Stalinist City Planning: Professionals, Performance, and Power

‘Stimulating, insightful… This book is particularly rewarding because it uses the case study as a springboard to analyze a wide range of thought-provoking issues concerning city design and planning in both the pre-revolutionary and Soviet eras… Highly recommended.’ N.M Brooks, Choice Magazine - vol 51:04:2013

Soviet City Planning examines the many ways the Soviet authority aimed to shape a collective identity though design but is most enjoyable when animating the fascinating contradictions of the lived experience. Jonathan Studman, Spacing Magazine

‘This book deserves a wide audience among scholars of Soviet history and will be valuable to urban historians in other fields as well.’ David L. Hoffmann, American Historical Review - vol 119:03:2014

‘Historians of the Stalinist era and scholars of socialist city planning will find much of interest in this well researched book… DeHaan has made an important contribution to our understanding of urban planning and local politics under Stalin.’ Steven E. Harris, Canadian Slavonic Papers vol 75:3-4:2013

‘Heather DeHaan has written an engaging, incisive, and thoroughly documented account of city planning under Stalin…. She skillfully illuminates the experience of planners before, during and after the Stalin era.’

Peter Sigrist, The NEP Era: Soviet Russia 1921-1928

‘Dehaan’s insightful new study takes the readers into the rooms where the Soviet future was drafted and where the cracks in the edifice were unwittingly drawn in.’

Stephen Brain, The Journal on Modern History vol 87:01:2015

‘DeHaan’s discussion of city planners under Stalin has produced innovative work based on archival documents. She weaves an engaging tale of the interaction of impossible visions, planning, design, politics, and the realities of a cityscape…. A well-written book.’

Charles J. Ruud, University of Toronto Quarterly vol 84:03:2015

‘Dehaan’s excellent study deserves to be read widely… Historians of Stalinism more generally will find much of interest and value here, especially for thinking about how socialism was built, both literally and metaphorically.’

Robert Dale, Europe-Asia Studies vol 67:08:2015

DeHaan’s book is a triumph of archival research. She reconstructs historical conflicts in beautiful detail… Stalinist City Planning is clearly a major achievement … It is sure to interest anyone who works on cities in Russian culture, the Russian provinces, the construction of Stalinist culture, or architectural history.’

Emily D. Johnson, Slavic and East European Journal vol 59:04:2015

‘The reader will find this book a thought-provoking contribution to the contemporary scholarship on Stalinist culture… DeHaan’s book is one of the few studies of local city planning in Soviet Union accessible in English. This makes the monograph a valuable resource for researchers.’

Maria Silina, H-Russia September 2016

‘A thought-provoking contribution to the contemporary scholarship on Stalinist Culture…. This monograph is a valuable resource for researchers of Soviet architecture and urban history.’

Maria Silina, H-Net/H-Russia September 2016