Soviet era architecture and the meaning it holds for people of Lithuania

Abstract

Based on the example of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, this chapter aims at analysing the relationship between post-communist society and urban environment implemented in the period of the USSR rule, such as architecture, public spaces and results of urban planning. Attempts are being made to disclose the intentions of construction of such objects, evaluations made on them by various specialists (architects, sociologists and historians), their perception by local communities and society and values that were publicly communicated at the time of their construction. The chapter also touches upon the issue of varying relationship between the communities/ society and such objects in question during the 1990-ies national liberation and also at present, three decades following the restoration of independence and half a century since the implementation of objects and spaces under discussion.