Fascinated by the massive scale of Leonid Brezhnev era architecture, french magazine editor Frédéric Chaubin toured the former USSR for seven years (between 2003 and 2010), during which he stumbled upon 90 soviet buildings scattered across 14 former USSR republics, bearing the identifiers of what he calls ‘cosmic communist constructions’. His documentation is an important contribution to architectural history, especially of an era, of which not much is comprehensively known. Architectural Brutalism is somewhat evident in these structures that reveal a surprising freedom from the top-down directives of 1920s Constructivism and thereafter. These striking buildings, constructed on a huge scale usually from reinforced concrete, are anti-picturesque, their outlandish gravity-defying forms pitted against the landscape. Chaubin maintains that architecture reflects and expresses ideology and philosophy of that era. Take a look.

The Institute of Robotics and Technical Cybernetics in St Petersburg

Soviet embassy in Havana

Ceramic pool designed by Zurab Tsereteli at a children’s health resort in Adler, Russia

The House of Soviets in Kaliningrad

The Ninth Fort is a stronghold in Kaunas, Lithuania

The Kiev crematorium. Unmistakable lunar capsule inspirations.

The Georgian Ministry of Highways

The Palace of Ceremonies in Tblisi, Georgia

Druzhba health spa in the Ukrainian resort of Yalta

Ukrainian Institute of Scientific and Technological Research and Development in Kiev

The architecture faculty at the Polytechnic Institute of Minsk