- Across The Steppes

Broken Borders of
the Soviet Union

Broken Borders of the Soviet Union is a project studying the border communities where lives have been turned upside down by the end of the Soviet Union and the erection of hard borders where there was once cooperation and coexistence between the different states. As a result of this, communities andpeoples which were for so long connected with eachother are now isolated, and where there were once colours blended together in an untidy painting, there are now rigid lines and boundaries; separating a world once melded together.

The collapse of the Soviet Union is remembered by many across the world as a momentous moment of triumph for democracy, liberty and peace. For many in the lands of the Soviet Union, however, the collapse was a cause for great anxiety over what would come next, and a sense of disillusionment in some places with the idea of a ‘Western’ future…

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#2: Darkhan

Darkhan: the third largest city in Mongolia, home to just under 100,000 inhabitants, is a true reflection of the internationalism of the Soviet Union. Although not officially part of the Soviet Union, the socialist Mongolian People’s Republic, which existed from 1924 to 1992, was by all measures a Soviet state. Society was modelled on the same systems of the Soviet Union, and almost its economy was entirely dependent on Soviet subsidies….