Architecture of the Stalin Era

New York: Rizzoli, 1992. Hardcover. New in shrinkwrap.. Navy blue boards, blue & color illustrated dust jacket with cream lettering. 192 pp. 160 BW and 40 color illustrations. "This collection of contemporary drawings, plans and paintings, together with modern photographs, will come as a shock to a Western audience familiar with the architectural achievements of the Constructivist period but still unacquainted with those of the 1930s through the 1940s. While the skyscrapers which tower over Moscow are the most obvious architectural legacy of Stalin's reign, the most interesting aspect for the contemporary reader... is the history of the enormous architectural competitions which proved such crucial tools in the propagandistic mass culture of the era. Most of the grandiose visions reproduced here remained unbuilt; yet even in the form of perspective views they convey the atmosphere of their time with great power." (dj).