classic feudal times scheme - the lord is in the castle up on the hill and the populace in the village down. The lord easily projects the power while being practically unassailable back - that asymmetry naturally allows the lord to practice unlimited unchecked power.
I've never encountered similar interpretation when it comes to Moscow, yet Stalin actually did a lot of major changes to the Moscow center (as well as to the centers of other major cities) where the government is located in that "anti-street-rebellion" style of Paris mentioned by the other commenters, and the major part of society alive at the time in the USSR had experienced the Revolutions of 1905 and 1917 where street barricades and tactical "takeover of the central postal office and telephone and telegraph station" were among the key parts of the action.
I've never encountered similar interpretation when it comes to Moscow, yet Stalin actually did a lot of major changes to the Moscow center (as well as to the centers of other major cities) where the government is located in that "anti-street-rebellion" style of Paris mentioned by the other commenters, and the major part of society alive at the time in the USSR had experienced the Revolutions of 1905 and 1917 where street barricades and tactical "takeover of the central postal office and telephone and telegraph station" were among the key parts of the action.