Nikolai Milyutin is a famous figure in the global architectural community. His name is usually only associated with the concept of the “linear city”, detailed in the book “Sotsgorod”, which has obtained the status of the most important (and also last) manifesto of Soviet constructivism. In his research Dmitry Khmelnitsky presents a little-known side of Milyutin. He paints a detailed and expressive panorama of the hopeless struggle of an ordinary party functionary for his social and aesthetic beliefs, going against the official currents (which in the period from 1929 to 1932 drifted toward frozen monumental forms in accordance with the tastes and goals of the new empire and its “master”). Khmelnitsky succeeds in depicting the frightening frequency with which utopian communal housing projects gave way to ceremonial Stalinist housing for the party leadership and wooden barracks for everyone else. The book features a wealth of archival material that recreates the fleeting, tragic but vivid history of the Soviet architectural avant-garde against the background of the emerging Stalinist dictatorship. The book also features the reminiscences of Milyutin’s daughter, Yekaterina Milyutina-Rapoport.