Sotsgorod: The Socialist "New Cities" & Planning for Utopia

[@jaspervanheycop9722]

I love this series, it isn't overly crtical and fearmongery like some western docus would be, nor is it hesitant to mention faults and failures that did come up, like certain overly online leftists would do.

[@bucinator9879]

I agree. Very insightful

[@cianmcguire5647]

It definitely has it pros and cons compared to modern development and there are certainly lessons that should be learnt from them!

[@lordsleepyhead]

In the long run honesty is the best policy if you want to push an agenda, even if in the short run it's seems less convincing than the flashy lies from the opposing agenda.

[@mdd4296]

@@lordsleepyhead The unfortunate thing is fake it till you make it still kickstart an agenda sooner and thus left behind longer lasting legacy, good or ill tho.

[@oliwia5877]

@@cianmcguire5647 hej

[@razkrunk3169]

You're the best urbanist on KZbin.

[@EcoGecko]

I really appreciate that! Though I feel obliged to say that my work only exists thanks to the inspiration of donoteat01 and honker3d.

[@razkrunk3169]

@@EcoGecko You bring a lot to the community and you've helped me really see the destruction that poor planning and neoliberal government bring upon us all.

[@FAKETV96]

He’s the best one I’ve found so far. It’s one of those accounts you wish had more content so you could binge on it

[@sparklesparklesparkle6318]

hey do you know that one youtuber who did city reviews and he finished each city review with a song cover parody about the city? I can't seem to find it again and have no idea where to ask maybe you know who I am talking about.

[@razkrunk3169]

@@sparklesparklesparkle6318 I honestly have no idea but I'll try to find em

[@jonathanmillner]

Really good video. I have a friend from, and I've personally been to Dunaujvaros. Also, my wife is from Tiszaujvaros, formerly Leninvaros, which was another planned city in north east Hungary. The first time ever going to Tiszaujvaros, I was completely blown away by how this town had about 25,000 people in it, and yet it clearly had more bike paths, parks, transportation options, and just generally everything. Yet, it is no bigger in foot print than the town I currently live in, of about 2,000 people. There is no need to have a vehicle to get around the entire 25,000 person city if your legs work moderately decent. The last conversation I had with my dying uncle who fought in Vietnam against the communists, was about how the communists built this really pretty city in north east Hungary where my wife is from. Kinda weird... Tiszaujvaros has a chemical plant and during communist times, when they were pumping coolant from one part of the plant to another, they'd do it under ground. They even put an ice rink over the coolant pipes. Ice over the pipes insulates them and people love a good ice rink in the middle of summer... This would never happen in America for a multitude of reasons. So, while many Americans poo poo everything communist, I've been to these places and seen family videos of what all these places were like during the communist era. When my wife tells people that she's from Hungary and grew up under communism, there is an instant veil response. She says though, "I wish our daughter could have the same upbringing I had. It was everything a kid could possibly need." The people she says this to, can't even imagine a communist state that exists where a single person in the state actually likes what's going on. All they know is the hate hate hate propaganda they're fed. Beats the shit out of our town we live in currently, in America. These new towns, people still love them. Communism fell, but the layout of the city is still there and I'd say overall they planned these cities much better than Americans plan a city. In America, you don't plan a city. In America, we plan where to put a business, and then shit just kinda sprawls, and we follow it up with the most basic services most of the time, not really with the services everyone wants, needs, and likes.

[@thomaslester6173]

Thanks for sharing, that's a really interesting perspective!

[@jonathanmillner]

@@thomaslester6173 I've thought about how the ice rink came to be a few times. I'm sure this is what it was. They had a meeting of the communist minds about the plant and where to place these pipes to get coolant from one plant to another... and then Gabor was like.... "Hey guys, you know, if we make a few more loops with the pipe over here... we could create an ice rink too! Like for free almost!" And they were probably like... "nah..." And then Gabor was probably like, "Think about it guys! Company club house! Beer, wine, palinka... ladies skating around in bikinis in the middle of summer... what the hell isn't to love?" And then I'm sure the other guys were like... "You know... those are valid points... I do like alcohol... skating... and bikinis. Checks off all my boxes. I'm in!" I'm like almost 100% sure that's how the meeting went down.

[@yegorshevchenko3951]

reading comments like yours brings so much relief and joy to me! It makes me think, how we, the human beings, are close to each other. we have the same needs, wishes and joys, regardless from where we actually live and to what culture/nation belong. (I am from Ukraine) And only thing that separate us from living all like a one big family with a Goal to build a better future is shitty class division and private property with dozens of billionaires shivering over their riches. I love to know there are people in the world, actual sane people, who can be skeptical and rational to what is going on in the World. With all that shit happening to my country atm with a rising of ultra-right parties, strong anti-communist movement and nationalist propaganda... Thats just a picture THEY want us to see. There are ALWAYS people and People. And one day workers will rule their lives, not just be ruled by. And build better cities :)

[@Christian-se5si]

Thats a really nice story ive never heard an account of people that lived in the ussr before, and while tahts not my favorite iteration or style of communism it’s interesting to see that hey the people are fed and happy with communism you know it’s a shame that america only teaches very vague and harsh things about communism and if you mention it people will get scared there’s a lot of fear culture in America in fact this channel made a video about it

[@jonathanmillner]

@@yegorshevchenko3951 Ya, it's interesting. There are 3 main ideologies in the world with the basic tenants in all three quite old with actual nations practicing each. And most people are various shades of each. There are democratic people who tend to believe that what is important is that everyone has a say in the process. There are socialistic people that believe that what is important is equality. Then there are fascisty people who often believe that what's right is to be strong in some sense. The problems with the first two ideologies are often when the third gets involved. Whether a figure like Victor órban, Stalin, Mao, Hitler, trump, hirohito, andrew jackson, julius caesar, or napoleon... a fascist is a fascist, and that desire of strength and power says something about humans to the core, but I'm not sure it's a good thing most of the time. The other two ideologies left to their own accords, seem to keep most people happy until the asshole fascists show up... fascists can have good periods to but less often I think.

