Soviet Scientific Institutes

These photographs of once top-secret institutes reveal both fantastical and futuristic technology, alongside crumbling and decrepit facilities, forming a unique document of the condition and situation of scientific research in the post-Soviet landscape.

In Soviet Scientific Institutes photographer Eric Lusito takes us on a journey through time, space and science. Gigantic control panels, monumental telescopes, inexplicable machinery – the facilities he documents might be found in comic book and graphic novel fantasies or the science fiction of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. But why were these institutes built and what purposes do they serve today?

The Soviets promoted science as a utopian ideal to replace religion and rapidly modernise the country. 'Big science' projects, primarily for Cold War military purposes, involved thousands of researchers working in complete secrecy.

In the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, many institutes were left destitute, their sophisticated technology condemned to extinction. But some scientists persevered, adapting to the new landscape. Today, defying the odds, they persist – even in wartime – to continue their work.

Lusito gained unique access to sites across former republics and satellites of the USSR – from a cosmic ray research centre in the remote Armenian mountains, to one of the world's largest radars located in Ukraine, which locals believed to be a climate-altering weapon.

The first visual account of this once closed world, this awe-inspiring publication bears witness to our never-ending quest for knowledge.