Monumental Victory In Dushanbe

The Soviets left all sorts of monuments to the Great Patriotic War, aka, WWII, all over Central Asia. The glory of military victory is good propaganda.

Dushanbe has an understated memorial, appropriately titled, Victory Monument.

Two simple steles with nice, brutalist, socialist, blocky frieze figures around the bottoms. Down goes the Nazi flag, up with flowers of peace.

The placement of the Victory Monument turned out to be a traffic choked plaza and the Dushanbe powers decided to duplicate the monument in, well, Victory Park. Bigger! Cleaner! Room for a tank!

With May Day approaching, time for an annual spit and polish. Photos of the dead. The images are near Victory Monument, part of a grand staircase that leads up to an eternal flame and plaza for memorial reflection.

The eternal flame, fresh laid flowers and a plaque that proclaims no one is forgotten.

Soviet Architecture In Dushanbe

The Soviets were running Tajikistan for about 70 years, from around the time of the Russian revolution until independence in the early 1990s. From baroque to brutalist designs, the Soviets built all sorts of things in Dushanbe and some of the old USSR style is still holding on.

The coolest Soviet building in Dushanbe, the round Borbad Hall. Great avocado and yellow concrete sculpture out front.

Put the great ones on a wall. At the writer's union, a spacial space is reserved for sculptures of some of the best Tajik writers. A park cable car station, as brutalist as it gets. Striking. Alas, closed.

Older buildings in Dushanbe have more of a baroque, rococo, maybe moderne style. The Tajik Institute of Art and Design. Nice clock tower.

Movie time, the Batah theater. A staircase at the old Soviet department store. Love the blingy balusters. A little touch of luxury when buying your rubber underpants.

Ahh, progress. The death march of American fast food, butting up against the grand National Academy of Sciences building. The Colonel beats the Tsar.