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

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 displayed significant discrepancies between the aspired aims of Soviet development and its socio-economic and ecologic consequences in the region.