Smoldering. To Be a Formalist

In an effort to perpetuate its ideology, the Soviet authorities filled the cities and villages of Ukraine with propaganda sculptures, frescoes, and mosaics. Over time, the style of some authors transformed from realism to formalism. But they still had to balance between the fulfillment of the party’s order and the embodiment of universal plots. The majestic works of one of the monumental artists Ivan Lytovchenko are now slowly being destroyed under the influence of forces of nature and radiation on the buildings of the once young and flourishing, but now abandoned city of Prypiat. Numerous works and other authors of the past century still shape the space of Ukrainian cities and villages. What is it like to be a formalist artist in a totalitarian system? Does the monumental legacy of the Soviet Union have the right to be preserved in today’s independent Ukraine?