The Dissolution and Revival of Utopian Socialist Spaces: The Second Life of Gorky Park and the VDNKh

• In Event: Perestroika from Below: From Shared Soviet Space to Divergent Local Histories

Abstract

The Soviet recreation park was a purposefully designed socialist space that existed in all major cities of the Soviet Union. Together with other institutions as the Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy (VDNkh), these parks were not only places of leisure, they aimed also to promote the taste and cultural behaviour of citizens. At the same time, they were visible symbols of the aspiration to build socialism in the near future. The paper will explore how these public spaces were reinterpreted by their visitors in late socialism. It will show how they illustrated in a particular way the directions that further social development was taking in the former Soviet empire. The question of the long-term impact of the values conveyed in utopian socialist spaces will also be raised.

Author

• Katharina Kucher, U of Leibniz IOS (Germany)