page_title: Stalinist architecture
section_title: Independence Avenue in Minsk (1944–1959)
hierarchical_section_title: Stalinist architecture / Post-War (1944–1950) / Independence Avenue in Minsk (1944–1959)
caption_attribution_description: English: Skaryna avenue. Minsk, Belarus. Беларуская: Праспэкт Скарыны. Мiнск, Беларусь. Русский: Проспект Скорины. Минск, Белоруссия.
context_page_description: Stalinist architecture, mostly known in the former Eastern Bloc as Stalinist style or Socialist Classicism, is a term given to the architecture of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, between 1933 and 1955. Stalinist architecture is associated with the Socialist realism school of art and architecture.
context_section_description: The urban architectural ensemble of Nezalezhnastci Avenue in Minsk is an example of the integrated approach in organizing a city's environment by harmoniously combining its architectural monuments, the planning structure, the landscape and the natural or man-made places of vegetation. The Ensemble was constructed during the fifteen years after World War II. Its length was 2900 metres, although now it stretches to the outskirts of the city totaling nearly 16 km (which makes it one of the longest in Europe). The width of the road including side-walks varies from 42 to 48 metres.
  The work on the general layout of the former Sovietskaya Street began in 1944, soon after the liberation of Minsk from the Nazi troops. The main architects from Moscow and Minsk were involved with the project. In 1947, as a result of the competition, the project which had been developed with the supervision of the academician of architecture M. Parusnikov, was selected for the implementation.
  The project plan of the Nezalezhnastci Avenue ensemble is a good example. The layout provided for the main features of the town-planning ensemble – the length of the buildings facades, their silhouettes, the main divisions, and the general architectural pattern. The integrated building plan was based on the accommodation of innovative ideas with classical architecture. The survived pre-war buildings and park zones were incorporated into the architectural ensemble.
  At present buildings which form the Nezalezhnastci Avenue ensemble are inscribed on the State List of Historical and Cultural Values of the Republic of Belarus. The architectural ensemble itself, with its buildings and structures, the layout and the landscape is protected by the state and inscribed on the List as a complex of historical and cultural values. In 1968 a National Prize in architecture was introduced and it was won by a team of architects representing architectural schools of Moscow and Minsk, (M.Parusnikov, G.Badanov, I.Barsch, S.Botkovsky, A.Voinov, V.Korol, S.Musinsky, G.Sisoev, N.Trachtenberg, and N.Shpigelman) for the design and construction of the Nezaleznosci Avenue ensemble.
  The most famous Stalinist architectural ensembles in Minsk are also on Lenina Street, Kamsamolskaya Street, Kamunistychnaya Street, Pryvakzalnaya Square and others.
caption: Independence avenue in Minsk
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