’Soviet Cities’

’Soviet Cities’
In recent years russian cities have visibly changed. The architectural heritage of the soviet period has not been fully acknowledged. As a result many unique modernist buildings have been destroyed, while others have become almost unrecognisable through insensitive renovation. It has also been difficult for soviet-era factories to compete in the modern global economy, with many being demolished to make way for shopping malls. Even palaces of culture – perhaps the most beautiful of soviet buildings – are now used for markets and fairs, while scientific institutes survive by leasing their property.
I was born in 1988 and have no first-hand experience of life in the ussr, but if we judge its past through architecture and cultural heritage, it was a great civilization, with genuine intentions to build a fairer society, explore nature and conquer space.
This civilization no longer exists and in my photographs I wanted to show what remains, to show the most outstanding buildings and constructions, to show where soviet people lived, how soviet cities originally looked. Between 2016 and 2020 I travelled across the post-soviet republics, staying in over two hundred cities. The photographs presented in this book were made over this period.