Russia: Landmark 'House of Soviets' in Kaliningrad to be demolished | Focus on Europe

The House of Soviets was emblematic of Kaliningrad's rich cultural history for more than 50 years. It took more than 20 years to build, and then remained empty for another 30. Now the massive building is coming down.

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[perseusarkouda]

Soviets tried to look futuristic and they ended up looking dystopian. Man, that's a huge fail.

[appleslover]

"... As the times and inhabitants changed"

I guess it's politically incorrect to say that they were ethnically cleansed 🤔

[maszlagma]

Maybe they should rebuild the Königsberg castle which was on the site before?

[dennismarfo]

This was where the German philosopher Emmanuel Kant was born .

[markgarin]

1 year per floor, 21 floors....21 years. Damn, he got it on the first guess.

[WillDraco]

1:28 Pro Tip: If you don't want to be identified you need to cover more than your face if you've got visible tattoos.

[boxie]

such a painful history there and so painful to see what happened to the place now.
I see the city and the people in it as victims of WW2 even if it was german.

[Earth]

Stop calling those graffiti people, 'street artists.' Most of the time they destroy public spaces.

[sharonsteele]

21 years to renovate the building. 😅😂🤣🤣😂

[OGRussianPatriot]

I am from Kaliningrad, yes this building was planned to be demolished for a long time now, there were suggestions to remake into something better, but they got rejected since there is not enough money to finish the building.

[HunterShows]

"Husk" is a good word to describe "Kaliningrad."

[nicevideomancanada]

simple math: hire 20 times the people and get the job done in one year. lol

[b_altmann]

In the UK it takes them two years to put insulation on a small social housing block (four floors).

[sirrathersplendid]

Truly disgraceful to think that the castle ruins survived the war, but Brezhnev blew them up as late as 1968!

[anandnairkollam]

Ah that sense of happiness as a german seeing it go down. :)

[rogerwilco]

It was quite a beautiful castle that they tore down.
It is probably impossible to rebuild in any way that would do it justice, but that is what they should do if it was possible.
Our pre-industrial cities are often much more beautiful and much nicer places to live, as they were made for people, not for cars.
Wherever possible, people should build for people, not for cars. That will last, unless crazy governments demolish it. Happened a lot in the USA too.

[PM-]

21 years to renovate? Bring in the Chinese. They’ll renovate that entire building in six months 🔨

[benghazi]

One year per floor?! Not a chance. That has to be corruption numbers.
In two, maximum three years that building would be modern office spaces if my company did it in my country.
And that is a slow moving western country. Guesstimating a price tag of around a 100 million if the construction is sound.

[phoebusapollo]

Russia could test its hypersonic missiles on this building and see if they works.

[joelhenderson]

That “new development” concept is somehow even worse.