This article addresses the problem of preserving the architectural heritage of cities, which is topical in the scientific and public space. This article addresses the problem of preserving the architectural heritage of cities, which is topical in the scientific and public space. Although the term Brusselisation has appeared relatively recently, it quite eloquently describes a chaotic approach to the design of urban space, which involves uncontrolled and sometimes massive demolition of historical buildings, replaced by modern examples of architecture. This issue is considered on the example of late Soviet Surgut, which, unfortunately, has become a classic example of this kind of policy. Therefore, in order to identify the historical conditions contributing to the emergence of the discussion on the construction of a museum and ethnographic zone in the city on the Ob, the author pays much attention to the analysis of urban planning policy of those years as a fundamental factor that threatened the cultural heritage of Surgut. In particular, we are talking about the historically established district of Old Surgut and the neighbourhood of Energetikov bordering it, which began to be built in the early 1970s. Finally, based on the materials of local periodicals of the 1980s-early 1990s, the author builds a chronological chain, starting from the stage of discussing the concepts of the museum-ethnographic zone and ending with intra-departmental contradictions that brought all project endeavours to naught. The content of the article also contains the assessments of contemporaries, which allow to reveal the public's opinion on the events that took place at that time, concerning the problem of preserving historical memory. Through the analysis of periodicals, using the methods of historicism, structuralism and positivism, the author identified the main reasons why the concept of the museum-ethnographic zone remained unrealised. In particular, we are talking about the departmental interests of the customer, as well as the inaction of the authorities and the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Monuments of History and Culture.