Editing Soviet Union (section)

=== Urbanism ===
[[File:Largest cities USSR 1989.svg|thumb|right|Largest cities of the USSR according to the 1989 census]]
The Soviet Union imposed heavy control on city growth, preventing some cities from reaching their full potential while promoting others.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Clayton |first1=Elizabeth |last2=Richardson |first2=Thomas |title=Soviet Control of City Size |journal=Economic Development and Cultural Change |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |volume=38 |issue=1 |year=1989 |jstor=1154166 |pages=155–165 |doi=10.1086/451781 |s2cid=154477882 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1154166 |access-date=23 February 2024}}</ref><ref name="Stronski-2010">{{cite book |last=Stronski |first=Paul |date=2010 |title=Tashkent: Forging a Soviet City, 1930–1966 |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |url=https://mytashkent.uz/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/tashkent.-forging-a-soviet-city-1930%E2%80%931966.pdf |isbn=978-0-8229-4394-5}}</ref>

For the entirety of its existence, the most populous cities were [[Moscow]] and [[Leningrad]] (both in [[Russian SFSR]]), with the third far place taken by [[Kiev]] ([[Ukrainian SSR]]). At its inception, the Top 5 was completed by [[Kharkov]] (Ukrainian SSR) and [[Baku]] ([[Azerbaijan SSR]]), but, by the end of the century, [[Tashkent]] ([[Uzbek SSR]]), which had assumed the position of capital of Soviet Central Asia, had risen to fourth place. Another city worth mentioning is [[Minsk]] ([[Byelorussian SSR]]), which saw rapid growth during the 20th century, rising from the 32nd most populous in the union to the 7th.<ref name="Stronski-2010" /><ref>{{cite journal |last=Harris |first=Chauncy D. |title=The Cities of the Soviet Union |journal=[[Geographical Review]] |volume=35 |issue=1 |date=1945 |doi=10.2307/210935 |page=119 |jstor=210935 |bibcode=1945GeoRv..35..107H}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Statistics For Everyone |website=istmat.info |date=19 February 2018 |url=http://istmat.info/files/uploads/17594/naselenie_sssr._po_dannym_vsesoyuznoy_perepisi_naseleniya_1989g.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180620003708/http://istmat.info/files/uploads/17594/naselenie_sssr._po_dannym_vsesoyuznoy_perepisi_naseleniya_1989g.pdf |archive-date=20 June 2018 |url-status=dead |access-date=23 February 2024}}</ref>