Eric Lusito has travelled throughout the former Soviet world from East Germany to Mongolia,
from Poland to Kazakhstan, in search of these former Soviet military bases and his photographs
are an extraordinary record. As the USSR crumbled many bases were simply abandoned.
A few still remain – traces of a once powerful Empire – yet over time they too are beginning
to disappear. The military departed but much else was just left behind.
Lusito discovered everything from gas masks to propaganda posters, books and magazines,
instruction manuals and personal photographs. But it is the buildings themselves which are
the most resonant symbols of the fall of a once powerful Empire. A KGB’s lecture hall is laid out
with chairs ready, and theatre spotlights still mounted on the walls, yet the ceiling has begun to
collapse; a Navy’s swimming pool is full of water but this is stagnant water unchanged for years.
And throughout there remain symbols of the old regime – murals of heroic deeds and national
glories, photographs of political and military leaders, posters exhorting young soldiers to give
their all for their fatherland.
The book includes photographs not only of the bases but also of the murals, posters, books,
instruction manuals etc. that Lusito found abandoned. It is a rich collection of work and illuminates
the once hidden military world of the Soviet Union, last testimonies left by a modern civilization
which is no longer familiar to us, ruins that invite us to construct our own stories.
Link: Eric Lusito – After The Wall Traces of the Soviet Empire
via: I can’t remember who passed this along, but thanks!