[@huwinner2428]

This is so fascinating to listen to. My entire life I’ve been told of the evil authoritarian nature of the Soviet Union. I love to hear about how these leaders care for their people and seek to increase their quality of life

[@Bustermachine]

It's a complicated topic for sure. There's a vast body of very good reasons to regard the Soviet Union as an 'Evil Empire', and to be fair you can apply many of those in varying degrees to the US (although I'd say typically less extreme than the Soviets on almost all counts . . . which is saying something because US imperialism and racism was and is very real), the political purges, the authoritarian police state, the single party rule, the grotesque corruption, VAST amounts of racism, and the imperialist projects designed to benefit the Muskovite core masquerading behind communist solidarity . . . But the fact that they built cities and at least put a degree of effort into trying to house their workforce, from a vastly smaller starting economy, in a much harsher environment than the US, is not one of the things that should be unduly criticized. One of the fundamental errors when examining something different from one self is to assume that just because the overall thing is bad (specifically an authoritarian and totalitarian centralized state) doesn't mean that the opposite of it in every aspect is automatically good.

[@ricky4477]

@@Bustermachine " The Soviet Socialist program of ethnic and national democracy is precisely the opposite of the Nazi, fascist, South African and Dixiecrat programs of racial superiority. One of Africa's foremost leaders, Gabriel D'Arboussier, Vice-President of the African Democratic Union in France's African colonies below the Sahara, leader of an organization millions strong - representing 20,000,000 Africans, has said this: "All the anger of the reactionaries directed against the Soviet Union is also directed in other forms against the colonial peoples. The latter have learned, thanks to these reactionaries, that there is a natural alliance between the country of socialism and the oppressed people the world over." " Robeson, Paul, "The Negro people and the Soviet Union" (1950). PRISM: Political & Rights Issues & Social Movements. 25.

[@czowiekpierwotny2160]

This is the most underrated YT channel. I find every material very interesting, even if its not my field. Love from Poland!

[@EcoGecko]

I'm glad you enjoy it! My parents are Polish immigrants in the US so it's always great to hear from people back home.

[@ColonelTacki]

It's not underrated. Look at that like/dislike ratio. It's undersubbed/underviewed. Lets fix that!

[@czowiekpierwotny2160]

@@ColonelTacki You're right. I remember a couple months ago it had 3k subs... that's ridiculous.

[@Suavek69]

@@EcoGecko Out of curiosity, do you speak any polish? Your pronunciation of Polish names such as Nowa Huta were really good, I wonder if you researched them, or if you knew how to say it?

[@EcoGecko]

Polish is actually my native language, though twenty years living in the US has made it quite rusty unfortunately.

[@oscarg2692]

I'm a socialist urban planning college student and I love your videos. I'm writing my own work of theory that combines Marxist theory with urban design theory. Now for a comment related to the content of the video. It's interesting that their reason for building new cities was they wanted something uncorrupted by the old society. I would question that logic because socialism gets its context from its contrast with the old society. Capitalist societies didn't really build new cities, they adapted the existing feudal cities to fit their needs. Engels describes this in his introduction to The Housing Question. I know socialist societies did of course build upon their existing big cities. One underrated urban design element is juxtaposition and contrast. It's fascinating to see in Europe the contrast between the built environment that arose from feudal relations of production, with its unplanned curving lanes and gradually expanded and improved buildings, and the built environment that arose from capitalist relations of production with more gridded streets and more rectangular land plots for factories and such. I could go on and also talk about the contrast with later phases of capitalism and how that manifested in the built environment. I find Paris kind of boring because Haussmann swept away so much of this contrast with his renovations destroying so much of the old medieval city's buildings and streets. This finally gets into the point I want to make which is that it appears the most successful of these new cities today is Nowa Huta because of it's proximity to Krakow, which allowed it to continue economically after the steel mill shrunk production. The other four are more out in the middle of no where.

[@EcoGecko]

This is a great point: the idea of building a revolutionary city from scratch was always a bit bunk. The Horvath paper I cite discusses in detail the attempt and ultimate failure to cultivate a "civilized" socialist proletariat in these towns (it also details an early example of gentrification, where police in Dunaujvaros regularly harassed working-class pubs, which were eventually forcibly displaced by an expensive and refined restaurant designed to exclude the rowdy construction and steel mill workers). I think you're correct about Nowa Huta: the steel mill today employs less than 5,000 people compared to ten times that at its peak, but a twenty-minute tram ride to central Krakow has kept the neighborhood economically viable and attractive to families displaced from central Krakow by rising housing costs (the beautiful Old Town has made AirBnB an especially disastrous scourge for ordinary residents). This is true to an extent of Poruba as well, though its economic center, the technical university, has remained more viable into the present day even without nearby Ostrava.

[@Yingyanglord1]

The most interesting thing I have found is how these cities mimic company towns especially Disneys plan for a new city in design.

[@PauliusTautvydas]

@@EcoGecko they were not displaced. They've chosen to sell their property.

[@rileylannin2256]

@@PauliusTautvydas How free of a "choice" did they have though? If you physically can't earn enough money to live in a certain area, so "choose" to move, was it really a choice? What other option did they have?

[@PauliusTautvydas]

​@@rileylannin2256 what do you mean can't earn enough money to live in a certain area? :-) That's Kraków we are talking about, not New York. Groceries cost the same in all parts of the city, heating also cost not that differently. So what kind of "not enough money to live in a certain area" you are talking about? Do you understand that gentrification works totally different in Eastern Europe, as most of the housing stock has been privatized by their owners in the 90s?

[@alanthefisher]

Fantastic work, I'm sure that some of those historical clips where hard to find

[@EcoGecko]

Indeed, the footage from Dimitrovgrad at the start of the video took me hours to track down! Fortunately other stuff is better documented--in Poland, DVD compilations of propaganda newsreels are widely available.

