What is the reason for the dissatisfaction of residents of the Lebyadziny microdistrict in Minsk? Here's what they actually planned to build there

The residential area Lebyadziny at the corner of Knyahininskaya and Ilyanskaya streets will be densified with a ten-story dormitory, which is a mirror image of the dormitories for medical workers previously built on Karzhanevskaha street (pictured) and Vyhotskaha street. Photo: UKB "Zapad"

In April 2025, the administration of the Central District of Minsk presented residents with an updated detailed planning project (DPP) for the Lebyadziny microdistrict, covering an area of 139 hectares. Residents were promised a polyclinic on Kamayskaya Street, a cultural and educational facility, and two kindergartens, each for 230 places.

One of the kindergartens was planned to be built on a vacant lot on Myastrayskaya Street, right behind the multi-story complex "Lazuryt," and the second — at the corner of Knyahininskaya and Ilyanskaya streets. Apart from legalizing the already commenced construction of the multi-story building "Grand Crystal" instead of a cinema, no new mass housing was planned in this area.

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The detailed plan scheme for the Lebyadziny residential area, which was submitted for public discussion in 2025, was recommended for approval but was never actually approved. Photo: from public discussion documentation

At the end of May, the results of the public discussion were summarized, and the detailed planning project for the Lebyadziny microdistrict was recommended for approval.

However, while local residents hoped for the development of their district's infrastructure, the bureaucratic machine was already hatching completely different plans.

Usually, after public discussion, the DPP is approved within a few months and is obligatorily published on pravo.by or tnpa.by websites. However, the approved Lebyadziny plan has not appeared there to this day.

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The plot at the corner of Knyahininskaya and Ilyanskaya streets was designated in the DPP for the construction of a kindergarten for 230 places (number 3.36 on the scheme). Photo: from public discussion documentation

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On the plot on Myastrayskaya Street, the DPP designated the construction of another kindergarten for 230 places (number 1.55 on the scheme), as well as sports grounds. Photo: from public discussion documentation

Already at the beginning of August 2025, just two months after the public discussion results, which did not mention dormitories, tenders appeared on the state procurement portal, organized by the Capital Construction Department of the Zavodskoy District, for selecting designers for the following objects: "Construction of a dormitory in the Lebyadziny residential area on Myastrayskaya street" and "Construction of a dormitory... within Knyahininskaya street, Ilyanskaya street".

And already in February 2026, "Minskproject", which became the designer, began to look for subcontractors to conduct geological, geotechnical, and environmental surveys on these sites.

The decision to build dormitories instead of the promised kindergartens was made secretly, without any repeated public discussions and contrary to the officially presented plans.

Dormitories for an elite district

The tender documentation from "Minskproject" already includes layout schemes for the new buildings, which allow understanding their future appearance. There are no facades, floor plans, or master plans, which will be developed later, but both dormitories are marked on the plans as ten-story buildings.

The dormitory at the corner of Knyahininskaya and Ilyanskaya streets will have an L-shaped form in plan, and the one on Myastrayskaya street will be meridionally elongated.

They will each have five entrances and 375 apartments in each dormitory. This means that the authorities plan to settle at least one and a half thousand new residents in the area. In addition to the dormitory itself, a pumping station and a bike parking will be located on the plot on Myastrayskaya Street, and on the plot on Ilyanskaya Street — also a transformer substation.

Topographic plan of the plot on Myastrayskaya Street. Photo: from tender documentation

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Topographic plan of the plot at the corner of Knyahininskaya and Ilyanskaya streets. Photo: from tender documentation

The dormitory on Ilyanskaya Street, judging by the plan features, will be an exact mirror copy of the dormitories for medical workers, which have already been built twice in Minsk. This refers to the ten-story panel buildings on Karzhanevskaha Street and Vyhotskaha Street, built based on the MAPID series M 464-U1(M).

