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Bill Levitt, the father of mass-produced US suburban homes, stated that no man who owns his own house can be a communist. From the looks of it, the Soviets agreed. In the ideological climate of the day, capitalist cities were regarded as products of the chaotic development of exploitative societies, and the qualitative differences between center and periphery as expressive of social inequality. Consequently, socialist architects were tasked with the development of a new form for the city; one structurally tuned to the new, socialist lifestyle.
This new city type would be instrumental in the substitution of individualism and privatism with collectivism, and would eliminate social segregation. Large volumes of studies, norms and standards were dedicated to the design of typified projects for dwellings, with matching furniture and household equipment. Today, Russian urban space consist almost entirely of concrete panel houses of but a few types spread across the entire nation, making most cities - and interiors - look alike.
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