Soviet Architecture

Cool Soviet-era public sculpture outside the Kyrgyz National Academy of Sciences on Chuy Ave.

The façade of Soviet Azerbaijan's state printing house is shaped like an open book, inlaid with writing systems from Egyptian hieroglyphs to a Mayan calendar.

Soviet-era gates guard an unexpected urban forest—and a future U.S. embassy.

Step inside a Soviet-designed nuclear power plant with RBMK reactors identical to the ones in Chernobyl.

Explore 150 years of Estonian rail history in a terminal once built for Tsar Nicholas II.

The European Union’s tallest freestanding structure provides radio and television broadcasting to half of Latvia.

Abandoned museum from the last days of Soviet domination, with a unique Brutalist design.

Latvia’s first skyscraper, nicknamed ‘Stalin’s birthday cake.’

This old Soviet gas station is in perfect condition, one of the best-preserved mosaics in the country.

Once a luxurious flagship of the Soviet Union, this Brutalist structure remains a landmark of Tashkent’s communist past.

A Soviet-style monument, built after transferring the remains of heroes from their graves.

While it would not look out of place among Serbian spomeniks, this massive Bulgarian monument commemorates one of their defeats.

One of Serbia's oldest luxury hotels and a nostalgic echo to Yugoslavia in the state's former capital.

An underground world of gorgeous, palatial metro stations designed as a nuclear shelter complex.

A retro Yugoslav congress, cultural, and business hall built in the 1970s, with an iconic world clock.

An Art Deco Icarus statue adorns this abandoned gem of Yugoslav Modernist architecture.

A huge Soviet-era robotics factory in the outskirts of Prypiat, now long-abandoned.

Once the tallest building in Chisinau, this unique tower is a relic of Soviet architecture.