Kapitalismi kohtasi kommunismin

Kuka suunnitteli suomalaisen kaivoskaupunki Kostamuksen Neuvostoliittoon vuosina 1971–1984?

Kirjoittajat

• Laura Kolbe

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.57048/aasf.159725

Avainsanat:

kaupunkisuunnittelu, rakennusvienti, Suomen ja Neuvostliiton suhteet, Kostamus, arkkitehtuuri, kylmä sota, Urho Kekkonen, Finn-Stroi Oy

Abstrakti

Kostomuksha is the largest post-war Finnish construction export project. Several books have been written about the history of the Kostomuksha mine industries and mining town in the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. These books are related to President Kekkonen, the project's leaders and responsible companies, Finland’s relations with the Soviet Union and east-trade, as well as to Finnish construction exports, the business history of Kainuu, and the life of a workers on a construction site. One important part of the Kostomuksha narrative has been missing: a large city was planned and constructed, but there is no information anywhere about who designed the city. I became interested in the matter when I repeatedly looked at a picture of the signing situation of the project in 1977 (above). The negotiators were presented with 10 folders of material related to the planning. Where can I find those folders? Who planned the city? Are the master plans and town plans, building drawings, terrain and landscape plans stored and archived somewhere? When I started writing, it turned out that finding design materials was not an easy task. This article is a story about the joys of discovery and success. Something had been preserved, after all! The Kostomuksha construction looked like a planning game. It turned out to be a multi-level project in which two political systems were intersected: western and eastern, socialist and capitalist urban planning.