[Rictor]

http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/index_e.htm?

Damn I missed the good ol' Soviet Union. They really had a thing for grandiose projects. And some of these buildings, planned in the 30s and 40s, look completely modern.

[Mefustae]

Damn, that Palace of the Soviets would have given the central Dome of Germania a run for its money.

[Kosh]

Why were these projects abandoned? I could see them being postponed because of a certain invasion in the early 40's, but why were they never started up again?


Personally I think it is because they became too focused with having "the best" military, so they were spending so much in the way of resources on it that they ignored the civilian side of things. I call this "Soviet Union Syndrome". It is interesting that now the US is starting to fall into a similair trap.

[Ace]

Even the art shows a definate split.

Some of them have the more modern (our type of modern) buildings and people, cars, some airplanes in the background. Something that looks like a nice place to live.

Others have the giant statues of Lenin, conservative Russian design 'modernized,' and columns of soldiers.

If the above category won, it would have been interesting.

[Black Wolf]

It's a shame what ultimately happened to the Soviet Union. Classic example of a good idea that went horribly wrong.

[Janos]

http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/index_e.htm?

Damn I missed the good ol' Soviet Union. They really had a thing for grandiose projects. And some of these buildings, planned in the 30s and 40s, look completely modern.

Soviet architecture was a blast

You could have a building which looked like a fortress yet leaked nonetheless!

absolutely amazing

[Ashrak]

they dont build em like they used to


look @ Rome, Soviet, Whatever

[Rictor]

I wish they had built the giant Stalin-topped skyscraper, just so I could someday watch a huge statue of a fat man in an overcoat be torn down and plummet fifty stories to the ground. It would have made the Saddam-statue thing seem like nothing.

Sadly, all the present dictators are too meek or too poor to afford something truly monumental like that.

[Ford Prefect]

Yes, sadly indeed. What the world really needs is wealthier despots.

[Rictor]

Wealthier and more imaginative, yes. Listen, despots built the Pyramids, the Great Wall of China and many other things. I am, of course, joking ever so slightly. But still, you have to admit that there was something fundamentally cool and powerful about the USSR. They were the last great empire that wasn't afraid to be an empire.

[Colonol Dekker]

Hangar from Mechwarrior vengeance anyone?  Microsoft will rip anyone off...........

[ZylonBane]

It's a shame what ultimately happened to the Soviet Union. Classic example of a good idea that went horribly wrong.

And exactly which idea is it you're referring to?

[Flipside]

Communism, most likely, on paper it looks brilliant, add the human equation and it tends to turn into a disaster.

[Black Wolf]

Exactly. The ideals behind the Soviet Union were good. The implementation wasn't.

[Fergus]

The production of these monuments would have been part of the Purges, so I can't say I'm dissapointed they weren't built.  Like all the other great construction projects under Stalin's regime, like the Belomor canal, it would have required vast numbers of forced manual labour.  If these projects had gone through then no doubt countless more would have died in their construction, not to mention the many more who would have been dragged into the gulag system, simply because more labour was required.  Yup, communist architecture at its best, not only pretty but also helps to remove opposition.

[Flipside]

As we said, great ideas, terrible implementation.

[redsniper]

* redsniper has the Soviet Anthem on his playlist.

[karajorma]

The production of these monuments would have been part of the Purges, so I can't say I'm dissapointed they weren't built.

I see your point but maybe they'd have actually been better off working in Moscow on these things than in Siberia.

[SadisticSid]

Aghhh... communism isn't even a good idea, never mind the failed regimes that have tried to put it into practice. It is an idea that is fundamentally in conflict with facets of human nature - ambition, independence and individuality. Also, the ideal communism as a stateless society - whose citizens part-own the nation - is paradoxical, because at some point you need some form of administrator to assign ownership or rules, and so he then becomes [part of] the state.

[Mefustae]

But the Soviet Union wasn't truly under communism [hence China's dislike for them], it was under Stalinism, which is definitely the form of Government I like the most.