The Inheritance of the Soviet Period: should It be Evaluated?

Abstract

Each historical period leaves its marks of evolution – towns, villages, churches, manors, parks and other objects, which reflect social, economical, political, cultural, esthetical, architectural environment of that period. So there appear historically developed types of landscape of different periods – “prior-valak”, “valak”, “individual farm”, “collective farm” and nowadays landscape which is under development. These all landscapes form a part of cultural heritage of the country. “Prior-valak”, “valak”, “individual farm” landscape types are already researched in certain scale, but the “landscape of collective farms”, its character, influence to the identity of the country, to the experience of urban planning of settlements and environmental management are not researched and evaluated sufficiently. It can be said, that during the Soviet period a number of expansion and reconstruction projects of towns and rural settlements were created. In addition, several new towns and smaller settlements were established. Within this period, the urban planning works formed a new country’s accommodation system, as well as changed the landscape. Nowadays, most of the previously realized urban structures in many cases are being transformed, re-planned, their overall image is being changed. Facing such urban restructuring there is a need to evaluate current legacy: to evaluate its advantages, disadvantages, what could be appropriate to be transformed as well as what should be saved as planning heritage of the residential areas. This article aims to draw attention to the towns and rural settlements, which were formed during the Soviet period, as spatial structures of that time, that create an important and distinctive urban part of the country‘s heritage. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sace.4.5.4823