Historical and Cultural Analysis of the Image of the Ulan-Ude City in Buryat Literature of the Second Half of the 20th Century

The article presents a historical and cultural analysis of the image of the city of Ulan-Ude in the works of the Buryat writer Raisa Beloglazova. Ahead of the upcoming 360th anniversary of Ulan-Ude (formerly Verkhneudinsk), to be celebrated in 2026, the scholarly community is turning to a multifaceted study of the city’s history. The study positions literary fiction as a valuable historical source for reconstructing the processes of urbanization in Buryatia during the 1950s–1980s. The focus is placed on the transformation of urban space and the identity of its residents. The methodology is based on identifying and interpreting the key binary oppositions that structure the writer’s artistic world: city-city in contrast to city-village, historical- industrial, stone – wood. The analysis shows that Beloglazova captured the complex diachronic image of Ulan-Ude as a palimpsest in which the merchant-era Verkhneudinsk emerges through Sovi-et reality. Special attention is given to the writer’s critique of the social and environ-mental consequences of Soviet modernization: standardized housing construction, the visual aggression of monotonous five-story apartment blocks, environmental pol-lution, and the erosion of traditional spiritual values under the pressure of utilitarian-ism and consumerism. The unique phenomenon of the city-village is examined as a transitional type of urbanization characteristic of the national regions of the USSR. The study has revealed the contradiction between the official discourse of progress and the personal experience of alienation reflected in literary texts. It is concluded that Beloglazova’s work serves not only as an artistic testimony but also as an early reflection on the crisis of the Soviet model of urbanization, bringing to the forefront the issues of preserving historical memory and the human scale of the urban envi-ronment. The study contributes to the exploration of regional identity and offers an alternative perspective on Soviet urbanism through the lens of literature.