The study of modernism has been largely focused on Western cultural centres such as Paris, Vienna, London, and New York, but stunning Soviet architecture of Ukraine has enjoyed a recent vogue abroad. Architectural Soviet modernism was an unlikely phenomenon. In a country where creativity was censored and restricted, bold experimental structures appeared against the odds. In modern Ukraine, however, due to various political and economic factors and the stigma that is attached to everything Soviet, many examples of this unique architectural moment are under threat, facing neglect, disrepair, or even destruction.
Ukrainian authors Alex Bykov and Ievgeniia Gubkina are two of the leaders in the fight to save Ukraine’s modernist architectural heritage. Their far reaching research is documented in a book, which rallies against the apathy that has led to the steady destruction of these urban ruins, wiping this legacy from our collective memory, and questions whether the Soviet past that is so often portrayed is really past.
