The twin fascinations of fallen Empire and urban exploration collide in photographer Eric Lusito’s new book, Soviet Scientific Institutes. A visual essay chronicling the catastrophic decline in funding and research in the post-Soviet era, Lusito’s camera takes us on a fascinating tour of the faded relics of communism’s utopian and authoritarian grip on the country’s scientific endeavours.
An image from Soviet Scientific Institutes
An introduction by history professor Paul Josephson frames these images in context, chronicling how the focus on science became one of the driving philosophical and economic forces behind the Soviet Union’s national identity. This was coupled with the distinctive aesthetic qualities of the era’s analogue technology, bombastic scale and a commonplace incorporation of vivid elements of art and design.
An image from Soviet Scientific Institutes
There’s an obvious retro-tinged delight in these images, along with poignant schadenfreude at the combination of misplaced optimism and downright mystery that underpins the relationship between these places with Cold War militarism. Whole communities were dedicated to such ‘Big Science’ projects, often closed off from the rest of society.
Lusito’s journey took him around the sites that still exist in the USSR’s former republics and satellites (access in Russia being somewhat difficult). Despite the obvious decay and apparent obsolescence, some of these facilities are still very much in operation.
Facilities visited include a cosmic ray research centre located deep in the Armenian mountains and a vast radar array in Ukraine, apparently ‘believed to be a climate-altering weapon’ by local residents.
An image from Soviet Scientific Institutes
Soviet Scientific Institutes, Eric Lusito, £26.95, Fuel Publishing, Fuel-Design.com, @FuelPublishing