Latvian Malls

I am always amazed when I walk around Riga how they take things from Soviet times and transform them to fit in present day Latvia. For example the Occupation Museum was during Soviet times, the Museum to the Red Riflemen, a Latvian battalion that fought to defend Lenin during the Russian Revolution (which is the short version of the story for a more complete version see here). After independence the building was vacant and there was talk that they should just tear it down. Instead some American Latvians bought the building and turned it into a museum chronicling the Occupation of Latvia. Then I learned that most of the shopping malls in Riga were old Soviet factories. Domina mall was once VEF Domina a factory where electronic radios were made for the entire USSR. So it seems that the remnants of communism that most people see around Riga are the exact opposite of what they were during Soviet times. Factories displaying the industrial strength of the workers paradise in Soviet times are now capitalist malls where people can pay too much for designer clothing from all around the world. I am not sure they did this on purpose but they definitely made good use out of a bunch of vacant buildings and turned them into things the Soviets would have despised.