SILHOUETTED against the black of the Moscow sky, these monuments celebrate the golden era of the Soviet space programme.
The city and its surroundings are strewn with monuments and statues commemorating the space race years, in which the Soviet Union vied for technological supremacy with the US.
These two images were taken by photographer Danila Tkachenko as part of his Lost Horizon collection.”I shoot the objects which represent the image of the ideal cosmic future,” says Tkachenko.
The Soviet Union had a vision for its future as a space-based superpower – spreading socialism beyond the bounds of Earth.
Glory of the Space Explorers (top) was built to mark the beginning of a new age of space exploration. It depicts cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human to venture into space. Gagarin attended its opening in person in 1962.
The titanium Monument to the Conquerors of Space (below), built in 1964, is one of the era’s largest monuments. Standing an imposing 107 metres tall, it hides the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics in its base.
Tkachenko is a finalist in the Calvert 22 Foundation’s New East Photo Prize, which showcases new photographic perspectives on Eastern Europe and the surrounding area.
This article appeared in print under the headline “Soviet star dance”
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