Soviet Signs & Street Relics

I’ve always found books on this subject fascinating, not that there are many of them. The Communist era evokes images of red stars, fierce looking soldiers manning equally ominous looking borders, walls and billboards plastered with ‘loud’ helpings of patriotic slogans and images for all to ‘enjoy’ Depending on your point of view, I don’t think that many mourn the passing of that era. I do think it’s right however, that destroying every last bit of architecture spawned by it would have been be a great mistake. This book contains some very evocative images of architectural ‘trinkets’ from a world now long gone, real survivors. I find the designs of some of these items have a kind of charm all their own. Not all of them are overtly political, though some are of course. My favourites are the ones denoting the locations of various towns and cities. The ones sporting aircraft interest me too. This book covers a subject which illustrates a part of 20th century history that is so often overlooked, and in my humble opinion does it well. I can heartily recommend this book, worth every penny.

This book focuses on a rather specific topic, on which not so much has been published so far, so it is well worth it.It captures this very typical expression of propaganda that characterised Soviet culture, and the way it pervaded society. For decades the regime tried to use everything at its disposal, including and especially architecture, to get political messages through, and these monuments were strewn across the whole country, in an attempt to remind the population of the ideology. The book gives a varied selection of these, showing clearly how the style evolved through the decades and in various parts of the country. I remember seeing many of these there, already in a bad state back then, and the book makes no attempt at hiding how poorly these monuments are kept now.A good book, very informative for those curious of soviet architecture and politics, and a good example of the many books published these days about decaying remnants of bygone eras.

Few words, just interesting pictures of spectacularly bad soviet monuments. Coming to a town near you the way things are going....

very beatiful book

Five star beautiful book.

Fantastic book! I loved seeing these quite frankly bonkers street relics and signs. Never knowingly understated was the motto of the day it seems!

Beautiful book, my only criticism is I'd like to see more detailed descriptions of each photo.I'm glad so many of these relics exist, hope they are preserved for a long time to come.