2.b History and development Khrushchev’s new deal Khrushchev’s[5] speech of December 7, 1954, can be regarded – among other things – as the beginning of the history of a typical “sleeping district.” This document, being on the one hand a reaction to the great demand for new housing, and on the other hand a protest against the high cost and the ideologyfraught aura of Stalinist architecture, gave birth to a totally new type of architecture. This was the point in time when the mass construction of standard houses in the USSR started. In his speech, Khrushchev was very specific in addressing the relevant problems and challenges. First of all, he proposed to totally abandon the building of brick structures, and switch to fully prefabricated methods. Since the development of industry had been one of the main achievements of the USSR, it seemed logical to industrialize also the production of houses.
Khrushchev also proposed a total consolidation of building companies. It was not only about making building companies bigger, but also about consolidating the process of decision making. “There can be no serious thought of industrializing construction if we are going to continue to increase the number of building organizations.[…] Highly instructive in this respect is the reduction of building organizations in Moscow – where a single organization, Glavmosstroy has been set up on the basis of the 56 Mossoviet building trusts and various ministries and departments.”*
In the speech he proposed to rely totally on standardized projects. There should be as few of them as possible. “Why are they 38 standard designs of schools in current use? […] We must select a small number of standard designs for residential buildings, schools, hospitals, kindergartens, children’s nurseries, shops and other buildings […]”*
“And what are the effects of using prefabricated parts? Use of pre-fabricated reinforced concrete will allow us to manufacture parts as is done in the plant-construction industry – will make it possible to switch to factory construction methods.”*
[5] Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (1894-1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR in years 1953-1964. He was responsible for partial de-stalinization and several liberal reforms, which were later called “thaw”. In the West mainly known for the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962
* Excerpts from the speech by Nikita Khrushchev, National Conference of Builders, Architects, Workers in the Construction Materials and Manufacture of Construction and Road Machinery Industries, and Employees of Design and Research and Development Organizations, 7.12.1954
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