External improvement features of the new urban settlements in Buryatia in the 1950s-1980s

The article is devoted to the main problems of external improvement of new urban settlements in Buryatia during the period from 1950s to 1980s. The object of the study includes three new towns of the Republic of Buryatia: Zakamensk, Gusinoozersk and Severobaikalsk. The empirical basis of the work is documentary sources from six regional and municipal archives of Buryatia and the Irkutsk Region, municipal statistics, materials from local periodicals. The authors consider such aspects of external improvement as repairing and maintenance of roads and sidewalks, street lighting, greening of public places, street cleaning, etc. They analyze the basic conditions, forms and methods of carrying out work on the improvement of populated areas; identify the difficulties, which the local communities faced in the communal services. They conclude about the influence of the urban planning practice of the late Soviet period on the improvement of the urban environment of new urban areas. The authors show that municipal services did not have enough resources to organize the required level of landscaping and sought to compensate for these shortcomings by attracting city-forming enterprises and expanding the practice of public initiatives.