Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: Communism

Here's that Pullman Hotel photo that I promised, with the retro lettering up near the roof.

If you're looking for a genuine Trabant 601 still in running order, it's far easier to find them in the Czech Republic and Slovakia than in the former East Germany, where they were actually built. However, they do still appear from time to time. I found this one, still in close to original condition (at least on the outside, although I don't know if the fog lights are original) parked next to some much newer, much more expensive, much less charming cars (whatever you think of the Communists).

Here's my second shot of the Pullman Hotel, showing it's typical 1960's high-rise look. The decorations (taken in the loosest interpretation) on this side remind me a little bit of what you see on some buildings in the Middle East, and come to think of it you can also find this style throughout the neighborhood around Pragerstrasse (more on this later).

This was an interesting, almost certainly Communist-era building that I found on Pragerstrasse. It's interesting to note that only a few years ago something like this would have been repulsive, either for being Communist or being ugly 1960's (probably) era, as is stripped and tasteless even in the few decorations that it has. However, this mosaic is interesting, and suddenly buildings like this have become interesting in that they're very much of a particular historic time period. Indeed, in the West architecture wasn't radically different. This building is now the Pullman Hotel, and they've deliberately given it letting up near the top (in a later photo) which deliberately tries to look like it's from the 1960's. It's done in a sort of 1960's fake handwritten type of font. (Again, watch this space.)

Although that rail speeder is in the foreground, I took this to capture that old CSD logo on the building. I'm assuming that it's used on excursion trains (maybe on the front of the locomotive?) to give them an authentic touch.

"Dear visitors, welcome! If you have accepted our invitation, then surely you understand our commitment to the faithful to the look of our exhibits. In the case of locomotives operated from the 1950's into the late 1970's, this includes equipment with red stars! This is to confirm to the historical reality of valid operational rules in these years prior to 1989. CD Muzeum Management, May 1st, 2004" That's a rough translation, anyway. In the Czech Republic, the memory of the Communist regime is so negative that antique stores put tape and labels over red stars on any item that has them, just as they do with swastikas. In the rest of the world, the red star doesn't provoke quite the same reaction, even in countries where the Communist regimes were far more brutal, like Russia for example. Therefore, I'm not sure how many other railway museums in ex-Communist countries would require disclaimers like this one.

I shot this more or less on a whim, and got exactly what I wanted. This is one of my favorite semi-abstract shots this year, shot out the window of Centrum Chodov, and capturing Sidliste Chodov in the process, along with the motorway.

I did a little bit of research on this car, and concluded that it's probably a 1934 Chevrolet Master Sedan. It was parked in Sidliste Opatov, of all places, where an old Tatra of about the same age was being unloaded from a truck. I didn't ask what it was doing in Prague, but seeing a pre-war American car other than a Ford is quite rare in Europe, especially since pre-war Chevys are rare even in America.

For the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, a number of artifacts from Communist rule were brought to Prague for public display, and this included a number of guard towers from the concentration camps that the Communist regime operated. This has in fact not been the first time that these have been displayed, as most years around November 17th (the date chosen for the official anniversary, even though in fact the revolution took several days) different exhibits commemorate the victims of the camps. Pribram is the best remembered, although I'm not aware of how many people died there. It was a forced labour camp specialising in uranium mining (or so I've been told), making it allegedly one of the most deadly. There is somewhat of a dearth of information available on Pribram in English, although I do intend to dig deeper to see what I can find. Generally, these camps were overshadowed by the infamous gulags of the Soviet Union, both because the gulags killed more people and because the most famous Czech dissidents were actually not imprisoned in Pribram or any of the camps. Most of them, most notably Vaclav Havel and Milada Horakova, instead ended up in Pankrac prison, which still operates today.

I almost didn't include this shot, but after seeing it closer up in Gimp, and post processing it a bit, it grew on me. This isn't an angle I've shot from before, even though I've so far photographed Haje more than any other sidliste. I keep pressuring myself to do places like Krc, Opatov, Chodov, and so on, but I guess there are still opportunities in Haje even after so many shots.

This was the view from the bus stop over the Opatov Metro. I was actually on my bike, though, so I wasn't waiting for the bus.

Another adventure that I had towards the end of the summer of 2009 was my exploration of the bike trail system around Prague. Ideally, if you're going to use a bike for transportation, the deeper inside a city you are, the better. Prague has it backwards, though. In the city centre, bike couriers are referred to as "organ donors," but in the suburbs, there is a bike trail system almost as extensive and complete as the road system, going pretty much anywhere you would want to go. I decided to work up to riding to Branik, but at the end of my adventures I did more than that. This trip was my first bike trip, when I only made it as far as Krc, but I took this shot with my cameraphone as I was leaving Haje. Surprisingly, I don't have many good shots of the "back" (to me, anyway) of this panelak, my favourite of the Haje panelaks because of the clock on either side, plus the fact that it's really a pair of towers with a bridge at the top (which you can't see in this shot).

I've attempted this shot in various guises before, but I still like to keep trying. The light of the setting sun on these two panelaks can be really eye-catching when they're backed by storm clouds, as they often are.

This is the Crown Plaza Hotel, based on the Seven Sisters complex in Moscow. This hotel, originally the Hotel Druzba, was built in 1952-1954 under the supervision of Alexej Cepicka, and was decorated with Communist murals, which you can see in the red striping just below the roofline.

Chodov is a little bit different in character from the other Sidliste projects, with red paint and logos on the buildings to identify them.

I just took this shot because I liked the look of the setting sun on the buildings. Often Haje gives me these opportunities, and I've never quite figured out why.

In the post-Communist era, most of the Sidliste projects have been modernised and rebuilt, and most of these rebuilds have included colorful repainting. This is what happened when I took the relatively bleak winter scene below, and cranked the contrast and saturation up.

Sidliste housing projects surround Prague in all directions, and any good movie about Prague in the 1970's or 1980's will generally include scenes of their construction, which was a constant fixture of life at that time. Today, most are still occupied and doing well, in sharp contrast to East Germany, where many of their equivalents have been torn down.