[Note on the above: Just a screenshot, not for real!]
There are amazing abandonments in America but the former Soviet Union has some of the most interesting, unique and strange abandoned buildings. The complex political, military and social history of the country has led to everything from almost-finished buildings abandoned before actual use and entire abandoned cities to chilling gulags in which tens of millions of prisoners met their end. Check here for some creatively adapted British military sea forts and also be sure to check out part two in this series of amazing Russian abandonments.
Abandoned City: Promyshlennyi, Russia was abandoned with the fall of the Soviet Union, cut off from communication with and support from the government. When utilities and electricity stopped working, people simply left to find a home and work elsewhere, leaving buildings behind and many belongings in the wreckage. Today, the remnants of the things they owned and buildings they inhabited remain relatively untouched.
Abandoned Submarine Base: Balakava is a small town on the Black Sea Coast that was once the secret home to a Soviet nuclear submarine base. People with resident family members were not even allowed to visit the town without special dispensation from the government. Today, all of the submarines are gone but the base remains remarkably intact and can be visited by urban explorers from around the world.
Abandoned Prison: Like concentration camps in Europe, the gulags are unique to Russian history. Abandoned gulag buildings are the physical evidence of mass imprisonment, forced labor and tacitly approved extermination. “Roosevelt observed that capitalism is unequally divided riches while socialism is equally divided poverty. Gulag prison life meant an equal distribution of death among the rich and poor, old and young.”
Abandoned (Never Used) Buildings: In most countries, abandonments remain in the wake of long-deserted structures that once saw heavy use. In Russia, some industrial, medical and administrative abandonments are merely the remnants of failed projects that were nearly completed but never put to use. In a way, these tell a unique kind of history – a history of corrupt and confused leadership, a history absent of the normal metaphorical ghosts that haunt the halls of once-used structures. In short: a history of could-have-beens.
Abandoned Missile Silo Complex: Of course, the breakup of the Soviet Union was followed by a significant nuclear disarmament leaving deserted silos scattered about the Russian countryside. The particular complex shown in the image above is located in Latvia and contains four silos as well as a central command and technical support bunker. Now decommissioned, some such silos are open for public tourist visitation.
Abandoned Oceanside Fortress: Water fortifications were deemed necessary on the east coast of the Soviet Union to protect against possible attacks from Japan. In the southeast of Russia, Vladivostok is the largest port city on the Pacific Ocean. The fort and miles of tunnels featured in the photographs above have since fallen in disarray, but were once a highly prized (and extravagantly expensive) Russian defense construction project. Today it is a destination for Russian and other visitors complete with antiquated bombs and guided tours.
Abandoned Heavy Equipment: It is somewhat hard to imagine how incredibly costly and complex industrial and communications machines could ever be worth abandoning, yet in Russia one finds giant mining contraptions and satellite arrays left largely to succumb to the elements. The giant communications dish above is the size of a soccer field yet sits essentially idle today.
More Underground, Underwater and Other Wonders of the World
7 Underground Wonders of the World
7 (More!) Underground Wonders of the World
7 Underwater Wonders of the World
7 Island Wonders of the World
7 Engineering Wonders of the World
7 Urban Wonders of the World
7 Wonders of Modern Green Design and Technology
Amazing Abandoned Cities, Places and Property of the World
7 Abandoned Wonders of the World
7 (More!) Abandoned Wonders of the World
7 Abandoned Wonders of America
7 (More!) Abandoned Wonders of America
7 (Even More!) Abandoned Wonders of America
7 Abandoned Wonders of the Former Soviet Union
7 (More!) Abandoned Wonders of the Former Soviet Union
7 Abandoned Wonders of the European Union
91 Comments
January 28th, 2008 at 3:24 am
well done .. thanks
January 28th, 2008 at 5:13 am
Is the first one a screen-shot from the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. ?
January 28th, 2008 at 8:14 am
Actually you are wrong in stating:
“The complex political, military and social history of the country has led to everything from almost-finished buildings abandoned before actual use and entire abandoned cities”
The reason these things are abandoned are an intrinsic feature of communism, specifically command economies, and why they never work. You can be as well intentioned as you like, but without the capitalist system of profit and loss, there is no feedback mechanism for the people managing capital to know whether they are doing the right thing. Thus, with finite resources, your economy central planner does not know whether to make 10,000 winter coats, or build a gulag. This is the reason communist countries are littered with abandoned capital.
January 28th, 2008 at 9:37 am
talk about awesome places to play paint-ball.
And please tell me they didn’t leave a missile in the abandoned silo
January 28th, 2008 at 10:28 am
very interesting page. I passed in Balaklava and enjoyed a nice sunset. I remember seeing some concrete around, but I never suspected there could be a submarine base there. All former USSR countries surely have plenty of such places. Your collection is very interesting, thanks for putting it together.
Denis
January 28th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Seeing these photos brings back memories, but I do think you slander us too much. My grandfather went to a GULAG, and of course I do not support them but THEY WERE NOT “mass extermination facilities” like concentration camps that is just fing stupid. If you think it is like that I think you should look at William Hearst( Nazi who wrote about them to deviate attention from Holocaust) thats where the statistics of “tens of millions” comes from. That bastard stalin was the only person to use them in a malicious manner and he didnt kill more then 500,000
January 28th, 2008 at 10:59 am
What an amazing article. I was never much interested in russian history as a tourist attraction before, but your artile makes me feel stupid for not considering the possibilities.