[@yiurock4084]

*were

[@rianraleigh6526]

Thank you for this essay! This is an often overlooked topic and the way you handle it without political bias its discussions are often mired with, is truly admirable. One common core problem of the urban developments you talked about I think is how they are planned around single oversized employer. This narrow specialization contributed greatly to their decline and I really think that this failure to realize the need for diversification of employment options was one of the biggest if not the biggest misstep of socialist urban planning. Perhaps less pronounced in the Eastern Europe, but definitely a major issue in the former USSR. Makes one wonder if this is something inherent to the planned urban development or merely a lack of foresight that could have been avoided.

[@EcoGecko]

I'm glad you enjoyed it! I think you're absolutely right about the problem of overspecialization. In fact, the reason Nowa Huta has done so well in relative terms in the post-Soviet, post-industrial period is due to its proximity to Krakow, a large city with a diversified economy. When I visited last year it was something like a twenty minute tram ride from Nowa Huta's central plaza to the city center, perfectly reasonable as a commute. If you're interested in this topic, Kinga Pozniak has a great paper titled "Reinventing a Model Socialist Steel Town in the Neoliberal Economy", in which she draws parallels between attempts to revitalize Nowa Huta and the post-industrial efforts of Rust Belt cities in the US. I'm not sure what a city like Dimitrovgrad or Dunaujvaros are to do today. They are not large enough to be appealing to most major information economy employers, and are too far away from any major city to act as a commuter town. As a result, Dimitrovgrad has lost nearly a quarter of its population since 1985. I think this problem was present from the very start, in that steel production wasn't really economical in most of these locations to begin with. Neither Hungary, Bulgaria, or East Germany have coal or iron reserves, and so had to import raw materials from the USSR; Poland has a lot of coal but iron ore still had to come from abroad.

[@bri1085]

Isn't this one of the biggest problems with the poorer areas in a lot Western Countries as well, like The Rust belt and Detroit in the US, and a lot of Northern Mining towns in England as well?

[@rianraleigh6526]

@@bri1085 I guess you are right, and urban decay in this areas is interesting topic in its own right. But my point is rather, why central planning could not foresee these shortcomings? In theory at least, planning can avoid many problems associated with organic growth of urban areas (like within the Rust Belt), yet most examples of scratch-build cities / districts seem to suffer from imbalances and design faults, something which is incredibly important to analyze I think, if we are looking for a sustainable development.

[@Paddichops]

@@rianraleigh6526 I think because its pretty much impossible to predict the future. The heavy industry in the 20s - 60s would have seemed a very safe bet, I don't think anyone back then could have predicted not only the fall of the USSR (and communism in general) but the implications and nuances of what a truly global economy would be. And then theres the internet, new discoveries, new technologies. I mean who knows, maybe 50 years from now, amazon will no longer be a major company, but if I were designing a town currently, I would probably want to have a massive amazon warehouse as an employer there. The problem I guess is not to rely on having a single company as an employer of a place, because inevitably they will fail, but I don't think every town can be super diverse in its employment, and often a massive employer is at odd with things like financial, diverse and luxuary jobs, but they do have to be somewhere. I guess I would summerise, it should be okay to let towns shrink, become villages, or even die, and human movement should be normalized a bit more.

[@redenginner]

Honestly this looks a lot better then endless miles of strip malls,wallmarts,and single family homes that eventually give way to downtowns with little to no greenspace.

[@davidhoran7116]

By miles

[@markysharky03]

while it has flaws, it looks soooo much pretier and is so much more of a place I would like to live rather that most of America.

[@uchennanwogu2142]

@@markysharky03 ok enjoy your poverty

[@maddoo23]

@@uchennanwogu2142 You are correct, building like this leads to poverty. Its a law of Nature, Ronald Reagan said so.

[@erikwilliams8610]

The city planning probably didn't need government enforcement and made money, but the centralized industry and socialist economics just didn't work. The world is filled with such projects if the economics don't work the planning doesn't matter.

[@harchierplebbington9397]

You produce fantastic content, the suburbs series was incredible! It’s almost like watching a lecture instead of a KZbin video. This content is way too good for KZbin!

[@EcoGecko]

Thank you, that's really great to hear! An educational lecture with visual supplements is exactly what I was going for.

[@naj4261]

@@EcoGecko Dont downplay your work! Its a lot more enjoyable than most lectures that i had.

[@pappy9473]

@@EcoGecko I am very pleased that such high standard content is made available to most people

[@michimatsch5862]

First reaction: Who is that? Why am I subscribed? Second reaction: Why is a Gecko Third reaction: Probably some random leftist. Fourth reaction: Suburbs killing people. Ah, yes. I remember that.

[@ElectrusBoom]

VOWSH RAID VOWSH RAID But for real this channel is very high quality for the small size, hope you get hella tendies from these videos :)

[@Nonaryfame]

You and unlearning economics deserve a million extra subs for what you do for the left

[@EcoGecko]

Thank you! It's funny you mention UnlearningEcon, when I was first planning out this channel back in 2018 I was going to make it explicitly economics-oriented and even had a script draft on the minimum wage ready. I'm so glad Unlearning showed up instead, he's much better trained in the subject than me!

[@i-never-look-at-replies-lol]

Leftists are always so hyberbolic in their language, why is that?

[@gliderchucker9644]

@@i-never-look-at-replies-lol Why bother asking? You never look at replies.

[@salsaman4374]

Absolute slam dunk sequel; your videos have fed my obsession with city planning like nothing else could.

