Том 1. Новые идеи нового века – 2018 Vol. 1 New Ideas of New Century –2018 Mylova J. A. [email protected] PNU, Khabarovsk, Russia THE PROCESS OF URBANIZATION IN THE FAR EAST REGION OF RUSSIA IN THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY Abstract. A new stage of development of the Far East of Russia begins as the part of the program of rapid industrialization and increasing the country's defense since the 1930s. In paral- lel with large industrial companies workers' settlements and cities were based in the Far East. The dynamics of formation and growth of new cities (Birobidzhan, Magadan, Komsomolsk-on- Amur) are displayed in the article. The specificity of urban design in terms of territorial remote- ness of the region is submitted.1 Keywords: socialist city, general plan, urbanization Introduction. During the Soviet period the concept of the new city was formu- lated, and the realisation of which in varying degrees determined the character of the formation of about 70% of Russian cities. There were certain patterns in the trends of that type of urban development, the study of which revealed the problems of modern life. The exploring of Russian Far Eastern cities helped to solve the problem of balanced development of the region as a whole, which seemed an issue of particular importance of national scale. Rethinking the Soviet urban planning approach made possible to de- termine the positive and negative aspects that affected the continuing development of the cities, as well as the formation social and comfortable urban environment. That fact actualized urban development assessment of planning structure of socialist cities in the Far Eastern region in the context of the historical development of the phase. 1. Formation of the planning structure of Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The ap- pearing of Komsomolsk-on-Amur began in the period of the formation of the largest industrial centers of the Soviet Union in the early 1930s. The formation of Komsomolsk solved three important problems: military, economic and geopolitic. Great human ef- forts were required for grandiose plans for arrangement of the territory, preparation of building materials, buildings plants and factories, and appearing a new Soviet city. For this purpose Komsomol Central Committee organized mobilization of Komsomol groups from different cities of the Union. Over 6000 people came to the territory of the future city in May 1932 [11]. There were not comfortable conditions for people in that time. Construction of temporary houses was necessary part of the initial period of con- struction. The linear structure of the settlements was formed along the river in the first stage of building that "the logic of the situation was caused by: a practical necessity and an opportunity" [5]. Isolation from existing transportation routes led to the underdevel- opment of mechanization and logistics. Lack of administrative and technical staff on the territory of construction did not contribute to the required volume of work. However, despite the difficulties, preparation of local building materials, the construction of tem- © Mylova J. A., 2018 300 1. Вопросы теории и истории в градостроительстве... Theory and history issues in urban planning.... porary housing was accelerating. Intensive Active preparations were held for the achievement of the main purpose - building factories. In June 1933 the company Proektverf made the project of the shipbuilding facto- ry and plan of the settlement near it. Dating back to 1935 the project of settlement near Amur shipyard designed by architect N.M. Protopopov-Bylev was a typical example of the Soviet city in 1930. Following the ideas of Soviet urban planning, the author added specific elements to the project: regular planning, the opening quarter, wide streets and avenues, large areas. Plans for building an aircraft factory designed by the company Giprogor since 1933 [7] were destroyed in 1934, because of floods and transfer con- struction plant far from flood zones near the Amur river. Thus, the constructions of the first sections of the factory was built only in June 1934. Simultaneously the construction of the settlement was being built. Houses were built more systematically because archi- tects took into account the mistakes that were made during the first building stage that were connected with the flooding territories. The formation of residential areas near industrial enterprises that can be consid- ered as the main city-forming factors led to the concentration of population at two plac- es that were far enough from each other. However, the government of the city deter- mined the possibility of the development of the settlement, that could grow as the whole urban organism. Thus for a long time there was not general scheme of the development, as evidenced by a number of archival documents. Only in May 1937 the preliminary scheme of allocated areas was realized by architect B.V. Danchich, that marked the "beginning of the planned building of the city" [12]. After the finishing of the geodetic survey the team from the company Gorstroy- project with its cheaf architect B.V. Danchich was able to organize the first work - the general plan of the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur and the team presented its final vari- ant in September 25, 1939. Architectural-planning decision by the general plan was based on the concept of creating two large residential areas on the right and left side from the floodplain of the Silinka river, where the central city park of culture and recre- ation was planned on the basis of the existing green area. The most important reason for this differentiation of the territories was the location of manufacturing enterprises in the structure of the settlement, that was the largest center of the population of workers. One of the factors of influence on the formation of the architectural and planning solution was project of Large Amur railway, that passing to the borders of the city with the necessity to come to the bridge over the river Amur and move to the direction of Sovietskaya Gavan. Location of the transport system should be logically projected in the general plan of the city for communication between main areas and the whole de- velopment of Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Housing construction was expected to build with large compact blocks, concen- trated in the left-bank and right-bank areas of the city. "In accordance with the new ur- ban concept principles of social organization of the territory were developed: the spatial construction of residential groups or large social blocks with internal courtyards and gardens as major social and city planning cells" [8]. The project included construction of the residential areas of the city with four five-storey buildings. Scheme of the for- mation of main highways was based on the principle of rational connection of main in- dustrial and administrative districts of the city. Komsomolsk was considered a symbol of the new state, a focus of the socialist life and culture. Its planning structure was the same as the leading capital cities of the Union. The composition of the master plan had a highly visible streets to the direction 301 Том 1. Новые идеи нового века – 2018 Vol. 1 New Ideas of New Century –2018 of the Amur, that linking the whole urban area to the shoreline. From the side of the riv- er everybody could see the flourishing socialist city. 2. Formation of architecture and planning structure of Birobidzhan. The city Birobidzhan appeared on the site of the railway station Tikhonkaya in 1931. Its ge- ographical location near the watershed of the river Bira (affluent of the river Amur) and Ikura near the Trans-Siberian railway helped to solve transport problem, linking the city with the most important areas, leading to the Amur on the one hand and the central re- gions of the country on the other. Also, the city was developed as an industrial site. Light and woodworking industry became city-forming factors for the Birobidzhan. However, the city got the status of the administrative and cultural center, which became a crucial step in the policy of resettlement of Jews to the unsettled territories of the Far East. The main purpose of the resettlement of Jewish workers was the subsequent consolidation of the population and the creation of the Jewish Autonomous Region, which was on the basis of government regulations in the 1928-1931 [2]. Large-scale migration provided a huge amount of people that employed in manufacturing. Thus, a sufficiently high qualification of stuff existed in accordance with the resettlement pro- gram. Anyway there was a bad quality of living conditions, that actualized the problem of the construction of temporary housing in the initial stage of Birobidzhan. The most important task was to design a work zones of the city. However, there was not the lack of geological data for the determining the main directions of initial planning, and there- fore it had temporary conditions. By June 1932 the settlement had spontaneously formed structure, about 60% of which consisted from the undeveloped territories [10]. The streets had a random direc- tion, caused by the linear development along the river and the railway. The area of the city was characterized by the total length of 8 km and a width of about 1 km. Formed scheme actually blocked the further development of the city due to the stiffness of terri- tory between the river and the railroad, which led to the inefficient using of zones of the city and transport system. The situation was complicated by the necessity of expensive excavation for leveling terrain and the erection of permanent structures in deep soil freezing. In this aspect, it considered the subsequent development of Birobidzhan with the expansion of the territory by placing the main residential areas on the right bank of the river Bira.