious
analysis...[Colton's] felicitous phrases shine like polished onion
domes amid concrete-block high-rises. Startling revelations fall
thickly and accumulate...Timothy J. Colton has given us a blueprint
for reading the contemporary capital, superbly demonstrating the
depth of the Soviet-era contribution to the ancient city's outer
face and inner structure. -- Stephen Kotkin "New York Times Book
Review"
Colton's is a model narrative. A city emerges from it, at once
vital and deeply damaged, more at the mercy of ideologues and
fanatics than any other comparable settlement in this century
(more, for example, than Rome or Berlin), yet resistant to them
because its people could not in the end be marshalled into the
plans. -- John Lloyd "London Review of Books"
Here is a blockbuster of a book, massive in its exploration of the
fluctuating fortunes of a capital city long associated with
Stalin's urban massif of crenellated 'frosted wedding cakes' in
concrete and steel, yet also the home of the Kremlin, Red Square
and St Basil's Cathedral. This juxtaposition is...sufficient for
Timothy J. Colton not only to regard "Moscow" as unique but also to
embark on an astonishingly detailed and wholly absorbing
investigation of what this meant in the past and what present
changes mean for Moscow and for truncated Russia...[A] monumental
and absorbing study, furnishing rich material for the historian,
erstwhile Sovietologist, demographer, architect and well-tempered
traveller. -- John Erickson "Times Higher Education Supplement"
Moscow had a very different fate this century, as is documented in
Timothy Colton's exhaustively researched tome. A powerfully,
assertive Soviet Union rose from the ashes of the Russian Empire,
and Moscow was its capital. Colton provides a thorough social and
political history of the city's rise, with useful maps and
illustrations. The book is a mine of information that regular
visitors of Moscow will quarry with pleasure...The book, like the
city it documents is huge, a monumental history of a monumental
city. -- Peter Rutland "National Interest"
Truly [this] is a grand history of one of the world's ancient and
great cities, and, for that, it is also a major modern contribution
to the field of urban history. More significantly, however, by
digging so deeply into the history of Moscow under the tsars, the
communists, and the current rulers, Colton has created an important
angle on modern Russian history. This is Russia's story from the
bottom up, merging political with social history.
YAn important book...YColton gives us an encyclopedic account of
how the 'socialist metropolis' was governed from the Bolshevik
seizure of power in 1917 to the victory of the 'democrats' in
1990...YThe author takes seriously two things that the dominant
social approach to the Soviet experiment largely neglects: the
party and socialism. -- Martin Malia "Washington Post Book
World"
YColton's writing reflects a significant amount of original
research--documents from the Moscow Party and city archives,
contemporary press accounts, oral histories and surveys--as well as
a mastery of current and past scholarship...YHis approach is
laudable. Colton pulls together disparate topics, those subjects
which are often treated by other scholars as if they have not
relation to each other...One of Colton's triumphs is that he
rescues architecture and urban planning from the purview of
aesthetes, charting how successive regimes attempted to use
Moscow's built environment as a tool in creating the socialist
metropolis..."Moscow" is a welcome addition to the ever-expanding
scholarship of Soviet history and serves as a helpful reference
book. -- Bay Brown "Moscow Times"
Colton has written a faithful chronicle of Moscow from revolution
(1917) to revolution (1989), adding a historical prefix and
postscript for both fleshing out a comprehensive biography of the
city...There is no comparable work, let alone one that uses the
newly accessible people and documents Colton has so successfully
mined...None match Colton's Soviet-period detail and analytic
insight...The book is essential for any academic library.
Truly Ythis is a grand history of one of the world's ancient and
great cities, and, for that, it is also a major modern contribution
to the field of urban history. More significantly, however, by
digging so deeply into the history of Moscow under the tsars, the
communists, and the current rulers, Colton has created an important
angle on modern Russian history. This is Russia's story from the
bottom up, merging political with social history.
From personal interviews to published memoirs, from newspapers to
statistical surveys, from official documents to literature, Colton
has made good use of them all. Furthermore, he openly admits having
received invaluable input from some of the finest minds in
academia, and his acknowledgements section reads like a 'who's who'
of international sovietology. The list includes scholars who have
also produced urban histories, but what is most significant about
the roster is that it includes representatives from many different
disciplines. This point not only highlights the inter-disciplinary
nature of Colton's work, but also the fact that his book should be
of great interest to people outside the history departments of the
world. To put it most simply, this 'city biography' contains
something for almost everyone.
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