The Reconstruction of Moscow

As it is not our task to create іиіоріап systems for the arrangement of the future society, it would be more than idle to go into the question here." * But one thing was clear: the working class, having Won power, must radically reconstruct its cities, abolish the antithesis between town and country, wipe but the gross contradictions which obtain in a capitalist city between the bourgeois and the proletarian quarters. Ninety years have elapsed since Emgels wrote his Condition of the Working Class in England in 1 844. Almost simultaneously the great Russian critic, Belinsky, wrote of Moscow: "Everywhere self-sufficiency, lack of connec- tion. .. . The houses or huts are like fortresses, pre- pared to withstand a. prolonged siege. The household is everywhere, but there is practically no civic life." At that time Moscow lagged behinid 1 Manchester, as all Russia lagged behind 'England, a good hundred years. And even at the time of the October Revolution, Russia was not less than a hundred years behind England and other advanced capitalist countries. But now eighteen years have passed since the Revolution and the picture has changed radically. During this time, Moscow has gone through a fundamental reconstruction. The extent of this reconstruction in all branches of municipal services and enterprises has been amazimg, especially in recent years. Meanwhile, in London the problem of the slums is just as acute as ever. This problem, which could not be solved ninety years ago, is just as insoluble now so long

* Engels, The Housing Question, p. 36,. Co-operative Publishing Society, Moscow, 1935.

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