SOVIET TRACES

PHOTO ESSAY + STORY FOR THE RIVETER MAGAZINE (2016)

I was born in Russia just after the fall of Communism in 1991 and moved to the United States with my parents at the age of three, but the larger-than-life statues of Lenin had always been hard to ignore on return visits. During one of my last trips back in 2015, after five years away from Russia (during which I received my BA degree), I saw the gleaming red star on top of the Kremlin and the sculptures of working men and women in metro and train stations in a new light. Through this photo essay and story for Minneapolis-based independent magazine The Riveter, I explored why the relics are still there and what they might mean for the country’s current state of affairs as well as its future.