Missing murals: the lost Soviet art of the Stans

Protecting a reminder of a fallen political system is not high on the urban preservation list in Central Asian cities. Countless mosaics have been destroyedToday, many of the cities of the Central Asian Stans are defined by a new “trophy city” architecture meant to reflect modernity and progress, and to glorify the leaders who planned them. Look a bit deeper, though, and many signs of the Soviet past are still there in the architecture and layout of the cities.The Soviet elements of