Description

Dr. Schmidt describes the building & planning schemes in Moscow from approx. the accession of Catherine the Great in the early 1760s to the mid-reign of Nicholas I, about 1840. The author maintains that despite the enormous destruction of historic Moscow caused by the reordering of Gorkii (the old Tverskaia) St. & the Kalinin Prospect (the Arbat) under Stalin & Khrushchev, there still exists a significant remnant of the classical city which rose from the ashes of the great fire in 1812. The architects of the classical city--Catherine's builders, Vasilii Bazhenov & Matvei Kazakov, & those who rebuilt Moscow after 1812, Osip Bove, Domenico Giliardi, & Afanasii Grigor'ev--are featured together with their individual architectural creations as well as their broader city-planning accomplishments. In many respects an atlas of the boulevards & thoroughfares of central Moscow, this book both recreates the Moscow of another era & adds to the understanding of the contours & character of the modern Soviet metropolis. Illus.