The Critical Position of Soviet Parliament Buildings Today: A Visual Analysis of the Crowds in the Built Environment

Nationalist discourses build societal unity by shaping rituals, historical narratives, and collective memory to construct the myth of a nation. Post-Soviet countries offer a unique context for examining the production of nationalism as a transition from a multinational past to a national identity. This process of decommunisation unfolds through the Soviet traces in the built environment. As a physical representation of the state narrative, we focus on the architectural memory and architectonic transformations of Soviet parliament buildings, analysed via large-scale axonometric drawings. Architectural landmarks such as parliament areas have evolved into focal points for confronting the traumatic memory of the second half of the twentieth century. The text focuses on the White House in Moscow, the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv, the Government House in Baku, the National Assembly Building of Armenia in Yerevan, and the Government House in Minsk. How have communities reacted to the parliament buildings as tangible reminders of their problematic past? Following the methodologies the forensic aesthetic paradigm opened up, we traced the protest’s morphology, its form, and the transformations made in the built environment. By analysing videos, photos, and newspaper articles, we mapped out the protests to discuss architecture’s role in conveying state narratives.