SOVIET MODERNISM IN FORMER REPUBLICS: INTERPRETATION AND ADAPTATION OF CONTROVERSIAL HERITAGE

The paper presents an overview of current discourse in modernist Soviet heritage preservation on the territory of former Soviet Republics. While having a considerable artistic and historic value, those buildings can represent oppressive ideas of dictatorship in the eyes of the local population leading to an attitude of apprehension and disdain. The question of whether it is necessary to search for new meanings and interpretations for those monuments makes them a controversial element in heritage preservation discourse. Often neglected by public, those monuments are frequently not a high priority of any kind of restoration initiative: they stay abandoned for long periods of time, slowly decaying and occupying space. Countries that used to be a part Soviet Union face this common issue from different perspectives; in this paper we consider several outlooks on the architecture of this period to try to determine a way in which those monuments can be preserved as historic witnesses of their time and, at the same time, adopted to modern reality, serving for the benefit of the people.