It was very interesting to read about the way that cities in Eastern Europe were built post-World War II. The Cold War was a major point of importance as it allowed the social, political and economic differences between the East and the West to come to the forefront. It was during this time that Eastern Europe truly solidified its place as the Communist hemisphere, thus the continued problems from the Industrial Revolution such as overcrowding and the shift to urbanity were attempted to be rectified through the Communist ideals of Utopia, evident in city planning and housing.

In the article “The Gates of Belgrade,” Hirt and Petrovia state that city planning and housing was in Belgrade was truly meant to be a reflection of Communism which was also how Miliutin believed the Socialist city should be built. Housing was constructed in large superblocks of apartments which were used to act as a metaphor of collectivization, equality and uniformity. Although the West also built these huge apartments their major goals were only to battle housing shortages, cost reduction and affordable housing, whereas in Eastern European nations it was also a form of political and utopian realization. It was interesting to learn of the incredible changes that occurred in the post-communist transition of Belgrade, especially in terms of housing. The 1992 Law of Housing truly solidified the changes from an imagined utopia to the reality by leading to a mass privatization of housing, which allowed residents of these superblock apartments to buy them at a very low price and also encouraged the trend towards private, single dwelling homes.