The Plan for Tselinograd and the Khrushchyovka: The Programmatic Intentions and Legacy of the Virgin Lands Urbanization by Means of a New Typology

Tselinograd was established as the capital of the USSR Tselinniy Krai (Virgin Land Territory) in 1961. The planned city became a showcase of a new conception of town planning and the standardization of buildings under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev. The new residential typology, which was proposed in conjunction with the Virgin Land Campaign and which is commonly known as the Khrushchyovka, was widely used across the whole of the USSR, as well as being exported to other socialist countries, such as China. Beginning in the 1950s, this new typology was used to supply dwellings to about 60 million people across the USSR for two decades. Despite these buildings being designed to last for a limited period, a large portion of the current population of the former USSR still reside in units constructed during this era. The Khrushchyovka contributed to the shape of socialist society and formed an important part of USSR history and popular culture, as well as collective memory. This contribution aims to analyse the innovative approach that was tested in Tselinograd by documentary analysis of the original planning documents for Tselinograd and by content analysis of the programmatic speech of Nikita Khrushchev at the National Conference of Builders, Architects, Workers in Construction Materials and Manufacture of Construction and Roads Machinery Industries, and Employees of Design and Research and Development Organizations on 7 December, 1954. Furthermore, it seeks to discuss and interpret the legacy of the original plan for Tselinograd in the current capital city of Kazakhstan, which recently has been renamed Nur-Sultan. The study is based on primary data collected in four periods of field investigation between 2009 and 2011.