Cuba was very interesting… but of course we couldn’t get into the most controversial parts. Maybe that isn’t true in the former USSR… areas that are meaningless to modern day Russia.
January 28th, 2008 at 11:05 am
The first picture, the one with the truck, is actually a screenshot from the videogame S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl.
Just found that a bit humorous. :)
January 28th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Edward, your comment is spot on and it makes me wonder (assuming you are an American) if you are supporting Ron Paul for President. Please look up some information if you are unfamiliar with him.
To “Good but inaccurate at parts”: what about Stalin’s artificially-enforced famines of the early 1930’s? These easily make him the greatest mass-killer in history. The horrors of that deprivation of humanity are documented here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU
January 28th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Cool stuff!
January 28th, 2008 at 11:26 am
G2D2: why does he have to be an RP supporter? I strongly believe in market principles but RP is totally disgusting to me. Has something to do with having too many anti-semetic connections and being totally clueless about anything having to do with foreign policy.
Also getting rid of the income tax is beyond utterly idiotic. Pretty much the world out there has shown that a VAT is effectively a way to implement regional tariffs. Also it punishes people who’ve actually saved money in their lives. If I took $75k of earnings over the past few years with RP’s plan it would end up being double taxed to under $35k worth of money. No thanks.
January 28th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Brian, he should be a RP supporter because RP is the candidate who most fervidly supports free market economics, private property, and individual rights. Your comment about “anti-semitic connections” is silly and to say that a statesman like Paul is “clueless” about foreign policy is even more ridiculous; you may not like his proposals, but that does not make him “clueless”.
He foreign policy goals may strike you as “silly” and “clueless” if you believe that the US has the right to intervene in other countries’ affairs and spread democracy at gunpoint and to engage in economic bullying with sanctions and the like. You may be a believer in the neoconservative “clash of civilization” ideology in which the USA and the West should actively confront “rogue states”, particularly those in the Middle East. If you fit these descriptions, there isn’t much that I can say to you.
Ron Paul believes in peace and commerce with all nations, entangling alliances with none. He believes that the military should be sent into action only when we are realistically threatened. He sees no reason why we need to maintain an excessively costly empire abroad (currently there are over 700 military bases on non-American soil). Why are we the only country that does this? No other nation’s troops routinely inhabit and patrol foreign soil, yet we still have soldiers in Germany, Japan, South Korea, etc. Why is this? Why is America the world’s policeman?
As for economics, you are simply wrong on all counts. Under a Ron Paul administration, no American would be paying more taxes than before. Ron Paul is an enemy of taxes and has always voted against them in Congress. Always.
If you want to discuss economics and learn what RP’s theories are really about, visit: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/f.....&f=204
January 28th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
‘That bastard stalin was the only person to use them in a malicious manner and he didnt kill more then 500,000′
Right, Krushchev never used the gulags and neither did his successors.
Stalin killed millions of people via his policies.
Stop being an apologist for that paranoid lunatic dictator.
January 28th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Hi there.
I wish you would have mentioned “Oil Rocks”, the semi-abandoned off-shore oil platform/city of 2000 inhabitants
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_Rocks
http://images.google.com/image.....amp;tab=wi
January 28th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
are there high resolution pictures of all these pics?
January 28th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
S.T.A.L.K.E.R takes place in Ukraine, NOT Russia =P
January 28th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
I remember seeing a lot of this kind of stuff when I toured Eastern Europe; it’s all quite eerie.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Abandoned excavator, claimed to be worlds largest of its kind. In Estonia:
http://www.vanakoolimehed.ee/p.....das/46.JPG
January 28th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
paint ball anyone????? sweet pics
January 28th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
G2D2,
I am indeed, and I am a Ron Paul supporter :)
January 28th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Some lovely photos of North Dakota ghost towns on National Geographic magazine’s website:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic......raphy.html
January 28th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Hey, what you take for missle silo site in Latvia is in fact radar station south of Tallinn, Estonia.
January 29th, 2008 at 12:58 am
nell’estate 2006 sono andato in moto dall’Italia fino alla Bulgaria. Appena entrati in quel paese abbiamo trovato veramente un altro mondo, soprattutto tra i paesi sperduti nel centro della nazione. Alcune sembravano vere e proprie città fantasma.
January 29th, 2008 at 6:04 am
“That bastard stalin was the only person to use them in a malicious manner and he didnt kill more then 500,000.” As a Ukrainian, I don’t know weather to laugh or cry at that comment. It’s ironic that your pointing out inaccuracies
January 29th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
THEY WERE NOT “mass extermination facilities”…That bastard stalin was the only person to use them in a malicious manner and he didnt kill more then 500,000
At what point do you reach the level of “mass extermination?” Apparently killing 500,000 people isn’t a big deal…
January 29th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
No mention of Pripyat? Very good reason to abandon a city though.
