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

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

Rooted in the past, the Heydar Aliyev Center presents the independent nation of Azerbaijan as both modern and forward looking. Completed in 2012, Zaha Hadid’s Heydar Aliyev Center has become a defining symbol of new, independent Azerbaijan. It appears on the 200 Manat banknote, the highest value Azerbaijani bill. Its unique form turns away from the architecture of the Soviet Union to embrace local Azerbaijani culture and geography. The curves of Hadid’s building resemble the