FROM THE AUTHOR

DESIRE IMPLIES WANT. N. BARBON1

This book by no means pretends to offer an exhaustive solution to all problems concerned in the planning of settlements in the USSR. We have set ourselves the task of formulating in specific terms only those requirements of Soviet construction that result from the analysis of K. Marx, F. Engels, and V. I. Lenin. We must carefully evaluate the basic technical and material capabilities which we have at our disposal at present and make, if only in outline form, some first concrete decisions about dwellings for the workers in this first stage of socialism.

In making our decisions we have tried to adhere strictly to the method of Marxist analysis, keeping constantly in mind the basic (overall) problems that face us, and the specific social relationships, the level of technology, and the availability of materials under present conditions in the USSR.

To solve many questions we found it necessary to examine all available publications on new achievements in the technology of construction, and also to analyze carefully the ideas of outstanding architects including the Constructivists (in particular, the works of Le Corbusier, Gropius, Ginzburg, Vesnin, Leonidov, et al.). We have also had to examine a considerable number (more than 50) competition entries on the construction of socialist cities as worked out by both Soviet and foreign architects.

In addition, the author, as chairman of the government commission on the planning of socialist cities, has become intimately acquainted with all basic literature on the subject and has heard out a number of opinions and discussions of it from the most diverse points of view.

Finally, we have become familiar in particular with a number of works and studies by Gosplan, Narkomzdrav, and Narkompros, which deal with aspects of the problem.

If what we are introducing in this work has any originality, it is due only to the extreme paucity in our country of serious works on questions of the new way of life and the new architecture.

This same situation has involved us in carrying out for our book a number of special works, involving the designing of projects, programs and plans for buildings, and tables of statistics (see Figs. 11, 14, 16, 21–23, 65–72).

During the preparation of this book we became firmly convinced of the necessity for creating a special experimental institute for urban design which, if properly organized, could represent a saving of many millions of rubles annually.