Comments on: 7 Super-Sized (And Somewhat Insane) Soviet Projects

By: ann

ann — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:13:34 +0000

re failures of Soviet infrastructure –^ They’re everywhere you look over here… still… only now, you have Soviet educated road builders (and etc) trying to maintain Soviet built (read cheaply and shoddily) infrastructure.

oh- comment relevant to the article? What about the ‘Stalin’s Birthday Cake’ structures that ‘grace’ many large cities that used to be controlled by the USSR? They’re hideous and impractical…

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:09:49 +0000

I actually had to read about some of these project for a class. The major reason why that Baltic-White Sea Canal failed was because Stalin read a book about communist political prisoners sabotaging major projects and refused to trust them. Imprisoned engineers wanted to build a longer route that was deeper but the Soviets told them they had to build the canal in 20 months with only the resources found along the route.
After reading “The Ghost of the Executed Engineer,” you wonder why there weren’t more failures of Soviet infrastructure.

By: kitsana_d

kitsana_d — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:04:27 +0000

I can’t believe how many thousands of people worked (and died) on these projects, and how few of them ever came to anything or remain.

And, I have a hunch that if the People’s Palace had ever been built, that the people wouldn’t have been allowed access to it. I’m just guessing.

By: A Faithful Employee

A Faithful Employee — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:21:03 +0000

The Russian expression was – ” They pretend to pay us , we pretend to work”
It is amazing what the country Russia ( former U.S.S.R.) accomplished – especially after all the destruction following the 30’s and then the great patriotic war. Yet in the end everyone had a job in the U.S.S.R. but very few could eat.

By: jab

jab — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 02:36:05 +0000

Don’t miss the propaganda film of the New Moscow from 1938! People’s Palace included.

Linked in my sig.

By: Justin

Justin — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 23:34:01 +0000

This is a new SuperSized Project in Russia … not the USSR, but a project perhaps worthy of your notice:

Foster + Partners have just been granted preliminary permission to start construction on this volcano-shaped superstructure in Moscow, which will be dubbed “Crystal Island”. In terms of efficiency monolithic buildings like this seem unnecessary, but the proposed dimensions are amazing: it will be 1,500 foot tall with 26,909,776 foot squared of floor space, that’s enough room to house 30,000 people.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:42:44 +0000

I lived in Moscow and visited the cathedral replica. It’s pretty ugly, but it shows good spirit. People are STILL indignant over Lenin knocking down the original. Can you imagine what kind of slap in the face that would have been?

By: Leggy

Leggy — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:35:19 +0000

This month’s issue of the art magazine Cabinet did an article about these. Very interesting.

By: WizardBoy

WizardBoy — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:02:37 +0000

It probably does not need to be said, but maybe many Soviet leaders have small penises. Or they think ours are bigger in the West. What are they over-compensating for? Its gotta be something. [I know why Ahhrnold drives a Hummer -- (see above)] — Surely these building projects are great fodder for psychologists everywhere.

By: Dave Nofmeister

Dave Nofmeister — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:20:58 +0000

I think the crazyest one was the 100 megaton bomb. During the time it was built, surely there wasn’t even a plane that could carry it.