At the time of the USSR's creation and Belarus's annexation by the Soviet Union, Minsk was a rapidly developing city. Its new status as the administrative capital of a Soviet republic, beginning in 1922, gave a significant boost to the city's modernization. The construction of large, modern administrative buildings (such as the House of Soviets) at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, followed by cultural facilities (the Opera House, the Academy of Sciences, etc.), allowed Minsk to acquire the monumental stature of a true capital. Simultaneously, the construction of new factories and residential districts ensured economic development potential and more modern living conditions for residents. The Nazi occupation in 1941 and the fierce fighting for the city's liberation in 1944 destroyed some of these efforts, leaving the urban environment 90% devastated. The reconstruction between 1945 and 1955 is typical of Stalinist urban planning and involved both Russian and Belarusian architects. Like Kyiv, Minsk provides an ideal gateway to architectural and urban planning issues in the USSR. Minsk also reveals the practical realities of architecture under Stalinism – economic uncertainties, construction sites hampered by the real shortages hidden behind the planned economy, the precarious situation of those involved, the architects' ability to influence Party decisions, the grand symbolic ambition of the plans, and the achievements that, despite everything, attained the desired degree of grandeur.