Threats and opportunities to Baltic socialist architecture in rural decline: the case of collective farm centers
ENThe administrative-cultural centers of collective farms, which are some of the best examples of the rural architecture of late socialism in the former Baltic Soviet republics, are still there in the Baltic countryside, but their preservation is currently in doubt. This study shows that the greatest threat to this rural built heritage in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania is the shrinking and peripheralization of rural areas and small towns. Greater emphasis should be placed on strengthening the community, finding a new function, and on national protection in order to preserve collective farm centers and enhance their value. Keywords: Late socialism; collective farms; rural decline; heritage values; shrinking communities; peripheralization. [From the publication]
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