New urban settlements in Belarus: some trends and changes



the high level of population education. There are high-density building with high level of
engineering infrastructure and developed public transport system.

Small urban settlements especially which are arranged out of main centres and axis of
development are generally characterised by industrial-agricultural and agricultural
multifunctional specialisation and by restricted labour market; insufficient service, low level of
engineering infrastructure and outer accomplishment; unsatisfactory transport communication;
high level of self-supply and self-service of population in daily activity; and detached houses'
building dominating (about 98% of total residential territories).

Development of cities and towns of different types. Current problems and trends of urban
settlement system of Belarus.

Republic of Belarus is characterised by outpaced growth of the urban population and activation
of relations between human settlements, urban lifestyle dissemination on surrounding territories
or urbanisation process development inland.

Main current trends of urban settlement development in Belarus in some cases are conformed to
transition from 3 to 4 Gibbs11 stage of urbanisation evolution and are characterised as:

- General growth of polarisation of urban processes and population concentration in big and
large cities, which are centres of city agglomerations and zones of their influence and also along
transport corridors of international importance;

- Strengthening of large cities role (Minsk City, Minsk city agglomeration and national
centres) — national centres of NSS which are considered to be leaders of social-economic
progress and centres of innovation's dissemination;

- Strengthening of importance, activation and raise of the competitiveness of big cities (with
number of the population is more than 100,000) — regional centres of NSS;

- Reduction of the rural population and stagnation of the majority of small towns that compose
the most numerous group of human settlements.

The city agglomeration's formation spreads quite slowly in Belarus, excluding Minsk City that
has special forms of urban process going. First, there is intensively growing centre of
agglomeration that is oversized in comparison to surrounding small urban settlements. Second,
absence of middle towns on the distance of 70-100 km. from the centre12.

It is worth mentioning that Byelorussian cities, like the cities of former USSR's republics, were
the result of speedy industrialisation (in case of Belarus since 1950). For instance, 70% of urban
population rate was provided by migration from rural territories in the 1970s. At the same time
including of rural inhabitants into urban lifestyle and urban culture development was deferred.
So Byelorussian population have rural mentality like the rural population in Russia13.

In contradistinction from Russia there were not mass migration from cities and reduction of total
population even in particular years during the transformational period14.

Topical problems of large and big cities were focused in reconstruction, modernisation and
diversification of current industrial potential, economic activation. These problems' solving will
affect both sustainable urban development and republic in general.

In the Soviet times many industrial ministries were eager - in contradiction to the official policy
of limiting of the growth of large cities - to promote the settlement and development of industrial
areas which were located in already established large cities, in order to be able to save money on



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