The Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences (RAACS) has published the minutes of a meeting of its Academic Council devoted to the preservation of Soviet modernist buildings of the 1960s to 1980s

The Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences (RAACS) has published the minutes of a meeting of its Academic Council devoted to the preservation of Soviet modernist buildings of the 1960s to 1980s. The decision to publish the minutes was taken on 12 February, in response to the lively debate over the demolition of the Comecon building and the Circus on Vernadsky Avenue.

The chairman of the council, Nikita Yavein, cited examples of lost buildings in Saint Petersburg, among them the River Terminal, the V. I. Lenin Sports and Concert Complex and the Leningrad Palace of Youth, all demolished between 2012 and 2023. He stressed that the demolition of the Palace of Youth had not provoked any significant public outcry. Nevertheless, in his words, the situation in the city has improved: several modernist buildings have been taken under protection, and the question of safeguarding less significant structures as part of the historic urban fabric is under consideration.

In 2021 the Committee for State Control, Use and Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments (KGIOP), with the support of the Saint Petersburg Union of Architects, set up a working group to consider buildings of the 1950s to 1980s. Among the objects recently taken under protection is the Sea Terminal (1977–1982, architects V. A. Sokhin and L. V. Kalyagin). The fate of Terminal No. 1 of Pulkovo Airport (1973, architects A. V. Zhuk, Zh. M. Vezhbitsky and G. M. Vlanin), however, remains uncertain, despite the fact that a considerable part of its original interiors and structures survived the reconstruction of 2014.

In Moscow the situation with the preservation of modernist buildings remains difficult. Work is currently under way to demolish the Enthusiast cinema (1977, architects V. Atanov and T. Arkhipova), and the Baku cinema (1974, architects I. Volkov, E. Smolin and L. Fadeyeva) has already been pulled down. The recent plans to demolish the Comecon building in order to erect on its site a 355-metre multifunctional residential complex have provoked a wide public outcry. Experts stress the need to develop effective mechanisms for protecting and popularising the heritage of Soviet modernism, including granting the buildings appropriate protected status and integrating them into the modern urban environment.

The full text of the minutes is available on the official website of RAACS.