[@yegorshevchenko3951]

I have just discovered your channel and this video. First of all i want to thank you for a brilliant work. Such content is a true pearl! It is really magnificent! I am from Ukraine and studying Marxism, history, economy myself, however i have never heard of such city-projects as mentioned in your video. Thanks for widening my knowledge! I would like not mention that not only communism has never been reached by modern society, but neither socialism has, as a mid-point of revolution on the way to communism. Even USSR by the point of it highest development (or "closest" to socialism) before Stalin`s death was far away from it. Revolution is not a one day action. Its a process. Capitalism was not established in one day. It took HUNDREDS of years for capitalistic relations to be dominant in the world. Society to be called "socialistic" needs: 1. To eliminate money circulation. Money can be accumulated, therefore lead to creating personal wealth. That is easy achieved by introducing personal accounting of working hours. And those hours would be used instead of money. you cant accumulate and save millions of personal working hours. 2. Establish proletarian dictatorship. EVERY working man and women must rule the state. Through the soviets. And EVERY candidate must be not only be able to represent his electors but, what is more important, must be RECALLED by the will of electors. And those representatives MUST be changed after certain period of time, to let others rule. System as such will train EVERYONE to rule the state and furthermore eliminate differences between "workers" and "politicians" 3. To have highly-developed means of production to SHRINK working time of every worker and EXTEND time for their personal needs and for participating in ruling the society. 4. With developing the means of productions differences between occupations; between agriculture and industry; between "mind" and "physical" workers shall be minimized or eliminated. Those points werent developed by me in any case. They belong to Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin. And developed in their works. As we may see NONE of those points were ever achieved by any society. However until the mid 50-s counter-revolution in all (exc. Albania) eastern block countries, they were on their ways to achieving them. Also it is pretty clear how EASIER to get to the socialism now with all modern advances in technologies and social shifts. I will conclude with the famous Lenin`s words "Monopoly, that controls ENTIRE economy, but turned for the good of the whole society - is called socialism" he is oversimplificating here, but it is true.

[@BrownieApocalypse]

I discovered your channel last Friday night, binged every video on Saturday, spent Sunday watching every video on urban planning that I could find, and have been gushing about your channel to my close friends for the following several days. I am astounded and inspired by the quality of your work (from the obviously thorough research to the articulate presentation), and it was my privilege to subscribe to your channel and turn on notifications. I eagerly await your next videos.

[@EcoGecko]

I'm glad you liked them so much! If you're interested in urbanism, I recommend donoteat01 and NotJustBikes, though you might already know those because they're quite big. honker3d also has some great videos, though I don't think they have made anything lately. Those three were big inspirations towards this work, so you may find them interesting as well.

[@gammonface]

As an Architect myself, this content is exceptional! Keep these coming please.

[@wundermax1993]

Only 23k subscribers? Come on... I think this content is great! Thank you for making these videos! Also, my opinion about these types of planned cities is that it is the best thing coming from socialism. I grew up in a green area with pathways and gardens and playgrounds everywhere. When I saw the USA type suburbs for the first time well, it was appealing to my eyes but to live there would be a complete nightmare for me. I feel sorry for people living in the suburbs. They don't even know what they miss out on.

[@josedoroteoarangoarambula6012]

I'm an Eastern European who has lived in London, and even though I hate our past for obvious reasons, I gotta hand it to the socialists for building green and pedestrian friendly cities. Though many of the blockhouses are run down by now, the greenery still gives it a unique vibrance during summer, which I failed to find in London. Don't get me wrong, I liked London, it too had it's own pros, like good public transport, great places to visit, but when I first moved there, I started having weird nightmares about how I'm walking in a city with a concrete ceiling lol, I guess I felt a bit claustrophobic.

[@Game_Hero]

Love the use of classical music and even how this is creative commons, how you highlight the quotes you use in their original sources. Loved it!

[@FireToFlame]

Yay my favorite content creator uploaded another video! You're legit the only KZbinr who I've "hit the bell" for!

[@EcoGecko]

Thank you for watching! It's a big encouragement to hear that people enjoy this content.

[@VictorLopez-qm5kz]

I think Eco Gecko and Unlearning Economics are hands down my favorite left channels. Keep it up, chief.

[@KarolaTea]

Fascinating video, thank you! Definitely interesting to see what people do when they have to/can build something from scratch, rather than building on existing things or slowly developing it.

[@markballard6834]

We could make life a lot better in the US if we were willing to learn from the past (and from other cultures)

[@optimusprime320-h9c]

Key word being, willing

[@jacob_massengale]

its not that we're not willing, we just have a free market where monopolies are subsidized by tax payers.

[@i-never-look-at-replies-lol]

What other cultures? Western culture was the peak of culture on this planet until the left destroyed it. There are no other cultures to go to.

[@mauricio9564]

@@i-never-look-at-replies-lol The left destroyed the “West” sure,how did they do this?I would argue that the west decline was inevitable.It’s growth was built on the slavery of 15 million foreign Africans,30 million indigenous laborers in Mexico and Peru and the stealing of land from low density tribes in North America that would then be exploited by a mass immigration of Europeans after the polluting industrial revolution.The growth model was built on theft of two entire continents who’s people were excluded from this wealth and on environmentally destructive methods and short term profit seeking ventures that did not plan for the future. The profit private self centered economy made wars inevitable internally and externally,creating the only time humanity and still we live in an era were humanity Can war itself out of existence,thanks west.And now we have also to deal with the massive ecological and climate crisis.All the catastrophes we face today came from the mistakes of the west which success was built on a mirage of order and prosperity,which foundations were always weak.Most of the West success to power were mere luck to begin with and the tech that allowed it to progress were created in China.Paper that allowed for enlightenment was created in China as was printing.Gunpowder that gave it political and military advantages in the America’s allowed them to conquer it,was created in China and perfected in Middle East and India.The compass that allowed them to travel around the oceans was created in China.And then luck played a massive factor in the conquest of the continents and subcontinent’s.I recommend 7 myths of Spanish conquest which gives into context how the America’s were actually conquered and the massive luck that Spain got in conquering it.Similarly the conquest of India and Indonesia were able to be done because of massive luck as India was much richer than England and had the worlds second best military with best guns and cavalry only behind Turkey .India was only conquered because of England’s political manuvering in the declining Mughal Empire.All these things ,the conquest of the America’s allowed Europe’s population to grow from 5% of worlds population to 30% and if you include North America it’s closer to 40% at the time by 1900.As the America’s introduced potato and 60% of worlds cuisine today,the labour of millions of natives allowed Spain to become a world power and allowed for growth of European banking,etc.From this is that all the west developments arose after 1900,but in less than 100 years we are seiiing that all this was built on sand,it’s foundations were weak and will not last for the next 100 years.

