Soviet Playgrounds

Name: Soviet Playgrounds – Soviet-era playgrounds
SKU: Soviet Playgrounds
Price: 30.00 EUR
Availability: InStock

Playful Landscapes of the Former USSR

30.00 €

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A collection of photographs of children's playgrounds from the Soviet era, found in the former Soviet Union countries: Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

The book’s five sections, featuring more than 150 photographs, document the mass-produced yet remarkably diverse playground equipment installed in the courtyards of Soviet apartment buildings: rocket-shaped slides, globe-shaped climbing frames, space-themed carousels, animal-themed climbing structures, and other objects that seem questionable today.

From Riga to Dushanbe, from Kyiv to Vladivostok—children dreamed of becoming cosmonauts and played in space-themed playgrounds that sprang up during the Cold War. Some of them are gone—replaced by new equipment or, more recently, destroyed during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, leaving behind only nostalgia for a Soviet childhood.
The book features an introduction by Ukrainian urban planner Mykola Gorokhov and maps of playgrounds. Photographs by David Navarro and Martyna Sobecka, supplemented by works by local photographers.

Hardcover
208 pages
Size: 17 × 24 cm