One can learn about different epochs – pre-revolutionary, Soviet, and even up-to-date – just looking at Stanislau Shabuneuski’s buildings.
Being the chief architect of Homiel before the revolution, he also received project orders in the cities of the then Mahiliou and Chernihiv provinces of the Russian Empire. When coming the Bolsheviks came to power, Shabuneuski refused to emigrate and continued his work for the good of the beloved city of Homiel.
In the early 30s, the creativity and knowledge of Shabuneuski were out of favour: the Soviet authorities arrested and gulagged him. His name disappeared from the official history of urban planning; many buildings designed by him were demolished or unrecognisably rebuilt by other Soviet architects.
A number of his works are on the list of the most known and the important architectural monuments of Belarus. But there is neither monument to the architect nor street named in his honour in Homiel.
The Repressed Architecture, documentary directed by Maryia Bulavinskaya, Belarus, 2019
