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New Generation Thinker Victoria Donovan from the University of St Andrews explores the dilemmas of post-war reconstruction in Soviet Russia and asks why the atheist Communist regime was prepared to spend millions on the restoration of religious architecture. \nOn encountering the war-charred ruins of historic Novgorod in 1944, the Soviet historian Dmitry Likhachev mourned Russia\u2019s transformation into a \u2018graveyard without headstones\u2019. Yet, just 20 years later, the town had risen from the ashes; even the onion-domed churches had been restored. How did this happen?

Recorded as part of Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival in front of an audience at Sage Gateshead. \nNew Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select 10 academics each year who work with us to turn their research into radio.

Producer: Luke Mulhall