Totalitarian motives of soviet architecture and urban planning are always overlooked by leftists:
>wide streets and walkways served to reduce the individual, make one feel small and futile against the state (very evident in cities like Minsk),
>walkable cities, although a good thing, paired with very restricted access to cars were also an instrument to reduce citizens' mobility,
>cinemas were a necessity because of state-controlled film's role in propaganda.
These double-purposes are prominent throughout soviet planning policy, including the GULAGs. The ussr also had some classist housing - certain buildings and blocks were given to the nomenclature and intelligentsia, such as the prized Houses of Science and Culture, as well as many other soviet buildings surrounding city centres. Speaking of preservation, a couple of years ago a top floor balcony collapsed off of one of the residental buildings in my town, smashing other balconies in it's path. Many soviet buildings, especially from the late 70s and throughout the 80s are simply too expensive to rennovate as they are rapidly deteriorating due to various corners being cut in materials and construction.
>Totalitarian
sage
you aer a fucking moron
those nice narrow streets in Central Europe are remnants of these cities in the Middle Ages, it's not out of priority for humanness and what not
any rationally designed urban space in the 20th century would result in Soviet-like cities
fuck you, fuck your street, and fuck your Sovietophobia
>Totalitarian
lel
Loling @ u OP
>streets are open and accessible but this makes people feel small
absolutely grasping at straws lol
What, do the skyscrapers in capitalist cities not make people feel small?
>>2526398it's the opposite actually. narrow streets and walkable cities made the many french revolts possible. you couldn't barricade USA city streets. i don't care about the cinema thing and neither should you. soviet housing fell into disrepair after the fall of the soviet union wow whoda thunk it
>>2526398Minsk is fine, very walkable, but I always preferred living in the smaller cities.
<carsPeople could afford to buy motorcycles. What you need a car for when you have trains and other public transport? Even today many people in these cities don't own cars. Just take a taxi.
Anyway as one of the few people on this board who has probably ever lived in a Khrushchevka
In Belarus- it was fine. I didn't like how hot it was in summer though (lived near the top floor).
>>2526398reard & faggot. retard faggot.
are you sure the wide avenues were to opress the the citizens and not a lesson learned from WWII about repelling invading armies.
>>2526398consider suicide
>>2526398>>wide streets and walkways served to reduce the individual, make one feel small and futile against the state (very evident in cities like Minsk), based
>>walkable cities, although a good thing, paired with very restricted access to cars were also an instrument to reduce citizens' mobility, based
>>cinemas were a necessity because of state-controlled film's role in propaganda. based
what is there to dislike?
>>2527024belarus anon how do i get a work visa? i will come to work for the collective farms in a less developed oblast like vitebsk for alexander grigoryevich. i promise to report all zmagars to the state security committee.
>>2526630Just FYI there's homelessness in Belarus too, I used to encounter them late at night. Some in Minsk too. But not many.
I remember one (drunk) woman at around midnight collapsing outside a store entrance. I don't think there were any homeless shelters either. Maybe it's different nowadays.
I feel a big difference however is that in Belarus most can move back in with (extended) family. Also rents are relatively cheap. There's not much in the way of suburban sprawl either so even if you live in a "bad" neighborhood you still have stores and jobs within walking distance. Even the shittiest places and neighborhoods where I lived were a ~5 minute walk away from a convenience store, some of which were open 24 hours a day.
I get the impression its the reverse in America: lots of places where you can't survive or hold a job without a car. Expensive rents. And less acceptance and ability to move back in with family. Weaker family and communal bonds in general. It also doesn't strike me as the kind of place where its considered acceptable to live with 6 people some of them strangers/extended family in a tiny apartment/dacha either. (which sucks but is better than living on the streets)
The wide streets were for making room for tanks to pass through during WW2. Major cities all over the USSR had to basically tear all the buildings down along their main streets and widen everything to make room for massive convoys of tanks and artillery and supply trucks making their way to the front.
>>2527141Thoughts on Belarus ? I've heard it described as "neo-soviet" economy
>>2527289Of course. Totalitarian is the most obvious case but the same is true of people exclaiming stuff about authoritarianism or terrorism like you said. They're status quo upholders to the core, not much else
>>2526398this is libtard anarkiddie propaganda
The first part made me think this is bait but the second part makes me think you might be actually stupid.
Can you clarify?
>>2526398>wide streets and walkways served to reduce the individual, make one feel small and futile against the state (very evident in cities like Minsk), narrow streets are an absolute pain to navigate on foot. feel free to come to old districts of petrograd and experience the joys of monarchoid city planning bumping into people since it's too narrow for two to fit on the sidewalk
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