What Does The Only City In Belarus Without Soviet Place Names Look Like?

• 19.08.2026, 17:50

Vilenska Street instead of Sovetskaya Street, and Velykyi Hostynets Street instead of Lenin Street.

A resident of Molodechno @hey_irks posted a video about her city on Threads and explained what makes it unique.

“It’s the only city in Belarus that got rid of Soviet place names in the ’90s,” she writes. “There are no longer any familiar streets named after Lenin or the Communist Party here. The local de-Sovietization has given it its own unique atmosphere.” Today, people stroll along Libavo-Romenskaya Street and Velykyi Hostynets Street.

This place remembers the heyday of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the drama of the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the great dynasties—from the Zaslavskys to the Oginskis. All of this is intertwined here—in Molodechno.”

It should be noted that a number of place names associated with well-known figures from the Soviet era have remained in Molodechno; for example, streets named after Masherov, Markov, Chernyakhovsky, and several others have been preserved.