This is two contributions in one.
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There is a topic few of us touched upon, but I think would be quite common in the quasi-utopian world of Reds: architectural blunders.
Time to dive into the visions of tomorrow...that never came.
Citylab.UASR
The Kazan Dome: 25 Years After Its Demise, It Still Inspires a Lot of Hate from City Planners, and a lot of Love From Kazanites
June 25, 2017
Picture Dated to 1990 [1]
Kazan, like many Soviet cities, has a long and diverse (if not always clean) history. One legacy of this history is many beautiful historic sites, like the Kazan Kremlin and the Soyembkia Tower, that attract millions of tourists from across Comintern. These two sites in particular are featured in postcards and travel magazines. But another prominent monument on these postcards are a building that, though long demolished, also holds a strong place in the hearts of many Kazanites: the Kazan Dome, along with the words "World's Fair '63" written in Cyrillic.
All that remains of this old structure is a vast public grassland, and a few stalls of people selling discount souvenirs, many of them related to the immortalized (if not immortal) structure.
"Everyday I walked to school, I always saw the dome on the horizon," says Sayed Karimov. A Tatar man, he sells framed pictures and hats of the Kazan Dome to tourists, "I always saw it as Tatarstan rising to prominence."
Ekaterina Getalidze, a professor of urban studies at Kazan State University, as a much different view of the fabled dome.
"The building was a waste of funds", she says with annoyance," a major stain on the skyline of our city."
Food as a Weapon
The beginnings of the Kazan Dome lay in the closing days of World War II
Like many cities in Central Russia, the Second World War was both an opportunity and a curse for the old capital of the Tatar Khanate.
Many of the industrial centers in the Western Soviet Union were threatened by the massive land invasion of the Axis Powers. The Soviet government evacuated whole factories and workers east to escape the German invasion and German bombs and to keep Soviet industry intact. While cities like Kiev and Minsk were utterly destroyed, cities like Kazan benefited from the import of Soviet industries. Like America, the Soviet hinterlands had all the benefits of the war, and none of the major drawbacks.
However, there was one issue that prevented Kazan from being a completely comfortable: food.
With the rich steppe of Ukraine and Western Russia undergoing brutal occupation, the Soviet Union lost much of its ability to produce food, especially as the lives of so many young people had been claimed. By the end of the war, domestic food production fell to 40 percent of what it had been in 1940 [2]. While America and Mexico stepped in, providing food aid through the arctic ports of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk (and later through Iran), this supply line was long and precarious, as German U-Boats frequently brutalized these supply lines. Distributing the food across the vast Soviet hinterland also proved difficult.
Thus while inland Soviet cities never suffered the deprivation and famine of cities like Leningrad, they nevertheless suffered major cuts in their food supply. By the end of the war, the average Soviet citizen had been consuming 1/3 the calories he/she had been consuming in 1940.
Soviet citizens remained dependent on aid from the Americas, well into the 1950s, as a drought in 1947 hindered the recovery of the Soviet breadbasket by several years. [3]
As the Cold War loomed, many Soviet officials became conscious of the difficulties of distributing food in a time of warfare, and began searching for the means to become self-sufficient.
One of these men was a Kazan apparatchik named Vladimir Kenobov.
A View of Tomomorrow
Kenobov, born in 1919, was an aircraft engineer from Minsk. His skills made him among the many people to be evacuated east. During the war, he recounted how his comrades would often collapse in their work places due to the inadequacy of the rationing they received.
"While his skills ensured he received a relatively comfortable ration, the effects of hunger marked him," said Getalidze, "he came to realize the food in war is more important then bullets."
After the war, Kenobov chose to remain in Kazan, having married a Tatar woman, resigned from the aircraft factory , and joined the city's Committee of Planning in 1949. His political diligence, and ability to meet housing quotas led him to become the Planning Chairman in 1957. It was from his forum that Kenobov began to promote the issue that had been dogging him since the Second World War: self-sufficiency.
It was around this time that another visionary was quickly gaining traction in the UASR: Buckminster Fuller.
Fuller, around this time, was popularizing the geodesic dome. He had built the new addition to the University of Emory, which was groundbreaking for its innovations in climate control and weathering. More importantly, in an article to Scientific American in March 1957, Fuller talked about the idea of recreating indoor environments.
