Khmel’nitsky Regional Literary-Memorial Museum of Nikolai Ostrovsky 

Location: Shepetivka, Ukraine

Constructed: 1975-1979

Architects: M. O. Guseva and V. M. Suslov

Genre: Modernist, Soviet architecture, former USSR

The museum honours the Soviet socialist realist writer, Nikolai Ostrovsky, an author of Ukrainian descent who spent his childhood and teenage years in Shepetivka. His most famous work was ‘How the Steel Was Tempered’, a fictional novel set during the Russian Revolution that was initially serialised and then published in book form in 1936.

The original cultural institution dates back to 1946 and marks the 10th anniversary of Ostrovsky’s death. The new structure was completed in 1979, next to an existing Monument to Nikolai Ostrovsky that was erected in 1966. Anatolii Haidamaka, the lead artist on the project of the new museum, was supported by a team of approximately 80 assistances in the creation of the monumental artwork that covers both the exterior and interior of the building’s circular facade. More information about Soviet Modernism and additional examples of Soviet-era mosaics.