LITHUANIASoviet Modernism  ·  1960–1991

Lithuania was the first Soviet republic to declare independence, in March 1990, and the architecture of the decades before that declaration is still standing across Vilnius and Kaunas — not preserved, exactly, but not removed either.

What is here is late Soviet modernism rather than Stalinist monumentality: the vessel-like Palace of Concerts and Sports, the TV Tower on the ridge at Karoliniškės, and the microdistricts — Fabijoniškės, Šilainiai — where most of the population actually lived. The housing estates are the honest record of the period. They were built to a standard plan, they are still full, and they are photographed far less often than the landmarks.