Factory Forecourts: Peculiarities in Construction and Cultural and Historical Semantics during Industrialisation

This article analyses the architectural complexes of industrial forecourts that emerged in USSR between late 1920s and early 1940s their cultural symbolic role. The author evaluates phenomenon pre-factory entrance area a global context, showing organisation contact zone factory city had been used Russian tradition eighteenth – nineteenth centuries and, more recently, US Western Europe twentieth century. 45 cases Soviet urban planning during industrialisation distinguishes three main types zones, i. e. arterial, junction, isolated. rarest variety junction type is welldeveloped forecourt, which comprises different facilities administrative, social, infrastructure, addition, possesses special memorial significance. Only six out meet this definition, namely, Makeevka, Saratov, Volgograd, Magnitogorsk, Yekaterinburg, Novokuznetsk. Considering these cases, demonstrates it was landscape squares stimulated formation mythology, with emergence artifacts, like tank monument square Volgograd Tractor Plant or A. P. Bannikov’s mausoleum Ural Heavy Machine-Building Plant. In four (Volgograd, Novokuznetsk), were turned into places for rallies meetings became elements visual standard representation locations, acquired status historical memory. These townplanning ensembles, manifest threefold architectural, uniqueness, ought to be considered extremely valuable, therefore requiring cautious policy heritage preservation, especially important context partial deindustrialisation cities.