Kino

 

This Soviet times mural for cinema (kino) can be found in Iļģuciems district of Riga.

Photo by (c) Arnis Balcus 

Driving lessons in Soviet style

  

This yard on Melngaiļa street in Riga must have been used for driving lessons in Soviet times. The mural features traffic signs and a warning in Russian to follow the rules on the road.

Photo by (c) Arnis Balcus

Escape way

This mural on Artilērijas street in Riga is from WWII. It points in Latvian and German: "escape way- Ziedona garden" where the bomb shelter was located.
Photo by (c) Arnis Balcus

Penjikent

Penjikent is a town in West Tajikistan, some 20 km from the Uzbek border. Unless you like Soviet relics there's nothing much to see there. Upon entering the town I saw this weird road police post with a car on the top. Police posts are very present on roads and they stop most cars to check papers. Normally a local driver will hand 3 somoni (around 0.70 USD) to a police officer to skip the check.

This mural reads as "60 years of Tajik SSR". The town's main street mainly hosts old Soviet apartment blocks.

And there's also another Soviet relic - restaurant "Friendship". On the left you see an advert for Tajik's constitution.

A garbage bin.

Local culture house that hosts cinema screenings and music events.

A memorial desk for Tajik people of Penjikent who died in Soviet-Afghan war.

They also have a golden Lenin...

...and a communist party.

But the main sights in Penjikent are Soviet murals and mosaics. I collected most of them.

This is the meat at the butcher's. Looks a bit rotten. I could not believe they eat it. But apart from this the food is cheap and eatable. Especially fruits and vegetables. Tomatoes were 0.20 USD per kg. I wanted to buy only two pieces but the salesman gave them for free, probably did not want to bother with such a small amount, perhaps just wanted to please the tourist.
Photos by (c) Arnis Balcus

Taxies

This is an old mural from the late 1980s found in a backyard on E.Melngaila street in Riga. It it dedicated for the union of cab drivers that existed in the Soviet Union times. You can even see "1948-1988" written there and it means the mural was made on the 50th birthday of the union. Look at the idea behind it - the mural links history (horse riding as the beginning) with the future - a quite futuristic car for the times on the far right side.
Photo by (c) Arnis Balcus

For safe Riga

This is a strange late 1980s/early 1990s mural on Tallinas street in Riga. It says "Riga" at the top but it's a social ad for police. It says: "in case of emergency, call..." and "install anti-theft system on your cars".
Photo by (c) Arnis Balcus

Friendship

Just a plate and tatty mural - that's all what is left from culture house Draudziba (Friendship) in Sarkandaugava, Riga.
Photos by (c) Arnis Balcus

Chairs and umbrella

This is a strange mural in the backyard of apartment blocks on Miera street in Riga. Possibly painted in late 1980s to create some sort of romantic atmosphere.
Photo by (c) Arnis Balcus

A day in Liepaja

Last Sunday in Liepāja, West Latvia.
Photos by (c) Arnis Balcus

Vai

This old mural can be found on A.Briana street in Riga. In the screen that has been painted over you can still notice three big letters VAI. It's not only "oh" in Latvian, but is also short for Soviet times state vehicle inspection (Valsts autoinspekcija).
Photo by (c) Arnis Balcus

Soviet Riga

Lately a large advert has been temporarily removed from one of the walls near railway station in Riga, uncovering city's coat of arms from Soviet times. It is not easy to notice the difference because nowadays the arms looks quite similar - the star at the top is replaced with cross and two lions have joined on both sides.
Photo by (c) Arnis Balcus

Socio-realism in Albania

During Enver Hoxha's rule in Albania social realism in arts was practiced just like in Soviet Union. Perhaps even more enthusiastically. For instance, the mosaic in the top image is not created of coloured glass pieces as usually you would expect, but of small stones of natural colour.
Photos by (c) Arnis Balcus

Leningrad

St.Petersburg has dozens of Soviet Union staff, from statuesques to manhole caps, which sometimes can make you feel as if the difference between Leningrad and St.Petersburg is only the name.
Photos by (c) Arnis Balcus

Glory to Lenin

These are a couple of Soviet slogans found in Krāslava, East Latvia. The first says "Glory to Lenin" and the other "Peace for the World", both in Russian. Because they were built into the walls of apartment buildings with red bricks they have avoided destruction after the Latvia's independence.
Photos by (c) Arnis Balcus

Coach factory

This old mural indicates of a Russian-Baltic factory of railway coaches and a year 1913 which is probably the year of foundation. Today the factory on Valmieras street in Riga looks pretty abandoned.
Photo by (c) Arnis Balcus

Kleisti

This mural can be found outside the sports centre in Kleisti suburb of Riga. The centre is run by the state for many years now, thus the faded mural has survived any renovation attempts. The mural illustrates what the centre is most well known - horse riding. Locals can improve their equestrian skills and occassionally watch horse races.
Photo by (c) Arnis Balcus