[@pleasant_asymmetry]

I could look at that Poruba gate for hours, it's such a cool building

[@YaBoiHakim]

Fantastic video! I hope you continue this series.

[@EcoGecko]

Thank you! I do plan more, and more videos in general, once I'm done with grad school.

[@linkinmusic559]

Love these videos. Thank you so much for your contribution!

[@EcoGecko]

Thank you so much for watching!

[@judithkim4050]

Opening with the brahms clarinet heals my soul

[@ministry95]

Hi, thanks for the great overview of this development style! I'll give you a few insights from a local, if you're interested :) I was born and have lived most of my life in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. It's a city that went from 90.000 to 1.400.000 residents during Soviet times. As you can imagine, almost the whole city was build in a planned manner, with micro-districts located near factories or infrastructure objects like ports. And as you mentioned at the end of your video - when the USSR collapsed, and industries have closed, it became clear that such micro-districts are not suited for free market economy. I'm no urbanist, but I think the main issue why they couldn't adapt is the lack of building reuse possibilities. Let's take commercial activity, like shopping, cafes, etc. for example. Most (or I guess all) of micro-districts had a general store, where people could buy food or clothing, but there was no room for expansion there, and when the free market came, businessmen had no way to open their shops and cafes. Additionally to that, such districts, especially from 70s-80s, do not have a main street or a main square, which could've become a center for local community, like a typical main street in the US or a market square in European towns. This lead to conversion of first floors in residential houses into commercial spaces, usually near bus or metro stops. There is many problems with that, it doesn't look good and definitely doesn't have the same feeling as many European streets with street-facing businesses. Another huge issue is cars. Roads were not planned with such amount of cars in mind, there is no sufficient parking and so on. Also, the crisis after the fall made the city to tighten the budget on public transport (for example, most of the tram tracks and trolleybus wires were removed in Nizhny Novgorod in the 90s), and since micro-districts were built with public transport in mind, people had to switch to cars when it was reduced. And the last issue is new developments. Developers buy plots of land in or near such micro-districts, and build new high-rise houses, usually without supporting infrastructure like schools, kindergartens or clinics, which leads to overcrowding of existing facilities. Add to that the fact that aforementioned reuse of first floors sometimes happens to those facilities (the kindergarten I've attended to was converted to an office space around 1998), and you'll have an infrastructure crisis. To mitigate that, the city will build a new piece of infrastructure inside the micro-district in place of an existing public space, further distorting the initial plan and dropping the quality of life, and the cycle goes on... I'd like to see how these neighborhoods functioned in the system they were build for. But were they future-proof? Hell no.

[@EcoGecko]

Hi Anton, thanks so much for all this in-depth information! I'm always glad to hear from people actually living in these places, as it helps me understand the situation much better. I had no idea about the limited commercial space, though I do know there was a trend in the later USSR to build larger, central supermarkets when local groceries became insufficient. I had heard about the shutdown of public transit though--that sounds a lot like what happened in the US half a century ago! It seems like a lot of the former USSR is in the process of repeating American urban planning mistakes from fifty years ago. You're not the first one to note those problems with newer developments as well. I think we have the same problem with suburbs in the US, where developers build houses but aren't responsible for planning the provision of services like schooling and healthcare to their residents, resulting to similarly underserviced and unwalkable neighborhoods. Thanks again for putting the time into writing all this up. I do hope to eventually make a video about what has become of Soviet urban spaces today, and this is certainly helpful.

[@ammanite]

I wish we had micro-districts in the US. I hate having to drive to get anywhere. And I hate how big cities are built around the needs of capital more than around the needs of the people that live in those cities. Malls are stupid and no one goes to them anymore, anyway.

[@optimusprime320-h9c]

@@ammanite well put

[@ministry95]

​@@ammanite I guess the grass is always greener on the other side. Many people from the former Eastern block would think that living in your own house is better, even if it means long commutes. Nevertheless, I'd still prefer our dilapidated micro-districts over being unable to do groceries without driving.

[@arktzen]

I don't really understand your comment, especially the last sentence. You say they weren't future-proof, meaning that they don't fit into today's Russia. Is this surprising? Of course not, the Soviet Union was a completely different state - why would they build a city after capitalist needs?

[@eggtimrr574]

Yess, I always look forward to an Eco Gecko release

[@rad1cal300]

I really love this channel and especially this series. Please keep making videos, your work is very appreciated!!

[@iononionunion8682]

Having more condensed cities like these would be an amazing way to counter climate change as you wouldn’t need tags vehicles or some of the massive roads that require them.

[@greg5411]

Who is here from Vowsh's stream?

[@ruthpower4892]

Me

[@fiona63]

Yup!

[@ibrahinmenriquez3108]

me

[@SalvadorCiaro]

peepoHey

[@underthethunder]

Me

[@psychocandy6930]

I sincerely hope you never stop making videos

[@EcoGecko]

Thank you, I have no intention of stopping anytime soon!

[@KapnKetchup]

On a side note I love the music used in your videos. It is so much more inviting for some reason.

[@terecthetec756]

what an incredible channel, I'm amazed i haven't met you before!

[@EcoGecko]

Welcome, nice to meet you too!

[@l0ndon429]

Great upload as always!

[@soundweaver7248]

My compliments! Very interesting and well balanced Keep doing whatever you are doing

[@brightonlieu9801]

I would love to see an introduction to Mao era city planning in the PRC similar to your sotsgorod video! Keep up the great work

[@wonderwinder1]

I live in Poland. The early social realism isn’t so bad. The stuff from the 1950’s onward is awful. You know what’s worse? Almost everything built in the past 10 years.

