The Reconstruction of Moscow

of this territory a protective belt of forests and parks is being formed, with a radius of up to ten kilometres. This belt of large wooded areas originating in the forest land outside' the city will serve as a reservoir of pure air for the city and a place of recreation for the population. From this surrounding belt, parkways will extend to the centre of the city in the following directions: 1) from the Stalin Park at Izmailovo and the Bubnov Park at Sokolniky along the bank» of the Yauza, 2) from the Lenin Hills and the Gorky Park along the embankments of the Moscow River, and 3) from the Ostankino Park along Samotyoka and Neglinnaya Streets. AH the city parks will be replanned and put in perfect order. The thirteen great parks around the city: the Stalin Park at Izmailovo, the Bubnov Park at Sokolniky, the Ostankino Park, the Timiryazev Park, the Peter Alex- eyev Park, the Skhodnensky, (near the Moscow- Volga Canal) , the Krasnaya Presiiya, the Fily-Kuntsevo, the Lenin Hills Park, the Gorky Park, the Nogatinsky Park, the Kuzminsky and Kuskovo Parks and about fifty local parks inside the city, the city boulevards on the Sadovoye and Boulevard Circles and the lawns and gardens around the houses in the residential districts will constitute a huge reserve of plant life from which the Soviet capital will derive health and beauty. Plants and trees 'act as lungs with which a city breathes. The more plant life a city has the more habit- able it is and the more healthful for the population. But attention must be concentrated on large green expanses, and not on mere strips of planted areas which frequently narrow the city streets, without at the same time being of any benefit to the population. That is why the decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the U.S. S.R. and the Central Committee

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