From the “garden city” to the “hell city”: the problem of pollution of the air basin of the city Omsk in the 1960-1980s

The main goal of the proposed study is to analyze the process of turning the concept of the “garden city” from an urban planning project, to an exclusively landscaping concept and the reasons for its failure on the example of pollution of the air basin of the city of Omsk in the 1960s-1980s. It should be noted that the novelty of this work lies, first of all, in the fact that this process did not fall into the field of view of both domestic and foreign researchers. In order to achieve this goal, the following objectives were set. Firstly, to consider the problems of the need for landscaping the city of Omsk as a way to transform urban space. Secondly, to study the appearance of the phenomenon of the “garden city” in urban planning policy and to trace the ways of its evolution in Soviet practice. Thirdly, to analyze this phenomenon on the example of the socialist greening competition between Omsk and Leningrad, as well as the emergence of the idea of “Omsk - the garden city”. Fourthly, to consider changing the idea of Omsk as a garden city through the prism of the industrial development of the city and the aggravation of its environmental problems. The chosen problem of the study in turn determined the range of sources. First of all, these are reports of the city’s sanitary service sent to the regional planning committee and stored in the Historical Archive of Omsk. The use of these materials allowed us to assess the degree of pollution of the city’s atmosphere, after assigning it the status of a “garden city” as well as analyze proposed ways to solve the problem of pollution of the urban atmosphere. Literature was also used on the study of the application of the concept of “Garden City” in Soviet urban planning practice, especially in relation to Siberian cities. This allowed us to analyze the success of these concepts in various conditions. The theory of modernization and the concept of environmental history were chosen as the methodological basis of the article. The modernization approach made it possible to consider the studied object of research as a process of gradual change of the urban environment under the influence of the industrial factor and its transition from the urban planning concept to landscaping. The concept of environmental history made it possible to analyze the characteristics of the perception by state structures responsible, primarily for the economic development of the territory, of emerging environmental problems. The conclusions obtained during the study are, first of all, that Omsk, as a “garden city”, was more declarative than it was in reality. Without a doubt, there were certain successful cases in the field of green construction and improvement of urban space, however, together with the growth of the industrial sector and an increase in the concentration of harmful production, the level of pollution of the city’s atmosphere was also growing, negating efforts to maintain the appearance of the “garden city”. Ultimately, this led to the city becoming one of the disadvantaged, from the point of view of environmentalists, by the beginning of the 1980^th.

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