Cinema Rossiya

Location: Vinnytsia (Vinnytsya), Ukraine

Completed: Mid-1960s

Architect: Musa Ivanovna Novakova

Alternative name: Cinema Russia

Genre: Modernist, Soviet architecture, former USSR

With 1,200 seats, the Cinema Rossiya was the largest cineplex in the city at the time of its completion. The sizeable parking lot beneath the complex was designated as a potential bomb shelter during the Cold War. The cinema declined after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and in 1996 the city authorities leased the building to commercial enterprises. The structure has not been maintained by its subsequent occupiers, however, and remains in a state of disrepair. The designer of the cinema, Musa Ivanovna Novakova, was the chief architect of Vinnytsia from 1960 to 1965.