The Problem of “Art-House” and Economic Tendencies in the Project “Great Vladivostok”

Abstract

The project “Great Vladivostok,” conducted during the period of Nikita Khrushchev, was very important for the Primorye region and state, but remained little known in the wider history of the USSR due to the policy of the Soviet government after 1964. It was not only part of the great housing reform in the country but was also an attempt at establishing the Soviet position (through the large new city of Vladivostok) in the East Asian region. However, many processes within this project are unknown for various reasons—primarily political ones. We consider and analyze one of these processes, the question of “art-house” and “economic” styles in “Great Vladivostok.” The authors have used oral history materials (for example, collected interviews), visual sources, written works, and records from Russian archives to consider and analyze the results of the “art-house” and economic styles in “Great Vladivostok” as applied to housing developments.