Dimitrovgrade : la naissance d'une ville socialiste en Bulgarie

• Main Author: Iskra Dandolova
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: Association Internationale des Sociologues de Langue Française 2016-06-01
• Series: Sociologies
• Subjects: New town; Totalitarian socialism; Urbanism; Architecture; Social transactions
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/sociologies/5427

This paper is about the creation of the first socialist town, Dimitrovgrade, in Bulgaria. After World War II, the communist party attempts to eradicate the capitalism and to settle the communism in the country. To express quickly this process of radical political conversion, in every socialist country, it is decided to establish a new urban type of social organisation through a new town model. The USSR aims at developing a communist block within Eastern Europe. Dimitrovgrade is a paradigmatic example of urban transformations induced by the political revolution. The general target is to create a master plan and an architectural form which should express the power of the political system through the greatness of the buildings; its architectural design should suggest and impose the new political vision. But how the socialist architecture should look like? During this period a serious dispute opposes the modernist ant the Stalinist models. In its historical context, the building of this socialist city led to serious debates but internal political oppositions vanished under strong soviet pressures.