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Built in 1981 in Chișinău, capital of Moldavian SSR, the Circul de Stat was one of the most significant and renowned circuses in the USSR.

Architects Semyon Mikhailovich Shoikhet and Ala Kirilenko designed a natural stone round building with an elegant semicircular foyer, panoramic summer terraces and a detachable dome.
The 13 metres-wide main arena could host up to 1900 people.

Losing its importance after the fall of the Soviet Union and permanently abandoned in 2004, the Soviet circus lays now in semi-decay.
The smaller arena was modernised in 2014, while the rest of the building is left to rot waiting for a possible redevelopment and a relaunch in the future.

Born in Sanahin, among the majestic mountains of Armenia, the Mikoyan brothers became both prominent personalities of USSR.
Anastas, the older, as head of state until the Sixties; Artem as creator – together with designer Mikhail Gurevich – of the most famous Soviet fighter aircraft, the MiG.

After their death, the two had a small memorabilia museum established in their honour in Alaverdi.
In the yard, a huge memorial was built in 1982 – an impressive, king-size concrete cantilevered canopy hanging over a MiG-21.

Icon of Socialist Modernism in Kiev, the Salute hotel was designed by Ukrainian architect Abraham Miletsky (also known for his dramatic, odd Crematorium in the Park of Memory) and built on the right bank of the Dnepr river between 1982 and 1984.

Named after – and looking alike – a series of Soviet space stations, the building should have been several floors higher (hence the massive base) but bureaucratic issues led to a shortening.
A spiral ramp runs all along inside the cylindrical reinforced concrete shape, connecting the 89 rooms.

Iron Man’s hometown, the Georgian city of Gori still hosts one of the last surviving statues of Iosif Stalin.

Inside a polished, freshly green-painted vaulted lounge at the main train station, a marble figure of the austere moustached Soviet leader stands out among the passengers waiting for their ride.

National symbol of de facto Republic of Artsakh, the monument was sculpted in 1967 by Soviet Armenian artist Sargis Baghdasaryan.

Carved out of reddish volcanic tufa and at one with nature, these enormous elderly in their folk clothes – hence the nickname “tatik-papik”, grandpa and grandma – are to represent the centenarians people of the mountains and the heritage of Nagorno-Karabakh.