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From Collective Form to Sacrifice Zone: The Khrushchevka’s Three Lives and the Political Economy of Constructed Obsolescence in Post-Soviet Moscow

Cilt: 19 Sayı: 8 24 Ekim 2026
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From Collective Form to Sacrifice Zone: The Khrushchevka’s Three Lives and the Political Economy of Constructed Obsolescence in Post-Soviet Moscow

Öz

This article argues that Moscow’s Renovation Program (2017-2032) represents the culmination of a thirty-year process. During this period, Soviet Khrushchevka housing was privatized without proper maintenance infrastructure, gradually made more vulnerable through sustained disinvestment, declared obsolete through continuous discourse, and ultimately demolished within a redevelopment process that also reorganized and transferred control of land value to a developer-state complex. This article challenges the common view of the Renovation as solely a welfare enhancement or a governance scandal. Instead, it introduces the idea of constructed obsolescence as the key mechanism: a form of structural deterioration caused by policy decisions, rather than the natural limits of the buildings. Methodologically, the article conducts a qualitative historical-architectural analysis, combining close readings of primary legal and political sources with secondary scholarship on Soviet and post-Soviet housing. Drawing on housing policy history and post-socialist urban studies, the article traces the Khrushchevka through three distinct historical lives: as Soviet spatial ideology (1954-1991), as abandoned infrastructure (1991-2017), and as a sacrifice zone (2017-present). The replacement high-rises are read as the spatial form through which state-led development is legitimated by market aesthetics rather than party ideology: standardized in production, pseudo-diverse in appearance, and state-administered in logic. The Renovation does not simply demolish Soviet housing; it demolishes the collective form of tenure, maintenance, and spatial life that Soviet housing embodied, while obscuring the policy history that made demolition seem necessary.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Destekleyen Kurum

There is no financial support available.

Etik Beyan

Ethics committee approval is not required for this study.

Teşekkür

There is no individual or institution to thank.

Kaynakça

  1. Archis. (2009, March 1). Industrialised building speech, 1954. https://archis.org/volume/industrialised-building-speech-1954/
  2. Borisova, E., Smyth, R., & Zakharov, A. (2024). Autocratic policy and the accumulation of social capital: The Moscow Housing Renovation Program. American Political Science Review, 118(3), 1110–1130. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055423000941
  3. Büdenbender, M., & Zupan, D. (2017). The evolution of neoliberal urbanism in Moscow, 1992–2015. Antipode, 49(2), 294–313. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12266
  4. Central Committee of the CPSU & Council of Ministers of the USSR. (1955, November 4). Ob ustranenii izlishestv v proektirovanii i stroitel'stve [On the elimination of excesses in design and construction] (Decree No. 1871).
  5. Chernysheva, L. (2019). Rossiyskoe getto: Voobrazhaemaya marginalnost novykh zhilykh rayonov [Russian ghetto: The imaginary marginality of new housing estates]. Gorodskiye Issledovaniya i Praktiki, 4(2), 37–58.
  6. Federal Law. 141-FZ. (2017, July 1). O vnesenii izmeneniy v Zakon Rossiyskoy Federatsii "O statuse stolitsy Rossiyskoy Federatsii" i otdelnyye zakonodatelnyye akty Rossiyskoy Federatsii [On amendments to the Law of the Russian Federation "On the Status of the Capital of the Russian Federation" and certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation]. Official Internet Portal of Legal Information. http://publication.pravo.gov.ru/Document/View/0001201707010003
  7. Ghertner, D. A. (2015). Rule by aesthetics: World-class city making in Delhi. Oxford University Press.
  8. Gunko, M., Bogacheva, P., Medvedev, A., & Kashnitsky, I. (2018). Path-dependent development of mass housing in Moscow, Russia. In D. B. Hess, T. Tammaru, & M. van Ham (Eds.), Housing estates in Europe: Poverty, ethnic segregation and policy challenges (pp. 289–311). Springer.

Ayrıntılar

Birincil Dil

İngilizce

Konular

Kent Tarihi, Kentsel Alan Yönetimi, Mimari Tarih, Teori ve Eleştiri

Bölüm

Araştırma Makalesi

Yayımlanma Tarihi

24 Ekim 2026

Gönderilme Tarihi

11 Temmuz 2026

Kabul Tarihi

7 Ekim 2026

Yayımlandığı Sayı

Yıl 2026 Cilt: 19 Sayı: 8

Kaynak Göster

APA
Yildirim, S. (2026). From Collective Form to Sacrifice Zone: The Khrushchevka’s Three Lives and the Political Economy of Constructed Obsolescence in Post-Soviet Moscow. Kent Akademisi, 19(8), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.35674/kent.1992386
AMA
1.Yildirim S. From Collective Form to Sacrifice Zone: The Khrushchevka’s Three Lives and the Political Economy of Constructed Obsolescence in Post-Soviet Moscow. Kent Akademisi. 2026;19(8):1-18. doi:10.35674/kent.1992386
Chicago
Yildirim, Senem. 2026. “From Collective Form to Sacrifice Zone: The Khrushchevka’s Three Lives and the Political Economy of Constructed Obsolescence in Post-Soviet Moscow”. Kent Akademisi 19 (8): 1-18. https://doi.org/10.35674/kent.1992386.
EndNote
Yildirim S (01 Ekim 2026) From Collective Form to Sacrifice Zone: The Khrushchevka’s Three Lives and the Political Economy of Constructed Obsolescence in Post-Soviet Moscow. Kent Akademisi 19 8 1–18.
IEEE
[1]S. Yildirim, “From Collective Form to Sacrifice Zone: The Khrushchevka’s Three Lives and the Political Economy of Constructed Obsolescence in Post-Soviet Moscow”, Kent Akademisi, c. 19, sy 8, ss. 1–18, Eki. 2026, doi: 10.35674/kent.1992386.
ISNAD
Yildirim, Senem. “From Collective Form to Sacrifice Zone: The Khrushchevka’s Three Lives and the Political Economy of Constructed Obsolescence in Post-Soviet Moscow”. Kent Akademisi 19/8 (01 Ekim 2026): 1-18. https://doi.org/10.35674/kent.1992386.
JAMA
1.Yildirim S. From Collective Form to Sacrifice Zone: The Khrushchevka’s Three Lives and the Political Economy of Constructed Obsolescence in Post-Soviet Moscow. Kent Akademisi. 2026;19:1–18.
MLA
Yildirim, Senem. “From Collective Form to Sacrifice Zone: The Khrushchevka’s Three Lives and the Political Economy of Constructed Obsolescence in Post-Soviet Moscow”. Kent Akademisi, c. 19, sy 8, Ekim 2026, ss. 1-18, doi:10.35674/kent.1992386.
Vancouver
1.Senem Yildirim. From Collective Form to Sacrifice Zone: The Khrushchevka’s Three Lives and the Political Economy of Constructed Obsolescence in Post-Soviet Moscow. Kent Akademisi. 01 Ekim 2026;19(8):1-18. doi:10.35674/kent.1992386

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