[@C3l3bi1]

The old german style architecture is good, the 1960s stuff looks terrible and modern architecture is a joke

[@TheSpecialJ11]

@@C3l3bi1 I feel this so strongly. "Man, these concrete boxes have gotten old and dirty. This sure is depressing looking. You know what we should do? Plastic boxes."

[@Kingsleyrulz]

I have now watched every single video of yours so far and gotta say, this is a very impressive channel.

[@emrazum]

Excellent scholarship

[@TheDerpySlime58]

omg what a gem of a channel

[@thomaslester6173]

Thanks for the video Eco. I've become hooked on your channel since KZbin randomly recommended me one of your suburban wasteland videos!

[@ГеоргийМаксимовский]

I have just recently found your channel, watched 2 videos on Sotsgorod and I'm in awe of your presenting style, your thoughtful and deep research and your neutral and respectful commentary. If you wish to continue these series on planned Eastern bloc cities, I suggest you look into the phenomena of "science city" (naukograd) and "academic town" (akademgorodok). These types of cities became popular during the Kruschyov's era, starting with my native town/neighbourhood of Novosibirsk's Akademgorodok (planning started in 1957, first buildings were constructed and used in 1959). The small town was built to accommodate scientists in various fields -- primarily physics, chemistry, geology and all the in-betweens, 20-something research facilities in total, as well as to house one of the largest universities in the USSR, its students and teachers. Similar projects but on smaller scale later appeared beside many other major Soviet cities like, say, Tomsk, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, even Kiev and some others. Close to Novosibirsk's Akademgorodok are two smaller naukograds (Koltsovo and Nizhnyaya Yeltsovka) with focus on research in medicine and biology. Russian vaccine against Covid-19 was actually developed in Koltsovo and some people in the area got vaccinated earlier than anybody else in the country (the vaccine was quite unsuccessful though, yet that wasn't the scientists' fault). The reasons to kind of "gather" all the science and higher education in one place were, firstly, the fear of nuclear destruction (most naukograds and akademgorodoks are located in Siberia, far from major cities, some of them deep in the taiga, just so it is difficult to spot them from a satellite, identify as viable targets and destroy with nuclear missiles), the other reason being the desire of Soviet urban planners in the 60s to create towns with a single purpose (like a factory city -- say, Magnitogorsk or Angarsk). We have a term for that, a monogorod (mono-city). With economic focus shifting in the 90s, most of these monocities became obsolete and are in quite a depression, yet Akademgorodok holds on and, in fact, is experiencing some sort of gentrification since early 00s. Oh, and when you mentioned protests in Czechoslovakian and Hungarian model cities, I immediately remembered that Akademgorodok was a center of Soviet counterculture, even hosting half-legal concerts of certain singer-songwriters (like Alexander Galich) prohibited everywhere else in the USSR. I guess that's what naturally occurs when you gather all the intellectuals in one place and let the do what they want... Anyway, I can describe my life in Akademgorodok as a blessing since it has the perfect planning, good urban design, everything is in walkable distance, the town is surrounded by forest and is so green that it is like a garden city in itself, and it also has some of the most interesting people in the country -- like, one of my neighbours has a PhD in biology, for instance, more than a half of teachers in a local school where I work are major scientists as well and overall the town is basically filled with specialists and artists which creates a vibrant, creative atmosphere.

[@EcoGecko]

I would love to do something on the academic cities! Unfortunately it's very hard to find many details on them in English in any detail. But thank you for the information.

[@ГеоргийМаксимовский]

​@@EcoGecko I absolutely get the issue with English-language sources... It was a miracle in the first place that you managed to find "Sotsgorod" in English! Anyway, I know a good English-language source that I found to be quite interesting (it is also easily accessible on the internet), "New Atlantis Revisited: Akademgorodok, the Siberian City of Science" by Paul R. Josephson. If you ever decide to proceed with this topic, Chapters 1 and 7 might be what you're looking for. There are other English-language sources as well, but this one seems to be more useful and easy to find. There is also a lot of old plans and photos that are located mostly on Russian websites, when it comes to Novosibirsk's Akademgorodok. If you are interested, I can send them to you as links or files with commentary. The most interesting details are, of course, in Russian. Info about other naukograds is harder to come by, since almost all of them were "closed" cities, this means they couldn't have been visited even by usual Soviet citizens without permission. And other akademgorodoks weren't that successful, because they mostly just served as campus districts for major cities.

[@sinekonata]

Thank you for both videos. They were highly instructive.

[@Phoenix898989]

I need to admit: Nowa Huta is a really nice place to live, now even more when the polution from industry drops. So if there might be something socialism did well, it's this part of history. Love from Poland! :)

[@zaired]

Great video, one of the best

[@saltking2715]

just a small hint, Eisenhüttenstadt was first called Stalinstadt, (Stalin city) in honor of his death. But was renamed later to Eisenhüttenstadt when people realized Stalin was a shitty dude. I went there a couple of times as a kid, was pretty nice especially the green areas.

[@EcoGecko]

You're right, Dunaujvaros was also originally called Sztalinvaros! I use their contemporary names to avoid confusion. Good to hear that Eisenhuttenstadt is holding up after all these years!

[@_thelegendaryduck_8523]

Stalin was actually a goos guy it was just the ppl opposed to stalin successfully removed him (kruschev and his wing of the party)

[@eLGiGaming]

@@_thelegendaryduck_8523 holodomor denier?

[@_thelegendaryduck_8523]

@@eLGiGaming yes

[@eLGiGaming]

@@_thelegendaryduck_8523 american?

[@baronjutter]

This is really making me want to get back into workers and resources. I wish your citizens cared at all about green space in the game though...

