Best of Soviet Architecture

As regular readers will know I’ve been spending a lot of time in former Warsaw Pact countries (for those that don’t know, that’s basically the Soviet Union version of NATO).

The Soviet ideology had a massive impact on the lives of the people who lived in those countries. The regime doesn’t exist today, but in many places there are tangible reminders of it, most obviously in the architecture.

As someone who was born and grew up in the UK, it was simply incredible to see these buildings and learn something of the stories behind them, sometimes tragic, sometimes silly, usually ill-advised but to my admittedly naive eyes brilliant.

Here, then, are my 5 favourites, posted in no particular order.

Palace of the Parliament, Bucharest

This is the second largest building in the world, though there are those that say this isn’t true. I think once you reach a certain size of building which is the biggest becomes kind of irrelevant. It is simply massive. It’s so massive not all of the building is actually used. It’s also very sad in the amount of money and effort it took from the Romanian people - surely the money and time could have been put to better use?

Most SNP, Bratislava

This is one of the silliest I’ve seen. Sitting atop a bridge support perches a small UFO-like structure that holds a restaurant. Apparently during the Soviet days the windows were covered to prevent citizens looking into the West (Austria) and making plans to overthrow the regime. The bridge itself is actually quite good-looking, but the eye is drawn to the UFO perched atop.

Slovak Radio Building, Bratislava

Back to Bratislava, and this time it’s for an upside down pyramid. It holds the radio and TV station and is also very silly. Taking 16 years to build, it’s included in a list of the ugliest buildings in the world by the Telegraph. I’m never certain whether I like it or not. It certainly creates an impression.

Radar reciever, Chernobyl-2

There’s so much cool stuff in Chernobyl, but this was the most awe-inspiring for me. Huge, but also kind of fragile in that there’s not much to it, with big gaps in its structure set in a quiet, empty environment. Simply amazing.

Palace of Culture, Warsaw

Constructed as a present to the people of Poland from the Soviet Union, these days the locals have something of a love/hate relationship with it. Some people today don’t like it, and see it as a sign of their past Soviet rulers. They started building another one in Kiev, but Stalin died during construction (he didn’t help build; he died seperately) and so they didn’t bother to finish it off. Written on February 21st , 2018 by David Seddon