Armenia, where one side of my family is from, was one of the first members of the USSR, annexed by Russia in 1922. When I first visited this little country that perches in the south of the Caucasus, I was struck most by its Soviet architecture.
Although its landscape is a hotchpotch of medieval Orthodox churches, a smattering of Persian-era domes, and brutalist concrete, it was the latter that particularly stuck out. From unfelled statues of Stalin to giant tower blocks spelling out the letters “CCCP” from a bird’s-eye view (well, half spelt-out – construction stopped partway through, with the fall of the Soviet Union), I’ve never forgotten it.
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