In the early years of the Cold War, the skyline of Moscow was forever transformed by a citywide skyscraper building project. As the steel girders of the monumental towers went up, the centuries-old metropolis was reinvented to embody the greatness of Stalinist society. 

Moscow Monumental explores how the quintessential architectural works of the late Stalin era fundamentally reshaped daily life in the Soviet capital, says a review on the Princeton University Press website.

Drawing on a wealth of original archival research, Katherine Zubovich examines the decisions and actions of Soviet elites and describes the experiences of ordinary Muscovites who found their lives uprooted by the ambitious skyscraper project. 

She shows how the Stalin-era quest for monumentalism was rooted in the Soviet Union’s engagement with Western trends in architecture and planning, and how the skyscrapers required the creation of a vast and complex infrastructure.