Soviet cities benefited from some of the best theoretical urban planning in the world, yet the implementation of those plans was among the least successful, especially in the new suburban areas of existing cities. On paper, all the needs of housing, transportation, landscaping, shopping, education, and employment were planned logically and efficiently. However, the residents of these communities almost always found the realities of the plans less attractive than the theory. With the collapse of communism in Russia and the economic turmoil of the last decade, these deficiencies became even clearer and more difficult to correct.
This paper uses the northwestern city of Pskov as a case study to examine the lived experience of Soviet, then post-Soviet people in an urban center that has existed for more than a thousand years, but which was transformed into a model socialist city in the years following the almost total destruction of the city during the Second World War. It examines the large-scale housing, industrial, and commercial expansion of new regions of the city during the later decades of communist rule, evaluates the success of urban renewal and restoration in the historic center, and considers the city's efforts to maintain positive improvements in the lives of its citizens during the last decade of economic and political disruption.
The paper's focus is on how this built environment has operated on the lives of its residents during the last twenty years. It considers what has worked well from the original plans and what has failed, how residents have modified the city to make it livable, what projects are underway now, and what changes can be expected in the future.
The paper is based on extensive research in Pskov, conversations with the city's inhabitants, architects and planners, and personal experience living in the city. It is illustrated with slides, maps, and plans.