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Master plan of the dormitory for medical workers built on Vyhotskaha Street in Navinki. Photo: "Minskstroy" Telegram channel

The dormitory on Ilyanskaya, like its predecessor in other districts, will consist of two separate residential buildings connected at the third or fourth floor level by a closed transition gallery.

This architectural trick with a connecting bridge is used by developers not for beauty or convenience, but exclusively to circumvent strict Belarusian building codes. The gallery, which serves no useful function, legally unites two separate houses into one building. The practical benefit of this transition in this particular case is not entirely clear.

Class hatred in Belarusian propaganda

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Render of the dormitory for medical workers on Karzhanevskaha Street in Kurasowshchyna, a mirror copy of which will be implemented on Ilyanskaya Street in Lebyadziny. Photo: UKB "Zapad"

When information about the dormitory construction surfaced, Lebyadziny residents began to ask the authorities perfectly legitimate questions. They reminded them about overcrowded school classes (30 people each) and a shortage of kindergarten places.

Instead of a civilized dialogue and explanations as to why urban development plans changed secretly from the people, state propaganda predictably attacked the dissatisfied. It began to deliberately create an image of the "overfed elite" from Lebyadziny residents, who allegedly disdain coexistence with ordinary teachers and doctors.

Victoria Kirichenko, a journalist for "Minsk-Novosti" agency, directly stated in her video commentary that people's indignation is "only a problem of the shaken ego of the Lebyadziny elites, who should come down from the heavens to earth."

Rygor Azaronak, on his Telegram channel, called the city residents "monsters" and "pigs" who "grunted" at the prospect of living next to "plebs". In his zeal, the propagandist even threatened to turn off the water for the entire district – a method of collective punishment that the authorities had already tried in 2020.

Павялічыць

Render of the dormitory for medical workers on Vyhotskaha Street in Navinki, a mirror copy of which will be implemented on Ilyanskaya Street in Lebyadziny. Photo: "Minskstroy" Telegram channel

Ironically, Azaronak couldn't even distinguish Lebyadziny from Novaya Baravaya, stating: "Apparently, they haven't been without water for a long time, scum. I would have cut it off for them." Although in reality, it was Novaya Baravaya that was without water then. He also suggested relocating the dissidents to a separate ghetto — a "dem-town".

This deliberate incitement of class hostility looks especially ironic, considering that loyal associates of Lukashenka, such as press secretary Natallia Eismant and senator Dzmitry Baskov, own expensive real estate in Lebyadziny.

Urban planning by Sharikovs

The most profound in its virulence and simultaneously absurd was Alexander Novikov's text in the "Minsk-Novosti" agency, under the headline "Elite Egoism: who are the opponents of dormitories in Lebyadziny really afraid of?".

The author builds his entire lampoon on the primitive incitement of class hatred. He compares the residents of the district with the hero of Saltykov-Shchedrin's fairy tale "The Wild Landlord," who begged to be rid of "peasants," and accuses people of allegedly considering teachers and doctors as "rabble."

Павялічыць

Render of the dormitory for medical workers on Vyhotskaha Street in Navinki, a mirror copy of which will be implemented on Ilyanskaya Street in Lebyadziny. Photo: "Minskstroy" Telegram channel

The author openly mocks the citizens' demands to comply with building codes. For example, to legitimate concerns about the destruction of local green zones, he suggests going for a walk to the Drazdy reservoir or taking a boat ride. This is a complete misunderstanding of the basics of urbanism: greening exists at different levels (city-wide, district, intra-quarter) and performs different functions, therefore

the presence of a large park a kilometer from home does not compensate for the absence of trees under one's own window. It's like telling residents of Shabany that they don't need a square because there's an excellent water-green system in the center of Minsk.

The propagandist particularly criticized the insolation norms (apartment lighting). Novikov calls this word "intricate" and reduces the problem to a whim: allegedly, residents simply "dislike" living without sunlight.

