The USSR ruled over more than 8 million sq mi (22.4 million km2) at its peak. Its entire territory was filled with Soviet-inspired monuments and statues.
While many of these famous monuments were destroyed, there are still hundreds of them. Jason Guilbeau released a photobook featuring some of their surreal photos.
Soviet Signs & Street Relics (Fuel Design & Publishing() includes more than 70 photographs of everything: plinths covered with trains, buses, and Soviet symbols, to gigantic concrete sculptures depicting fighter jets in flight.
Guilbeau created the book in lockdown. To make it easier for travelers to travel, Guilbeau used Google Street View.
The foreword to the book, written by Clem Cecil, explains: ‘Relics of the Soviet past transport us in time and space. The people featured in the book go far beyond what is expected, and are located in areas that we may never visit. Every one of these monuments is an homage to the Soviet vision for the future that was destroyed 30 years ago.
Scroll down for 14 images from the book.
In this shot, you can see a monument from Vorkuta (Northern Russia’s mining town). The foreword to the book, written by Clem Cecil, explains: ‘The minor pieces of street art, monuments and insignia shown in this book, were foot soldiers to the major monuments, such as Mother Russia outside Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad)’
The monument, which is topped with a locomotive, can be found in Shepetivka in west Ukraine. The photobook’s first pages tell readers that the life of pioneers in the Soviet Union was not easy. It was a hugely important aspect of the road system. A nation was constantly moving towards a brighter future, which never came. As cheering marathon runners on, roadside advertising was an encouragement in our exhausting collective endeavor.
The book says that monuments of trucks, trains, vehicles, and cars (later joined by space rockets) were placed in the city of Slavuta in western Ukraine. The photograph shows an example of a monument found in Slavuta (western Ukraine).
As a woman walked by with her shopping bag, Cecil snapped this image of Vorkuta’s Soviet Monument, a coal-mining town north of the Arctic Circle. Cecil wrote in the foreword of the book: “Around the static Soviet Relics, scenes from everyday Russian Life are captured by all-seeing Google Street View.”
The photograph below shows a fighter jet that is anchored by its concrete exhaust plume. It can be found in Primorsko (Russia).
According to the book, ‘Commissioned from local authorities, it was the wish of the regime signpost all its parts corresponded to the desire to maintain everyone employed’. This photo shows Krasnodar Krai’s monument, which is located in southern Russia’s North Caucasus region.
The monument to a frozen fighter jet is found in Vasylkiv, Ukraine. In the book, Guilbeau deliberately keeps the locations of the monuments vague. The foreword to the book explains that removing the navigational markers strips the signs of their practical use, allowing Guilbeau to present ‘his own vision of the Soviet shadow still present in modern Russia’
The star monument at Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, dwarfs the observer captured to the left of the shot. It explains that the Soviet empire’s “visual language” was an effective means of communicating with peasant communities.
The images of monuments falling became iconic after the fall communism. Communist symbols and heraldry were removed from Lenin’s remains, while his statues were reduced to rubble. But as we can see from these photographs, the remnants – the flotsam and jetsam of the Soviet era – are still sloshing around the former Empire,’ the book explains. This monument is found in Chelekhov Russia.
This monument is in Kryvyi Rih (central Ukraine). According to the book, “Aside from serving a practical function, a street sign also promoted Soviet ideals.
This image was taken in Russia’s Volgograd Oblast. It shows a huge tank monument. In the foreword of the book, it states: “Using limited materials and a predetermined vocabulary of symbols, these anonymous creators sought originality. Their work may be propaganda but the creativity and dynamism that they display echoes through the centuries.
![This photograph showcases a monument in Novorossiysk, Russia. According to the foreword, some of the monuments featured in Soviet Signs & Street Relics have already disappeared. It says: 'Victims of progress, they now only exist on these pages, the loss of their physical presence made apparent by the constant updating of views [in Google] to reflect the current landscape'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/12/16/15/51497353-10288547-This_photograph_showcases_a_monument_in_Novorossiysk_Russia_Acco-a-36_1639666824314.jpg)
This photograph showcases a monument in Novorossiysk, Russia. According to the foreword, some of the monuments featured in Soviet Signs & Street Relics have already disappeared. The foreword states: “Victims to progress, they now only exists on these pages. Their physical absence made evident by the constant updating views [in Google]To be representative of the present landscape
In this photo, a red tractor tops a plinth at Dornod in Mongolia. These marks were the foundation of empire ideology.
![The foreword to the book reflects that the Soviet Union 'could not have predicted that within a few generations of its inception, the entire edifice of Soviet Russia was to collapse, stripping them [the artworks] of their meaning, or that within years an American technological company would be micro-mapping every inch of their country'. This shot was taken in Ust-Ordynsky in southern Russia](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/12/16/15/51497339-10288547-The_foreword_to_the_book_reflects_that_the_Soviet_Union_could_no-a-37_1639666824316.jpg)
According to the introduction to the book, Soviet Union could not have foreseen that Soviet Russia’s entire structure would crumble within a matter of generations after its creation. [the artworks]They could be used to indicate that an American company of technological companies would micro-map every inch of the country within years. The shot was taken at Ust-Ordynsky, southern Russia.
Soviet Signs & Street Relics by Jason Guilbeau is published by Fuel Design & Publishing (£24.95)