In countries of the former Eastern Bloc, national architecture is strongly associated with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Postmodernism was the comeback of historical forms in late Soviet architecture. The proclamation of a national state promised the historical revival to come.

Yet, after thirty years the architecture seems unchanged. Prefabricated construction systems developed in the USSR are still in use, thought the built environment has dramatically changed. How can the promised future of architecture be so much alike its past?