CARAVANS & COMMISSARS

In each location throughout Ukraine, the removal of tributes to communism was not just an attempt to modernize the new states. It played an important role in forging each country's new national identity. After the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, massive statues of revolutionaries were erected throughout the republics of the U.S.S.R., including the land that is now Ukraine. Cities throughout the Ukrainian socialist republic were once filled with monumental portrait statues of V

“Pizza is for everyone.” Mikhail Gorbachev In 1990, Pizza Hut was among the first American restaurant chains to open in Moscow, Russia. The introduction of fast-food restaurants and other western goods were the direct result of President Mikhail Gorbachev’s economic and political reforms termed perestroika (“restructuring”) and glasnost (“transparency”). These market reforms opened the Soviet Union to material and cultural goods from the outside world. In 1998, Gorbachev ap

Gaiety is the most outstanding feature of the Soviet Union. – Joseph Stalin Today, post-Soviet states house the remains of buildings designed to promote socialist and communist values. Prior to the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, Russian imperial architecture was based upon European Art Nouveau and Baroque styles, which featured highly detailed designs such as scrolls, flowers, and decorative columns. Following the Bolshevik revolution, architecture was streamlin

In the Caucasus, it is said that “if the head is intact, a papakha should be on it.” The papakha, or papaq, is a spherical sheepskin hat worn by men across the Turko-Persian world, which spans from the Caucasus mountains through the steppes of Central Asia to Afghanistan. Regional variations in the hats resulted from the distinct coloration and qualities of the sheep native to each region. For example, the shaggy papakhas worn in the Caucasus are most commonly made from the K