[@EcoGecko]

More than anything I wish they would make the footpath placement less janky, and added a tool for symmetrical building placement. I would love to build a sandbox city in that game to demonstrate what I discuss in these videos otherwise!

[@weightedpullup]

This channel has to blow up. Brilliant!

[@operator9858]

always wondered about this kind of thing, but not seen much info around on projects like these. thanks man.

[@jainittai5104]

As an Anarchist I've found this video particularly fascinating. I'm glad I've found you and the channel "Not Just Bikes"

[@Theorychad99]

DAMN how did you blow up??! I watched you at like 2k subs and randomly when I checked ur past 20k

[@magicien233]

Pretty big streamer called vaush talked about liking his videos

[@sammacintyre1351]

Nice video! I think you've sparked an interest in Urbanism and it's surrounding fields in me.

[@strega1380]

I wanna build a city irl, no minecraft

[@mattmcleay6950]

Im using this series as a guide for my minecraft city and tbh its a lot cheaper...

[@jrv128]

So much inspiration for Workers and Resources, a soviet city building game.

[@nerd00047]

Great video is always. Do you have any sources for the actual architectural form and style of these residential blocks?

[@EcoGecko]

Probably the best source is the book I cite in the video, "Architecture and Ideology in Eastern Europe During the Stalin Era". The author covers the development of the socialist realist style and its spread both within the USSR and the Eastern Bloc satellite states, with lots of photographic and schematic details. While only a single chapter discusses the new cities, the rest of the book should cover everything you want to know about the design of Soviet buildings, residential and otherwise, during this period.

[@TheAndrew1987]

very good, cant wait for the next episode

[@g.m.9180]

If this is meant to parallel Justin Roczniak's Franklin series, I can't tell you how excited I am for it ; congratulations this video is wonderful!

[@Canhistoryismylife]

Great video you deserve more subs

[@toastquest1681]

i'm so happy for part two!

[@LancesArmorStriking]

Eco "Quote unquote" Gecko

[@abissuminvocat]

Khrushchevs were conceived as a temporary measure of post-war reconstruction and their life cycle was about 50 years. That is why no one invested in expensive materials or decoration of such buildings. After 50 years, they had to be rebuilt as needed into more modern and comfortable housing.

[@artemkanarchist]

Thanks for the video!💚💚💚

[@pauliunknown8118]

Great video! I appreciate your choice of music

[@maratkaidauloff3585]

so happy i have found ur channel

[@johnjoe592]

excellent video thank you putting insight on these towns

[@Kannot2023]

Crowd people near a chemical plant or an iron smelter, what could go wrong? In Galați city from Romania, those lived near the steel mill died before 60 yr of age

[@zaabit412]

The difference being that in places like Pittsburgh, vast slums grew in the hillsides around the mills with little meaningful public infrastructure (until workers fought to the death for them), and only the rich industrialists would secure houses in areas of the city with enough air circulation to be able to breathe normally. Just compare any of these cities to rust belt towns in the US where houses literally come right up next to the mills

[@rhoninwindrunner7575]

Actually it was pretty safe, since dangerous area ends in about 1 kilometer from plant. It is 10 kilometers from Powerplant for reference, and it is the most common Class I contamination facility that is dangerous to settle nearby. This is insanely rare in real production sector, however, unless you are producing, idk, Hg thermometers in mass and dump the excessive Hg into the air directly, without any filtration.

[@eLGiGaming]

@@zaabit412 Yes america is a shithole, we all know that, what's your point?

[@TheSpecialJ11]

@@zaabit412 Yeah. It's crazy how from radically different economic and political systems the end result was often the same. Suffering for the hard working poor.

[@waddledee1231]

Hi stream

[@finlaydotmarshall]

yas av been waiting ages, great stuff. also since you put up your original video av been trying to find a link for the sotsgorod documentary, do you know where it can be found?

[@EcoGecko]

I am sure it used to be on KZbin, but it looks like it may have been taken down. Sadly I don't have a link, but do let me know if you find one.

[@Fabrizio_Ruffo]

"new partner states" That's one way to put it.

[@phil_a_sheo]

i feel like you wear a suit and tie while recording these videos

[@rockyavalon3712]

Thanks for the video!

[@EcoGecko]

Thank you for watching!

[@o0PurpleToast0o]

Wow I hate how sheltered we are from outside ideas in North America. We pretty much learn that communism = authoritarianism and soviet houses were ugly and that's it... it's such a disgrace to history and human knowledge.

[@canaldofred2366]

These ideas are mostly true tough.

[@dzonikg]

I am from communist country that was called Yugoslavia. 99% off houses were build in communism and they were not ulgy(at least most off it)...my grandfather build his house in 1960 ,father in 1985 ,uncle in 70s etc..and they were all pretty and comfortable houses ...but buildings..yes there were lot off ugly ones..but little fresh paint over them could make them much nicer looking

[@Kyle-bv6di]

most soviet architecture was disgusting, communism is a direct contradiction to modern western civ. why would they promote it?

[@Kyle-bv6di]

@@dzonikg yugoslavian houses are nice if you're standard of housing comes from Sudan

[@dzonikg]

​@@Kyle-bv6di I guess you are milioner who live in lyxuri villa

[@G0TIMAN]

My mom live in typical "soviet" blocks in Żory, Poland, and it's great.

[@antonywerner3018]

i love this planing system for city, and its interesting for me as a East German.

[@johann-sebastianflachland5424]

haha that kinda makes me want to move there; I should visit Eisenhüttenstadt sometime team "Suburbs Suck" all the way XD

[@harmony9341]

Given the content of this video, having a good laugh at "plac Centralny Imienia Ronalda Reagana" at 10:33 .

[@Kharmazov]

Also some of them were deliberately designed to act as defensive fortifications in times of war. For example the "Milica" neighbourhood in my hometown was build that way even incorporating underground bunkers and bomb shelter or the fact that gates are able to fit a T-4/85 tank etc.

