Photos: From Brutalism to folk art, Soviet-era bus stops crush the myth of Communist homogeneity
A new book documents the artistic individualism of the USSR’s disappearing roadside structures
The architectural styles of remote bus stops in the former USSR are the little cousins to the monumental Communist construction projects — the high-rises, TV towers, space shuttles, and state-owned factories—most of us are familiar with. In his new book, Soviet Bus Stops Volume II, photographer Christopher Herwig examines the Soviet-era bus stop as an architectural type, where regional planners flexed their patriotic muscle and pushed artistic boundaries. These humble structures challenge the preconception of the Soviet landscape as blandly homogeneous.
In 1975, the Soviet Ministry of Transport Construction dictated that bus stops “should pay special attention to modern architectural design, in accordance with the climate and the local and national characteristics of the area. Bus stops should be the compositional centers of the architectural ensemble of the road.” But if the shells of these structures reflected governmental decree, their quirky inventiveness is the result of the mores of local artisans.
“Some were made by famous architects and artists,” says Herwig. “Some were made by road construction workers and probably even decorated by school children or at least university students on summer break. Some are one-offs and some are repeated.”
Designed to capture the eye when traveling at speed, these bus stops are like the Soviet answer to American Googie architecture reimagined as hyper-kitsch traditionalism. Some concrete pavilions have remained untouched since being constructed decades ago, while others have since received nationalist makeovers in the red, white, and blue of the Russian Federation flag.
“Everyone imagines the urban USSR as an endless series of identical concrete panel slabs placed in vague, straggly wastelands,” explains architectural critic Owen Hatherley in the book’s foreword, “but these bus stops show another side: strange and individualistic works of art.”
Soviet Bus Stops Volume II, by Christopher Herwig, is published by Fuel. All images courtesy the author.
