You are right, it means "rows of houses" or even "blocks".
The russian word, even for the pre-socialist variation of the thing is "prospekt".
Not being a native English speaker myself, I do not know an English term for it. I would describe it as "uniform blocks (of houses)", "rows of houses", or even "streets". Is there a word like "street front"? That would probably do the trick.

My architect's take is that the term uses the image of
a column (as in military) or
procession or
even train (the railway kind)
to make a (probably) critical statement about the impact the buildings have on the viewer. As such, the answers so far are too neutral and objective. "Uniform blocks" comes closest to the sentiment, but doesn't capture the critical element.

Let me suggest that the correct term needs to convey the image of buildings stretching into the distance. Your text does not even indicate that the buildings in question are identical, though they may be undifferentiated, which is not quite the same thing.

Here, a radiant Pop art sculpture by Roy Lichtenstein towers alongside a sombre neoclassical arcade; serried ranks of apartment blocks in the Eixample
http://www.timeout.com/barcelona/features/30/barcelona-overv...

…the A1 motorway from Pitesti and the west brings you in through serried ranks of apartment blocks before reaching the Cotroceni Palace.
http://www.all-bucharest-hotels.com/information/autotour.EN....

And Hulhumalé’s wide boulevards, carefully landscaped gardens and serried ranks of apartment blocks offer a dramatic contrast to the impromptu, colorful hubbub of Malé, only 20 minutes away by ferry.
http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200903/raising.the.mal...

hese buildings, and the foreign academies which sprouted on the site, are visible in 89.JPG Vittorio Nistris aerial photograph of 1934, with the bosky Villa Borghese contrasting strongly with the serried ranks of apartment blocks from the western side of Via Flaminia down to the river.
http://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/bycountry/italy/rome/popolo/...

Those serried ranks of apartment blocks, which used to shout of life and vigour, now seem a bit funereal, like memorial towers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/oct/24/china.hongkong

Synonym ist Häuserzeile = row of houses
row of houses die Häuserzeile
http://dict.leo.org/ende?lp=ende&lang=de&searchLoc=0&cmpType...§Hdr=on&spellToler=on&chinese=both&pinyin=diacritic&search=H%E4userzeile&relink=on

genauer noch: geschlossene Häuserzeile

In most towns in England, there are streets of houses joined together in long rows. They are called terrace houses (terraced houses).
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/ho...

In architecture and city planning, a terrace(d) or row house or townhouse (though the latter term can also refer to patio houses) is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls. The first and last of these houses is called an end terrace, and is often larger than those houses in the middle.
:
The term terrace was borrowed from garden terraces by English architects of the late Georgian period to describe streets of houses whose uniform fronts and uniform height created an ensemble that was more stylish than a "row".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraced_house

A regular house, apartment house, apartment block, block of flats, or tenement is a multi-unit dwelling made up of several (generally four or more) apartments (US), or flats (UK). A difference may be drawn, such as in San Francisco, California, between an apartment and a flat, where an apartment is one of many units on a floor and a flat is the only unit on a given floor. Where the building is a high-rise construction, it is termed a "tower block" in the UK and elsewhere. The term "apartment building" is used regardless of height in North America and the terms "residential tower" or "apartment tower" are used in other countries such as Australia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartment_building


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Note added at 8 hrs (2009-12-15 06:43:24 GMT)
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"terrace house" has 2.340.000 Goggle hits.
http://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q="terrace house"&btnG=Suc...

"terraced house" even more (3.870.000 hits)
http://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q="terraced house"&btnG=Su...