Павялічыць

Render of the dormitory for medical workers on Vyhotskaha Street in Navinki, a mirror copy of which will be implemented on Ilyanskaya Street in Lebyadziny. Photo: "Minskstroy" Telegram channel

The paradox is that strict insolation norms, distances between buildings, and mandatory landscaping of courtyards are the main achievement of precisely left-wing urban planning, which was consistently implemented in the USSR. Belarusian norms inherit Soviet norms, and the Lukashenka regime sees itself as a direct heir to the Soviet system, which supposedly managed not to lose the good things of that time.

However, when it is necessary to justify the densification conceived by the Belarusian authorities, basic Soviet standards suddenly turn into "elite egoism" for propagandists.

Павялічыць

Render of the dormitory for medical workers on Vyhotskaha Street in Navinki, a mirror copy of which will be implemented on Ilyanskaya Street in Lebyadziny. Photo: "Minskstroy" Telegram channel

No less naive are the arguments of officials that local schools and kindergartens supposedly have "reserves", since effectively only 60% of children from the registered number attend them, and in gymnasiums, "a second shift can even be arranged." Novikov calls people's concerns about infrastructure "whining."

However, the DPP is not just a drawing with colored zones. It is a document developed by specialists based on precise calculations and state standards. If you cancel two kindergartens and put two ten-story dormitories in their place, the number of residents sharply increases, and the remaining reserves may simply not be enough. Planning exists to prevent such infrastructure collapses.

Propagandists propose simply discarding all these rules. A logical question arises: if the state is guided not by DPPs and regulations, but by momentary whims and the desire to squeeze a panel building onto any vacant plot, then why are budgetary funds spent at all on the work of institutes like "Minskhram" (Minskgrad)?

Moreover, propagandists directly threaten the residents of the area, hinting that when citizens appeal about the violation of their legitimate interests, the authorities should not give reasoned answers, but simply "give a harsh answer."

Павялічыць

Last year, Lebyadziny was already densified with the "Grand Crystal" high-rise, which began to be erected on a site allocated for the district's infrastructure, and about which the authorities disclosed no information. Photo: developer's website

For whom is this justice?

State propaganda tries to present the story of Lebyadziny's densification as a noble act of social justice. The main message of officials and pro-government media is: we simply want to provide housing for state employees — teachers and doctors — whom the "elite" allegedly mercilessly refuses to accept.

But traditionally, dormitories for social workers in need of housing were built in remote residential microdistricts, such as Navinki or Kurasowshchyna, which was logical from the point of view of land cost and distribution of urban resources. Lebyadziny, however, is an expensive commercial development area on one of the capital's main thoroughfares, where a large public and sports center has been formed.

People who bought apartments here paid not only for square meters of concrete. The high cost of real estate included the ecological attractiveness of the location, proximity to the Drazdy reservoir, and, most importantly, the very infrastructure that the DPP and developers' advertising brochures promised them. They overpaid to live in an area with a certain level of comfort.

Павялічыць

Construction in the experimental settlement of Novaya Akolitsa near Minsk, where propagandist Ihar Tur bought a house at a reduced price. To lower the cost "for their own," the state simply paid for the construction of all roads and communications at the expense of taxpayers - this is how, according to propagandists, social justice looks like. Photo: stroykonkurs.by

This amounts to hidden expropriation: officials make a generous gesture at the expense of those who invested their own funds in the district.

The hypocrisy of such "social justice" becomes even more apparent when one recalls other housing experiments by the authorities. For example, not long ago, propagandist Ihar Tur received a cottage in the exemplary settlement of Novaya Akolitsa near Minsk.

To reduce the cost per square meter for such valuable personnel, the state simply paid for the installation of all roads and communications — from water supply to power grids — from the budget. In other words, at the expense of taxpayers.

In the case of Novaya Akolitsa, no one in the state media complained about egoism or social inequality.

But when ordinary Belarusians, who bought apartments with their own money, demand that the state comply with its own building codes and promises, they instantly turn into "scum" and "pigs."

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