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One hundred years after the October Revolution, the material vestiges of the Soviet past remain omnipresent. Taking a wide variety of forms scattered throughout a large geographical space, these traces of the past invite us to reflect on the existence of “Soviet heritage”. This article seeks to contribute to a wide-lens genealogy of the concept of Soviet heritage, describing its trajectory from its creation to its status as a renewed subject of interest in Russia. The treatment of Soviet heritage is shown as being closely linked to crucial moments in both Soviet and post-Soviet sociopolitical life in Russia, ultimately acting as a means to legitimate and reassert State power.