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Description

One of the First Soviet General Development Plans for Moscow.

Fascinating color-lithographed map of Moscow, drawn up by A.V. Shchusev in 1923, as a proposal for the development and modernization of Moscow. The plan (not to mention its graphic design) was cutting edge and reflective of the utopian thinking of the Soviet Union. Despite its positive qualities, it was never adopted, with the 1935 General Plan of Moscow being decided upon.

The plan has its roots in the Old Moscow Society, which was founded prior to the Revolution.

In 1909, the "Old Moscow" Society had been founded and one of its activities was drawing up a "New Moscow" plan. A.V. Shchusev, I. V. Zholtovsky and others. The purpose of the plan was to identify the historical layout of the city of Moscow and develop it in accordance with modern needs. After the Revolution, work on the project continued. The plan was published in 1923 (signed by A.V. Shchusev). According to this project, the united Kremlin and Kitai-Gorod (“Golden City”) became the core of the city, which was surrounded by five belts: “White City” (in the ring of boulevards), “Earthen City” (in the Gardens ring), “Red City”, the belt of garden cities, and the Green Belt. The "Red City" was supposed to be located in the New Park Ring, which included Khodynskoye Pole, Sokolniki, Luzhniki, and the belt of garden cities was tied to the stations of the district and radial railways. According to Shchusev's plan, new through-rings were to be created with new bridges across the Moskva River, without radically disrupting the old planning structure of Moscow.

Although Shchusev did not foresee the rapid growth of the population of Moscow and the development of land transport, he nevertheless outlined an extensive transport network on the plan, which included additional rings, chord and segment links, backup routes of the main streets, as well as new bridges across the Moskva River and Yauza.

The font design is unusual and was possibly done by Alexey Remizov, though more research would need to be done to confirm this.

Further reading (in Russian) on the plan can be found at this website.