Soviet Sights

Since Ukraine’s independence many of the once omnipresent Soviet era symbols have vanished. Ironically, Kyiv is now a mosaic of billboards, LCDs, banners and other capitalist marketing propaganda; but turn a corner, pass under an arch or over a bridge and you catch a flash of the hammer and sickle and you’re immediately transported back to the good old days of the Cold War. Love it or loath it, communism was the defining socio-political force of the 20th Century and its indelible mark survives in the Ukrainian mentality, in Kyiv’s architecture, monuments and in its soul.