Introduction

Originally published in 1981 and based on the authors’ own research, this book provides a comprehensive review of planning in the Soviet Union up until the early 1980s for both geographers and Soviet specialists. Planning was particularly important in the Soviet Union since not only most spatial change, but all economic planning was the product of a systematic socio-political ideology. Planning was therefore the key to understanding the Soviet economy, society and spatial change. When it was first published, this was the first study in which the focus had been directed specifically at spatial planning in the Soviet Union in any systematic way.