"One day, we could put a dome around Los Angeles and keep out the smog," Fuller wrote, "or even cover the Sahara and turn it into a breadbasket."
Kenobov read the article, and believing in the seeming infallibility of America, he immediately called Fuller in.
"Like too many Soviet comrades, Kenobov believed of America as a land where the streets were paved with gold," laments Getalidze.
The cost of the project originally deterred investment, but one upcoming event gave Kenobov the means to develop his project: the World's Fair.
An Opportunity to Spend
By the late 1950s, Khruschchev had consolidated his power in the Soviet Union. He eagerly sought to promote Soviet Russia and its remarkable postwar recovery. He was particularly inspired by the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels, which showcased the prosperity of post-war Belgium.
"If those Belgian dogs can look mighty, why can't our Glorious Motherland," quipped Khrushchev [4].
Khrushchev originally planned to put his World's Fair in Moscow. However, he was receiving lectures by American advisers about the need to promote autonomy and development in the non-Russian regions of the Soviet Union. One token way to do this was to give a non-Moscow or Leningrad city the ticket, and so in 1958, Khrushchev launched a contest for other Soviet cities to get the World's Fair in 1965.
Kenebov led the campaign, using American political and promotion techniques to beat out at least ten other cities.
In 1959, using the funds from the World's Fair project to begin construction on the Kazan Dome, which would be a showcase for the "new" Soviet Union desired by Khrushchev.
The Best Laid Plans
The design of the dome was very straightforward: a large sprinkler system, climate control technologies, and fans would attempt to recreate indoor weather. By 1962, it was actually built and completed under budget, a rarity among Soviet projects at the time.
"The engineers, for once, enjoyed their vodka with joy rather than stress-inducing shame," says Getalidze.
But what few in the Kazan planning board accounted for was, well, the purpose of building.
The hope of the dome was that it could eventually grow enough food to pay for itself, and actually feed the tourists who would arrive at the World's Fair, something that Kenobov hoped to do. If the Kazan Dome could work, then many more could be built, ensuring that cities wouldn't have to worry about food again.
"Debonov even remarked that he'll be able to grow oranges in the Winter," Getalidze quipped.
However, one thing the designers did not account for was the ability of the technology to work on the vast project. The climate control and sprinkler systems were not designed for the sheer size of the dome. The strain of having to work on such a vast plane led to breakdowns in the system. This frequently cost money, and set back the ability to grow fruits and vegetables.
"The sprinklers watered the engineers more often then they watered the crops," quips Getalidze.
By the time of the World's Fair, the Kazan Dome had only grown up to 10 percent of the projected food. Being Russian, however, Kenobov had a very Russian solution to his problem. He imported fruits and vegetables from abroad, covering up the failure of the Dome in a Potemkin-style way.
However, the expense of the project , the enormous amounts of resources spent growing the miniscule vegetables, and the importation of vegetables meant that the World's Fair, like so many others, would make no money for the city. The Kazan Dome, like many architectural innovations, would never gain ground, especially as the cost of importing food from South America dropped well below the cost of growing it in the city.
Kazan Rising
While Kenobov's personal ambition had failed, the World's Fair and the Kazan Dome had given the city of Kazan had given pride to the people of Tartarstan.
Karimov claimed to have seen the Kazan Dome being built on his way to school, and saw its construction as a sign that their city was gaining the respect of the world.
"Seeing that beautiful building rise, I felt we were at the center of the universe," Karimov wrote.
During the World's Fair, which he visited with his father, he was stunned to meet so many people around the world.
"I never even met an American, and then I end up spending time with a German kid," remarked Karimov.
The World's Fair, while a short-term failure, had begun Kazan's transformation into the major tourist and university center it is today. The Kazan Dome, the centerpiece of the World's Fair, symbolize the new cosmopolitan Tatar city.
The (Glass) White Elephant
But while the Dome had earned a spot in the heart of the Kazan people, the city's managers hated the structure, due to the enormous costs of heating and maintaining the structure.
"The Dome was like a good for nothing relative you wanted to get rid off: he took all your money, but he grew on you," says Getalidze.
