Major trends in construction and planning of small cities of the Middle Irtysh in the soviet times

Small towns of Middle Irtysh (Tara, Tyukalinsk, Isilkul, Kalachinsk, Nazyvayevsk) are a special type of settlements that combines the features of the city and the village. This fact determines the trends and peculiarities of their development and planning. The combination of traditional for historical science approaches and methods with new methodological practices allows a comprehensive approach to the study of the phenomenon of a small city. The small towns of the Middle Irtysh can be conditionally divided into two groups: “old” - historical - cities and “young” - who received city status in the Soviet period. The article contains a comparative analysis of the planning and building processes of the above-mentioned city groups, taking into account the factors determining the trends of the named processes. The author focuses attention on the economic activity of cities and their role in the economic development of the country. The predominance of the rural way of life in the first half of the twentieth century led to a weak attention to them from the state, and as a result, the lack of system planning and development. This was a characteristic feature of all small towns of the Middle Irtysh in the 1920-1950s. In the 1960s master plans began to be introduced into the practice of town planning. In their development, the requirements of the construction of a socialist city, as well as the features of the built-up area, were taken into account. Particular attention was paid to the planning and development of the central part of the settlements, the key dominant of which is the monument to V.I. To Lenin. Moreover, despite the desire to unify the urban space, each of the cities throughout the Soviet era retained its individual image, reflecting its history.