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The paper explores the Soviet urbanization as a European trend, developing between the extreme poles of uncompromising rationalism and the human element. At all these levels - a reasonable theory, its clash with reality and the inevitable utopia trap - the characteristics of a modernity project and its relation to tradition and cultural and social changes are revealed. One of the major issues discussed in the article is the attitude of the Soviet urban project to the past (tradition) and to the future (its ideological drive). Its history is characterized by sharp turning points: abrupt shifts leaving no room for compromise, reasonably planned and imposed from above. While not avoiding questions concerning local specifics, colonialism and the possibility to identify different "modernities", it is suggested to analyze the Soviet city as a part of the European project, from the cultural (modernity), aesthetic (modernism) and economic (modernization) perspectives.