Page 27 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 13(1) (2025)

Patriotic War in Soviet history) as a reconstruc- and Taras 1993). The crowds came together in
tion strategy (Khmel-Nitskii 2006). In other cit- front of the governmental buildings and main
ies like Yerevan, Kyiv, and Belarus, Stalinist ar- squares, showed their renewed remonstration
chitecture transformed the city’s image with against the central authority in public, and pro-
interpretations and influences from vernacular duced new narratives in their fight for liberty.
structures and architecture, although each pro- Being recorded extensively by the media chan-
ject was strictly controlled and decided by the nels, these crowds and their protests became the
central government officials. base for the national collective memory and the
Various state and party institutions oversaw heroic saga of the successor states (Grigorevna et
and directed urban development. The Com- al. 2019).
missariat of the Municipal Economy (NKKKh The next phase of these politics focused on
RSFSR) and its subordinate bodies, such as the erasing their dark past and decommunising their
Main Architecture and Planning Administra- culture and material traces. Some models com- 27
tion (GlavAPU), ensured plans aligned with monly observed in the post-Soviet landscape in-
state policies and objectives. Expert councils like clude the writing of myths on the binary oppo-
the Expert Architectural Council (EAS) and sition between the Soviet enemy and a national
the Scientific-Technical Council provided tech- hero, the destruction of the Lenin statues (or
nical oversight and approval for architectural other Soviet symbols) to replace them with na-
projects. Centralised planning agencies such as tional characters, the renaming of Lenin squares
Mosgiprogor and Lengiprogor created compre- as Independence Square, Freedom Square, etc.,
hensive city plans for various regions, working commemorating their role in collective resist-
closely with local city councils. The State Plan- ance, the transformation of public buildings in
ning Committee (Gosplan) maintained control terms of functional programmes, and the change
over the planning process in Russian and Sovi- of public holidays or parades according to the
et governance (DeHaan 2013). Stalin imposed a new national history (Grigorevna et al. 2019). The Critical Position of Soviet Parliament Buildings Today
uniform architectural style and planning princi-
ples on all Soviet cities, using the Moscow City Five Parliaments, Five Protests
Plan of 1935 as a model to create a homogeneous Although each nation-state followed its own
structure that mirrored Moscow’s grandeur and path and timeline in developing a distinct stance
authority. Indeed, the parliament buildings and on the legacy of the USSR, we aim to apply a
Lenin Squares, built in Stalinist style, stand at transnational lens and compare their decom-
the centre of many cities. They serve as a testa- munisation effort in spatial terms, by focusing
ment to the propaganda of their time and the on the visual expression during episodes of pro-
materialisation of the Soviet regime’s aim to test that contributed to build crucial national
be remembered for centuries to come. (Kalash- histories.
nikov 2019).
Moscow and the Constitutional Crisis
From Dissolution to Decommunisation (Black October) – October 1993
Reinforced mainly by the economic crisis and The former House of Soviets, now White
political opponents during Gorbachev’s rule, the House, in Moscow’s Krasnopresnenskaya em-
nations of the USSR endeavoured to gain their bankment alongside the Moskva River, was de-
independence, national identity, and economic signed in 1965 by a team called Mosproekt, led
rights. The end of the union witnessed numerous by the architect Dmitry Chechulin and inspired
rallies and protests all over its crumbling land- by Chechulin’s 1935 airport project as a typical
scape. One by one, the nations declared inde- expression of Stalinist architecture. From its
pendence and seceded from the union (Bremmer completion in 1981– with a cost of more than 94