were justly criticized for irrational floor plans, cost overruns and low quality. For a brief time in the mid-1920s, the architectural profession operated in the old-fashioned manner, with private companies, international contests, competitive bidding and disputes in professional magazines. Foreign architects were welcomed, especially towards the end of this period, when the Great Depression reduced their jobs at home. Among these were Ernst May, Albert Kahn, Le Corbusier, Bruno Taut and Mart Stam. The difference between traditionalists and constructivists was not well defined. Zholtovsky and Shchusev hired modernists as junior partners for their projects, and at the same time incorporated constructivist novelties in their own designs. In 1930 Gosproektstroi was established as part of the Building Commission of Vesenkha with the help of Albert Kahn Inc. It employed 3,000 designers with a budget of 417 million Rbls. Urban planning developed separately. Housing crises in big cities and the industrialization of remote areas required mass housing construction, development of new territories and reconstruction of old cities. Theorists devised a variety of strategies that created politicized discussions without much practical result; State intervention was imminent. The beginning (1931–1933) Stalin's personal architectural preferences and the extent of his own influence remains, for the most part, a matter of deduction, conjecture and anecdotal evidence. The facts, or their representation in public Soviet documents, largely concerns the Palace of Soviets contest of 1931–33: February 1931 – Major Soviet architects receive invitations to bid for the Palace of Soviets design. June 1931 – The Party Plenum authorizes three megaprojects: the reconstruction of Moscow, the Moscow Canal, and the Moscow Metro. July 1931 – Architects submit fifteen designs for the first competition, and a second competition is announced, which is to be open to foreign submissions. February 1932 – The prize for the second competition is awarded to three drafts (Iofan, Zholtovsky, Hector Hamilton). All modernist designs are rejected. March 1932 – 12 architects receive an invitation to a third competition. April 1932 – The Party outlaws all independent artistic associations. Victor Vesnin is assigned to direct the official Union of Soviet Architects. July 1932 – five architects receive an invitation to a fourth competition. August 1932 – Stalin (then in Sochi) writes a memorandum to Voroshilov, Molotov and Kaganovich. The memorandum explains his opinion of the competition entries, selects Iofan's draft and proposes specific changes to it. This memorandum, first published design 2001, is the basis