The Magnitostroi of Health: Sochi and the Transformation of the Caucasian Black Sea Coast as a Model for Regional Development in the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation

Noack Christian ()
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Noack Christian: University of Amsterdam, East European Studies, Kloveniersburgwal 48, NL 1012 CXAmsterdam, Netherlands

Zeitschrift für Tourismuswissenschaft, 2017, vol. 9, issue 1, 65-86

Abstract: In the run-up to the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, the Russian leadership repeatedly declared the games to be exemplary for future regional development projects within the country. Treating Sochi as a model case for regional development has a long pre-history, going back to the period of ‘high Stalinism’. Discussing the consecutive development plans for Sochi since the 1930s, this article suggests that in the case of Sochi, Moscow’s methods of octroying centrally planned grandiose schemes with massive short-term investment ‘against all odds’ displayed a high degree of consistency over time. Stalin’s plans to create a ‘world-class’ resort, the ambitious plans to accommodate a genuine Soviet mass tourism in the 1960s and 70s in ‘Great Sochi’ as well as the preparation of the 2014 Olympics habitually produced significant discrepancies between the aspired aims of Soviet development and its socio-economic and ecologic consequences in the region.

Keywords: Black Sea; Caucasus; Central Planning; Ecology; Five-Year Plans; Great Sochi; Health resort; Mass tourism; Olympic games; Perestroika; recreation; regional development; Sanatoria; Social tourism; Soviet Union; Stalinism; Urban Planning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bpj:touwis:v:9:y:2017:i:1:p:65-86:n:4

DOI: 10.1515/tw-2017-0004

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