Abstrakt
This chapter aims to explain socialist realist Minsk as a factor in the formation of Soviet Belorussian identity. This article seeks to interpret the application of the traditional architectural language in Minsk as Sovietisation, the result of which Belorussians reasserted their nationhood, which was substantively connected with Sovietness.
The paper is based on two illustrative examples of reconstruction in correspondence with the main principles of Soviet urbanism: a spatially emphasized centre, and industrialization as the source of urban growth. In the first part, the plan of reconstruction of the centre and the stylistic expression are reinterpreted in relation to the cultural identity of Minsk.
The second part checks the application of the plan to the example of an industrial neighbourhood, the housing settlement for employees of the tractor plant, which was a coherent realization of socialist realist garden-city design.