Vladivostok: City of three eras†: Fid-Bau Portal

Vladivostok: City of three eras†

Richardson, William

Founded in 1860 as a naval post, today Vladivostok is Russia's largest city located on the Pacific Ocean. It owes its existence to its excellent natural harbour and its position at the far south‐eastern extremity of the Russian land mass, which made it the logical terminus for the national Russian railroad, the Trans‐Siberian. From a population of only a few dozen sailors inhabiting primitive barracks during its early years, the city now has a population of over 700 000 and is the centre of an urban region of more than a million. The city's early growth was haphazard, and only over time did it develop in a more rational way. The military, bureaucratic, and capitalist city of the early years of this century was changed only superficially by the Bolshevik Revolution, and it was only with the Five Year Plans of the 1930s that substantial projects for renewing older sections of the city were combined with ambitious proposals to build a model Soviet urban centre. These plans were thwarted by the Second World War, and it was not until the 1950s that the hopes of the 1930s again begin to be discussed seriously. Nikita Khrushchev's calls for the building of a new Vladivostok signified the beginnings of a wholesale reconstruction and expansion of the city. The process continued during the Brezhnev years, and entirely new suburbs were created that changed the nature of the city fundamentally. Today Vladivostok is a mixture of old pre‐revolutionary structures interspersed with examples of Soviet mass‐produced housing and historicist office buildings, surrounded by immense mikroraiony of often dismal, if socially‐responsible housing blocks. In the future the city may change significantly as Vladivostok responds to the significant challenges facing Russia and to the opportunities presented by the thriving Pacific Rim region.