Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
A poignant remembrance of things past
FM Dostoevsky Academic Drama Theatre in Nizhny Novgorod, designed by V Somov, built in 1987 [Arseniy Kotov]

SOVIET CITIES Labour Life Leisure
by Arseniy Kotov  
FUEL £24.95

“I WAS born in 1988 and have no experience of life in the USSR, but looking at its architecture it is clear that it was a great civilisation with a genuine intention to build a fairer society,” writes Arseniy Kotov in the introduction to his fascinating photographic record of the Soviet Union interrupted.

Kotov denotes the ever-present art on the facades of buildings, particularly housing estates, with motives from socialist life and regrets the demise of the architecturally legendary palaces of culture — vibrant communal hubs with workshops, lectures, performances — these days transformed into indoor markets where now, its once gainfully employed visitors and participants, eke a meagre living.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
tanner
Meet the Cartoonist / 18 July 2025
18 July 2025

Strip cartoons used to be the bread and butter of newspapers and they have been around for centuries. MICHAL BONCZA asks our own Paul Tanner about which bees are in his bonnet

MB
Album reviews / 23 June 2025
23 June 2025

New releases from Hannah Rose Platt, Kemp Harris, and Spear Of Destiny

Cartoons: (L to R) Citizen Chicane and Songi
Culture / 23 December 2024
23 December 2024
(L to R) the book cover; Labour Party election poster 1945;
Books / 3 December 2024
3 December 2024
MICHAL BONCZA recommends a compact volume that charts the art of propagating ideas across the 20th century
Similar stories
church
Books / 4 July 2025
4 July 2025

HENRY BELL notes the curious confluence of belief, rebuilding and cheap materials that gave rise to an extraordinary number of modernist churches in post-war Scotland

(L to R) the book cover; Labour Party election poster 1945;
Books / 3 December 2024
3 December 2024
MICHAL BONCZA recommends a compact volume that charts the art of propagating ideas across the 20th century
HERO'S WELCOME: Toasting Yuri Gagarin at the Society’s pre
Books / 18 October 2024
18 October 2024
CHRISTINE LINDEY marvels at a history of the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR
Trawsfynydd Nuclear Power Station, Eryri National Park
Books / 26 July 2024
26 July 2024
SIAN LEWIS recommends a unique book of photography that invites greater appreciation of our urban and industrial landscapes