Study Of The Influence Of The Soviet Union’s Construction Assistance On The Modern Industrial City Of Xi’an

“When human body is replaced by machine tool,engine becomes independent,totally getting rid of human labor,” as expressed by Marx in Capital.Machine production takes place of manual production,which has great influence on human society,bringing about changes of production organization forms as well as social relations.At the same time,traditional agricultural society transforms into modern industrial society and great changes have taken place.Early in 1760 s,machines began to replace human labor and large-scale industrialized production began to displace manual production.It initiated in Britain and later spread around the world.As a result,a production and technical revolution came into being,which transformed forms of production from manual labor to power machine,and Western society from traditional agricultural society to modern industrial society.Industrial revolution is a turning point of modern society,and under its influence human society begins to transform from traditional agricultural society to modern industrial society,and cities gradually from feudal manual ones to industrial ones with big machines.Finally,human steps into the stage of modern urbanization.In the wake of that,no matter capitalist nations or socialistnations,they all emphasize the construction of industry.M.D.Brass once pointed out that “industrialization has become an obsessive word in the middle of this century around the world.”The establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 is “a significant turning point in the process of China’s modernization”.After the establishment of China,under certain international situations,China steps on the road of industrialization on the basis of planned economic system,giving priority to the development of heavy industry.The first ambitious goal is to realize socialist industrialization during the large-scale socialist economic construction.In 1950,the Sino-Soviet Alliance relationship was established,after which the Soviet Union agreed to help China with its construction of socialist modern industrial system and signed “156 projects”,aiming to help China in a large scale.During the period of first five-year plan of the economic construction of the Republic of China,Xi’an was one of the major newly established heavy industrial cities.Large numbers of industrial projects under the assistance of the Soviet Union were set up in Xi’an.Under this background,Xi’an began to transform from typical traditional handcraft industry and business city to modern industrial city,laying the foundation for Xi’an’s city pattern as a contemporary city.The thesis will unfold in five chapters as follows.The first chapter is introduction.It displays the research background,object,perspective,purpose and meaning,and analyzes and summarizes the research status of the Soviet Union supporting China,as well as explains research content,method and structure.The second chapter is the study on theories concerning city construction during 1920 s to 1960 s in the Soviet Union,analyzing the influence of socialist political system,policy on industrialization,ideology on the development of theories,and construction features with the ideal of socialist and industrialization.The third and fourth chapters start with Xi’an’s traditional city pattern,and then analyze its construction course in handcraft industry period.Meanwhile,they study construction of industrial space of Xi’an in industrialization age when assisted by the Soviet Union and make a comparison with previous period,making clear the construction characteristics of industrial city planning,industrial district planning,industrial architecture,residential architecture and so on.The fifth chapter makes a historical comparison of China’s cities once assisted by the Soviet Union,and then sums up the influence of the Soviet Union on the construction of China’s modern cities.In other words,features related with the Soviet Union during the plan and construction of China’s modern cities are found out.The sixth chapter mentions values and inspiration of socialist city theory introduced from the Soviet Union.Though problems and conflicts exist after the introduction,the construction assistance from the Soviet Union should be approved,since some design ideas are still valuable in today’s construction.The seventh chapter provides a comprehensive summary of the historical features of Xi’an’s planning during the period when assisted by the Soviet Union,and discusses the coming research orientation.