The Reconstruction of Moscow

to the reconstruction of Moscow, since it entailed the demolition of certain edifices of an historical and archi- tectural interest— even though they were of no great value and stood in the way of фе socialist reconstruction of the city. The "Left" wing avoided the task of reconstruction. and prJoposed to build the capital on a new site, thus leaving old Moscow intact. As we see, even in the sphere of planning there is a very close connection between the Right and the "Leftist" petty -bourgeois ideologists. In 1920 the ideologist of kulak counter-revolution, Chayanov, wrote a book called My Brother Alexei's Journey to the Land of the Peasants' Utopia. In this book- he dreamed of a counter-revolutionary coup, which ac- cording to his almanac should have taken place in 1934,. and which was to lead to the deliberate destruction ot Moscow as a city. The following is the policy in the sphere of the "development" (or more correctly, destruction) of cities, and of Red Moscow in particular, about which this, openly kulak ideologist dreamed: "At first the reconstruction of Moscow was influ- enced by reasons of a political character," wrote Cha- yanov. "In 1934, when power was firmly in the hands of the peasant" (read: kulak!) "parties the Mitrofanov government, convinced by many years of practical experience of the danger of a great concentration of people in cities to a democratic" (read: counter-revolu- tionary) "regime, decided on a revolutionary ( !) meas- ure, apd promulgated the famous decree concerning the destruction of cities with a population exceeding 20,000 inhabitants. "Of course, it was most difficult to carry this decree out as regards Moscow which in the 'thirties had more than 4,000,000 population. But the stubborn persis-

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