Construction of pre-fabricated concrete apartment blocks under the concept of microdistrict, for which Lasnamäe is today best known, started first in 1973 and at a massive scale in 1977.

[3] Several subdistricts – e.g. Katleri, Mustakivi, Priisle, Seli – inherited their names from the farms or hamlets on whose territory they were built.

During the Singing Revolution in the late 1980s, the combination of the grim mass housing and dominant Russian-speaking migrant population led to calls among ethnic Estonians to ‘stop Lasnamäe’.

[4] The phrase Peatage Lasnamäe!, taken from the popular song Mingem üles mägedele performed by Ivo Linna, became one of the slogans of the Singing Revolution.

In recent years the situation has changed – many new apartment blocks, both by municipal government and private investors, and several hypermarkets have been built in the district.

The population of Lasnamäe is predominantly Russian-speaking – in 2009, 58.2% of its inhabitants were ethnically Russian, 6.0% Ukrainian and 3.3% Belarusian.

[10] Lasnamäe is divided into 16 subdistricts: Katleri, Kurepõllu, Kuristiku, Laagna, Loopealse, Mustakivi, Pae, Paevälja, Priisle, Seli, Sikupilli, Sõjamäe, Tondiraba, Uuslinn, Väo, Ülemiste.