[@ivankotzev]

Yes, as well as placing high-rises at the entrance of cities, next to major roads, to serve as hideouts for snipers and machine gun nests.

[@therakishrogue]

what town is that? I'm working on a presentation on the planning goals and outcomes of cities in countries without free land markets.

[@peternyc]

Really excellent video. Thanks.

[@maxpapaioannides80]

Very well made video

[@842wolves]

He's back 😍

[@attilatasciko4817]

Thank you very much, EXCELLENT! etc...

[@nikola8363]

I love you dude! Great presentation keep it going :)

[@ggh8384]

Based Stalinist planning

[@smileyp4535]

Imagine if socialism actually happened and wasn't betrayed by command economies / "state capitalism" 😭

[@damnjustassignmeone]

Still planning on doing a video on The Villages? That one would be interesting

[@EcoGecko]

Yes, probably this year! It's bundled in with a bunch of other issues that I'm trying to synthesize together so it might still be a bit.

[@동의보감-q9l]

Where did you get a visual reference? I couldn't find it at KZbin. Nowadays I'm studying socialist city planning, but this video is truly the best video I've ever seem

[@EcoGecko]

Hi, can you specify what visual reference you're referring to? Happy to share any sources but I'm unsure what you mean here.

[@동의보감-q9l]

@Eco Gecko I mean small old movies of Nowa hura, especially small districts

[@EcoGecko]

The archival footage is almost all from "kroniki filmowe", Polish newsreels from the communist period. They're easily accessible on KZbin (though you might need a bit of Polish to find the right one); the one I primarily use for Nowa Huta is titled "Kierunek Nowa Huta". If you have a specific reference you'd like a link to, let me know and I can track it down.

[@동의보감-q9l]

@@EcoGecko thank you!

[@havenbastion]

Liked for pronouncing epoch correctly. We already have a different word pronounced epic.

[@honeyapple4511]

Hello from vaush, can't wait to dig into your content. If you haven't already it might be cool to do a deep dive on red Vienna, i think it's fresh on people's minds from the gravel institute video. Sorry to be recommending stuff right away but anyway thank you!

[@EcoGecko]

Red Vienna is a great future topic! Really the only obstacle is finding some good sources on it, but if I can find good information I'll certainly put out a video on that one day.

[@hubert4646]

If you want to show how soviet city planing progress overt ime Tychy is a perfect example. It is divided by many estates and each one represents different time of urban planing. From 50's soviet realism (northen west part of the city) to post modern ideas of the 80's (southern tip of the town). It is actually twice as big as Nowa Huta (idk where you got an info about a quarter milion people living there, most sources estimate it at 50k) and it was designed to be more self sustainable. I recomend town's museum site muzeum.tychy.pl/zbiory/dzial-historii-miasta/

[@adamski8985]

4:53 wow i never expected them to look that nice lol

[@nobodyherepal3292]

Time to apply this to my cities in Workers and Resources, Soviet republic Any one else play that game?

[@juliancoenen4917]

What we learned: Dont make peasants live like people who live in a city, make it gradual Dont build cities close to powerful steel mills Dont make a city based on a few ideas which are in fashion, make it diverse Dont discard carefully made plans Dont make cities have political connotations, especially if it's controversial

[@nataliekhanyola5669]

Most cities are planned around industry, not just communist ones. It looks a lot better than the hellish sprawl created by suburbs and highways.

[@mdhazeldine]

Another brilliant video. I'm quite surprised I haven't heard of these cities before (well maybe I shouldn't be surprised. lol). Communism certainly wasn't perfect, but there's definitely a lot we can learn from it. The whole way through the video, I was think "you know what, these places actually look pretty nice". I mean, they have a very different vibe to the beautiful old towns of Europe with winding streets, but there is an air of Parisian boulevard to them, and they seem more interesting architecturally than some of the very stark Soviet designs. Also, they seem to have really understood the "15 minute city" concept before it was even a thing!

[@Hetschoter]

15:27 so this is where the "Nie, radšej knihu!" comes from. For those who don't know, I would suggest checking out this poster and associated memes.

[@runagaterampant]

Excellent

[@xecoq]

Disregarding the political aspects of these places, they show how much impact good planning can have.

[@kassendek4777]

The point about the Eastern model not having sprawl might be explained by the inability of the average Eastern bloc worker to obtain a car.

[@EcoGecko]

You're absolutely correct! Soviet planners recognized pretty early on that building walkable neighborhoods and providing mass transit was significantly cheaper than car provision, and so the design was a deliberate financial judgement by the authorities.

[@kassendek4777]

I haven't watched the whole video yet. I'm writing this so I don't forget later: There was a more cynical reason for Nowa Huta's location right next to Krakow. The party believed that the working classes within Nowa Huta could be relied upon to pacify the intellectuals and bourgies in the old university city. The irony is that most of the people who moved to Nowa Huta were from rural or small-town areas and were deeply religious, later making it a bastion of Solidarity. Moreover, it was not a nice place to live in when it was originally built. The forced asceticism of that period led the area to be riddled with crime. Many gipsies who were forcibly settled there and had no ties, nor want of any such ties also caused issues. Prostitution, robbery and corruption (in the latter stages of construction) were rife. That being said, now it is a decent place to live and has the lowest crime rate in Krakow. However, the way you describe it as a model (at least to where I've watched your video) is not the right way to think about Nowa Huta. Maybe in comparison to a suburban hellhole today it's nice. But give any of those people living in Nowa Huta during the 50s a chance to go live in a suburb of America and they'd go.

[@kassendek4777]

Nevermind! You have mentioned the social problems. This is very well researched!

[@EcoGecko]

Yes, that was all a common thread across the new cities. That Horvath article I cite goes into a lot of detail about similar problems in Dunaujvaros. Unfortunately since I try to keep my videos to about 20 minutes, I could only briefly mention the issues, although I would have preferred to go into more detail.

[@kassendek4777]

@@EcoGecko That's alright. I really appreciate your videos and look forward to the next one.