Based on research in previously closed Soviet archives, this book sheds light on the formative years of Soviet city planning and on state efforts to consolidate power through cityscape design. Stepping away from Moscow's central corridors of power, Heather D. DeHaan focuses her study on 1930s Nizhnii Novgorod, where planners struggled to accommodate the expectations of a Stalinizing state without sacrificing professional authority and power.

Bridging institutional and cultural history, the book brings together a variety of elements of socialism as enacted by planners on a competitive urban stage, such as scientific debate, the crafting of symbolic landscapes, and state campaigns for the development of cultured cities and people. By examining how planners and other urban inhabitants experienced, lived, and struggled with socialism and Stalinism, DeHaan offers readers a much broader, more complex picture of planning and planners than has been revealed to date.

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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.’

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‘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.’

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‘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.’

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‘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.’

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‘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.’

"‘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.’" - Canadian Slavonic Papers vol 75:3-4:2013

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

"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." - Spacing Magazine

"‘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.’" - Choice Magazine - vol 51:04:2013

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‘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.’

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‘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.’