The paper analyses the Lithuanian architecture of the soviet period through the prism of stylistic development and history of architectural ideas. The main task of the work is to determine the heritage values of the soviet period from the point of view of architectural history. Before going into deeper analysis of separate stylistic aspects some key problems of the soviet time heritage evaluation are discussed. Particular attention is given to the need of separation of the soviet time architectural history from the political history as well as to the problem of integration of the soviet heritage into contemporary city life. Three main approaches on the architecture of the soviet period are pointed out: socialist realism, soviet industrial modernism and plurality of stylistic attitudes during the last decades of the soviet period. The paper follows an assumption that some characteristic buildings of each architectural outlook should be saved in order to have an example of authentic way of development in the Lithuanian architecture during the 20th century.