Concrete witnesses of a fallen dream, a hope for equality and better life, an urban utopia, are still standing and very well a part of the everyday life of citizens… at least for now

Keywords: Brutal East

Many scholars have examined the ideology of the socialist take-over that happened in Eastern Europe after the Second World War. In the Balkans specifically (which will be my main area of interest here, as I have lived there for a few years), where more than half of the population was rural, a need to boost the industrial sector meant forced urbanization and massive migration towards the cities. Hence the erection of apartment blocks to house the incoming population. From capitals cities to provincial towns, prefabricated blocks were built and now dotted the urban landscape. Academic works (see bibliography below) detail the plans conceived to build even more, and even faster, as one of socialism’s failures in Southeastern Europe (and presumably everywhere else) was to live up to the promise of providing housing of equal and good standards to everyone.

https://brutalism84225018.wordpress.com/2021/02/15/welcome

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