ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the experiences of the Soviet Union, East European and other socialist countries in the realm of urbanization and planning through the 1980s. It shows that how these experiences have differed markedly from those of Western Europe and North America. The chapter focuses on the Soviet Union because the experience, planning approach and image of the Soviet metropolis have served as something of a model–both positive and negative–for socialist development around the world. It provides an overview of urbanization in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and the urban structure it produced. In analyzing the Soviet metropolis, the main methodological problem for planners both inside and outside the socialist bloc has been physical determinism, a form of idealism. The districts within the metropolis were linked by a road and mass transit network in the form of concentric rings and radials, a geometry offering maximum mobility and efficiency of transportation.
