3. Moscow as a Space of the Political in the Soviet Era

This chapter illustrates how Moscow as a space of the political changed in the Soviet Era. It analyzes the various challenges that new era posed for Soviet capital, describes how the Moscow innovations set the tone and rules of life in the country as well as the brief history of Moscow mayors. The chapter discusses terror and war, antagonism and the revolutionary aesthetic (1920s–1940s); explains why in 1930s Moscow lost its multinational, multicultural diversity, which had grown the city in the 1920s and why the October Revolution became a symbol of the revived great power, focusing on Moscow. This chapter explores the Moscow political in the 1950s–1960s: from the agonism of the “Khrushchev Thaw” to the antagonism of re-Stalinization; the Moscow political in the 1970s—first half of the 1980s: Platonism of “wise leaders” and mass depoliticization; Moscow in the last years of the communist regime: turning the capital into a citadel of liberal opposition. The chapter also identifies key reasons for the success of democratic forces in Moscow in the early years of the post-Soviet era.