From Tractors to Territory: Socialist Urbanization through Standardization

This article proposes that the Fordist model of industrial standardization enabled and empowered the Soviets to enact distinctly socialist, decentralized, urban patterns. It follows the design of the Kharkiv Tractor Factory (KhTZ) and the socialist city (sotsgorod) to house its workers, built outside of the first capital of Soviet Ukraine between 1930 and 1931. The near-impossible schedule of Stalin’s hyperindustrialization drive, known as the first Five-Year Plan (1928-1932), limited the options both tractor factory and sotsgorod designers could pursue, which made easily replicable architectural types and models particularly attractive. Once tested on an experimental site like KhTZ, a type deemed successful joined the ranks of those ready for slight adjustment—a process known as priviazka in Soviet architectural discourse—and export to far-flung sites in the Soviet sphere.