Dmitrii Sidorov, California State University Long Beach
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Abstract
After the 1917 revolution in Russia, the new Bolshevik authorities aspired to eliminate the core-periphery socio-spatial disparities under the banner of equality. Within Moscow, it resulted in dividing Moscow’s privileged historic center among its peripheral districts. This attempt to design districts of similar social and economic composition was short-lived, and, corresponding with the rise of the Stalinist state, the city center partially re-appeared in the form of the newly established smaller districts that were eliminated only after Stalin’s death. Utilizing previously classified archival data, this paper sheds light on the socio-spatial differentiation of Stalinist Moscow by comparing its central districts to the city’s periphery. The analysis posits that the Bolshevik ideal of territorial equality was not achieved: ethnically, socially, and politically Moscow in the late 1930s remained spatially unequal. The legacy of this polarization is still felt in the city.