Numerous renovation proposals came through, from turning the facility into a laboratory, to giving it to an agricultural school, but many were lost, and eventually, the structure gradually deteriorated, but its continued popularity precluded a demolition.
Finally, in 1991, a fire broke out that severely gutted the structure, and the building was finally torn down. But still, the structure remains in the hearts of many Kazan people.
[1] The real life Montreal Biosphere.
[2] True statistic.
[3] This drought was so bad OTL, it triggered a famine that prevented USSR from enjoying the baby boom of Europe and America.
[4] Khrushchev never said anything like this OTL: I was just combining his legendary crass nature with the European tradition of mocking the Belgians.
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I can imagine that travel tips will be necessary for visiting the UASR to avoid awkward moments.
Travel.co.fbu
3 Travel Tips For the UASR
Michael Virout
March 10, 2015
To ensure a comfortable, safe, and not-controversial visit to America, here are several things you need to be aware off.
1. Every Community Has Different Rules About Social Etiquette
The American Lifestyle (one of promiscuity and great hedonism) is often one often is the impression people get of America, and many travel to America to live out those fantasies. But let me make it clear that one should never assume that everyone lives the same way. Different communities have different rules.
While the aforementioned lifestyle is common in cities like Metropolis, Miami, and San Francisco, it is less common elsewhere.
While Southern Florida is very libertine, Northern Florida still adheres to more traditional social mores. So living like a Miamian in the city of Jacksonville can get you a lot of odd looks. In more rural communities, such lifestyles are still somewhat taboo.
But the social conventions across America are even more diverse than you can imagine, due to the power of local Soviets.
Amish communities in Pennsylvania, for example, still live according to 19th century norms and social customs. It is hilarious to imagine somewhere in America where the showing of ankle is considered to be subversive (especially when women bear even more in neighboring communities), but that is still the case.
But it can get even stranger then that.
In Kollontaian communities in Utah and Idaho, while polygamy and communal sex are considered holy, booze, cannabis, and caffeine are not allowed to be sold in stores (and tourists warned not to bring any), while gelatin is considered OK. Meanwhile, in the hyper-vegan communes in the Midwest, gelatin (even vegetable-based) is banned because they assume all of it came from rendered horse.
Attitudes toward dress are also complicated. While most workplaces do allow business casual, many New England communities still require and demand the wearing of suits.
When you travel to a community and wish to indulge in vice, ask questions to see if what you want to do is acceptable there.
2. Exposure and sex are not the same thing: Exposure is A Serious Social Custom
This misconception is largely the fault of countless sex comedies that misinterpret the attitudes of Americans.
Walking around in a birthday suit is not an invitation to sex, despite what many believe.
In the UASR, I've seen a man and a woman hug each other, while bare-chested, in a completely platonic way.
Public exposure is a very serious issue in the communities that allow it.
The ideology of the UASR is that people should be able to live without fear. Public exposure is one of the outcomes of this ideological goal. To many women, it is an expression of their ability to live without fear of harassment or assault. So making that assumption about them could not only lead to problems, but it would also be grossly offensive to them.
Public exposure is an expression of freedom, not an invitation for sex.
3. Reds Dislike Ostentatiousness, Not Luxury and Good Taste
Another myth pushed by media is that our commie cousins from across the Pond are a pack of crass boars, again, thanks to clash comedies that often have likable American slobs next to stuff-well mannered Brits.
But table manners and good grooming are still important in the UASR, partly because the Reds want to reject the image of themselves being utterly slovenly.
Behave like a lout at a dinner table, and you probably won't be invited back, because table manners still matter.
While dress in the UASR is casual, and Americans aren't inclined to shopping sprees, fashion and matching clothes are still important.
If you wear an overpriced Savile Row suit and a 10,000 pound Swiss watch, you might be seen as horribly decadent person who puts on airs. But if you wear a regular suit and are well-dressed, and you have good manners, you'll still be seen as decent.
4. Never Tip
Tipping is banned in the UASR, because it is seen as a byproduct of capitalist exploitation. If you tip, they assume you assume they mistreat their workers, and they will bawl you out for it.
