In Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, housing estates are often associated with inhumane architecture and unwelcoming public space, an outcome that can be attributed to strict design requirements in a rigid centralized system. Due to the uniformity of residential housing produced during socialist times, both the design process and its masterthe architect are believed to have played only minor roles in shaping townscapes. This study, situated in the large housing estates of Tallinn, Estonia, challenges these assumptions using analyses of archival material (relating to planning procedures during state socialism) and articles in specialized magazines. The study also explainsthrough first-hand interviews with senior architects who were key players in building socialist citiesthe relations between Soviet regulations and vital elements of the city-building process, including creativity, power, and artistry. Analysis of primary source materials highlights an oversimplification of socialist modernism, which suggests more nuanced explanations for town planning outcomes. Findings suggest that regulations issued in Moscow for Union of Soviet Socialist Republic-wide planning played a less important role than previously assumed in town planning outcomes in Estonia. International modernist city planning ideals, combined with local expertise, strongly influenced town planning practice in the Soviet 'West'.

Suburbanisation is one of the most important features of spatial population change in Estonia. The aim of this article is to analyse the process of suburbanisation and related changes in commuting modes compared to the late Soviet period in the Tallinn metropolitan area. We use three datasets in our study: individual level 2000 census data, municipal planning documents and a sample survey. The results of the study indicate that most of the people who moved from Tallinn to its suburban areas in the 1990s moved to pre-transition period housing stock. However, the new housing construction is playing an increasingly important role in the suburbanisation process and in the course of time the process has taken the form of uncontrolled urban sprawl lead by the detailed rather than the master plans, and by the interests of real estate development companies. Besides, the sprawl of housing to the former natural and agricultural landscapes has considerably increased the commuters car-dependence compared to the late Soviet period. While public transport was the dominant commuting mode in the Soviet Estonia, today car-based commuting clearly dominates.

The

In Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, housing estates are often associated with inhumane architecture, unwelcoming public space and unending repetition, outcomes that have been attributed to strict design requirements in a rigid centralised system. Due to the uniformity and standardisation of residential housing produced during socialist times, both the design process and its master-the architect-are believed to have played only minor roles in shaping townscapes. This study, situated in the large housing estates of Tallinn, Estonia, challenges these assumptions using analyses of archival material. The study also explains-through first-hand interviews with senior architects who were key players in building socialist cities-the relations between strict Soviet regulations and vital elements of the city building process, including creativity, power and artistry. Analysis of primary source materials highlights an oversimplification of socialist modernism, which suggests more nuanced explanations for town planning outcomes that differ from what strict adherence to Soviet guidelines would have produced. Findings also suggest that regulations issued in Moscow for USSR-wide site planning played a less important role than previously assumed in town planning outcomes in Estonia. International modernist city planning ideals, combined with local expertise (and a willingness to push boundaries yet remain within the political system), strongly influenced town planning practice in the Soviet 'West'.

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