The focus of this article is the development of the Russian historiography of the socialist city during the first five-year plans in the context of modern media discourse on constructivist architecture. The author notes that this discourse focuses on avant-garde architecture and includes an understanding of the phenomenon of the socialist city. It is broadcast mainly by agents from the creative field (artists, art historians, architects, designers, tour guides, publishers, local historians, etc.), but recently it has been increasingly supported by representatives from the academic and scientific community. This review article is an attempt to find a balance and combine the spheres of public discourse of constructivism and conventional historiography of the socialist city. The author sees great potential in such integration: some are able to go beyond the limits of art history and artistic details alone, paying attention to the importance of reconstructing the historical context, while the latter must learn how to formulate socially significant scientific issues, while remaining within the research frame. The main part of the article details the evolution of research literature on socialist cities, which began with art criticism of the utopia, then moved on to the historical and architectural motif of a rigid centralized mechanism for managing the population through socialist cities. Today, this historiography focuses on descriptions of special everyday life, taking into account the local context and interpretations about the discursive and identifying nature of socialist cities. In conclusion, the author of the article suggests that scientists should not study socialist cities solely through the history of architectural styles, but rather define socialist cities as an analytical category and a discursive framework in which a wide variety of social, political and architectural practices were embedded.