January 29th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Teri, Weburbanist has featured Pripyat before — quite well, I might add.
And really, when most urbexers think about Soviet abandonments, does anything but Pripyat come to mind? It’s really cool to see the other ruins out there, and like US abandonments, they each tell a little about the region’s history.
January 29th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
I can understand the abandoned buildings and other things but the satellite dish arrays? Why would someone want to abandon them? Can’t they still be used for telecommunications or the people from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intellegence (SETI @ Home) could use them for their search for signals from deep space couldn’t they?
January 30th, 2008 at 3:04 am
Поверьте, и в Европе и в Штатах полно такого, отчего у трезвомыслящего человека волосы дыбом встают…
Накинулись, блин. Смотрите широко окрытыми глазами вокруг себя, и не пытайтесь лезть на развесистую клюкву..
но если честно, фото сделаны талантливо…
January 30th, 2008 at 3:28 am
Cool! But “…Balakava is a small town on the Black Sea Coast..” - it not Russia, it Ukraine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balaklava
January 30th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
It’s a pity they are abandoned.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:14 am
The last remnants of a dying civilization. USSR sucks.
JESUS ENDED THEM.
January 31st, 2008 at 3:16 pm
The missile silo in Latvia… WHAT TOWN?!?! WHERE?!?!!? I need to see this!!!!
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:02 am
United States turned to be not the only country to have a lot of cities like Detroit… After 1992 economy crush Russia joined this company too. A lot of half-ready buildings became abandoned because nobody planned to use them in future anymore - any possible agent of any long-term strategy in Russia disappears. This was new to Russians but having been no wonder to inhabitants of market economy countries.
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:23 am
Some fools in Saint-Petersburg City Government recently claimed the aim to turn in into the Russian Detroit… (holding in mind car industry ;-) )
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:34 am
to Tony Davis:
Without electric power supply and proper equipment, satellite dish are useless.
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:47 am
Quite interesting why no one bought the mentioned sea fortress in Vladivostok.
I heard the leaving space is very hard to get there.
February 2nd, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Absolutely amazing pics. To see the decay and ruin here is sad, the USSR could have been a rich country with all its space and natural resources. Shame…
February 5th, 2008 at 5:07 am
Magical post, many many thanks. Russia is such a fascinating continet for all it’s hidden cities. Beautiful to see this.
Kind regards,
February 6th, 2008 at 7:53 am
What a silly concept! Blaming the ruins of the Soviet Empire on Socialism is like blaming the ruins of the Parthenon and the end of ancient Greek Hegemony on tha idiotic, foolish experiment with Democracy. (As indeed, the Romans did so lay blame. It took centuries for Mankind to make Democracy work. It will take decades to make the people realize that Socialist cooperative democracy is better than dog-eat-dog capitalism. As for the Libertarians in general…a bunch of Feudalists who appeal to a consistant 5 or 6 percent of the populace…and by that I mean Libertarianism in its present, warped incarnation. Remember, Socialism gave birth to Libertarianism as a means of preserving individual freedoms that did not enterfere with the collective planning of the people. So, quit the childish games. A world of 20 billion people, (in the very near future), will need all the “planning” it can get, and it is a shame that the childish modern incarnation of ivory-towered “Libertarianism” won’t be there with its unique mission, not to thwart planning, but to guarantee the freedoms of Mankind that should be maintained regardless of the direction of “central Planning”.
Oh, did I mentioned that the “failure” of democracy in Athens inspired the “Republican” form of government, which, being subject to pressure groups, degenerated into dictatorship because it lacked the “freedoms” of a democracy….amazing how, even after two thousand years, these questions are as relavent as tomorrow.
February 6th, 2008 at 8:00 am
I should have stressed in the previous letter that it is Republican Rome to which I refer, and not modern Republicanism. The Romans saw, or thought they saw, the “fatal” weakness of democracy in Athens and tried to avoid it by removing governance one or two steps from the popular Will. A good Idea, for awhile, but it did not and does not destroy democracy..it was simply to ameliorate the dangers of an unwise addiction to “Popular” but dangerous leaders with a gift of gab, and dangerous plans.
February 6th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Democracy works?!? “Planning” (dictating) economies works?!?
Someone isn’t paying attention.
Also, that someone is no classical scholar.
February 6th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Max Cadenhead,
spewing a rant doesn’t make an arguement. you’ve not said anything of substance.
February 6th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
There are several partially completed and abandoned nuclear power plants in the USA. I have wondered around inside one such abandoned power plant near Cleveland, Ohio, and can assure you that it gave me a very wierd to be inside those massive concrete rooms where nothing other than thick concrete walls and dust exist.
February 6th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Looks like some American cities after the Liberals got done with them. The South is full of Northeast economic refugies.
February 6th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Greece, Rome and Amerika were destroyed by Democracy… You won’t realize this if you went to publik Skewl.
February 6th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Elitist Socialist Parasites ruin everything they touch.
February 7th, 2008 at 5:30 am
Ale pieprzycie o czymś czego nie znacie
February 13th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
There is a picture of a US Titan II missile in the photos claimed to be an abandoned Soviet missile complex; I’m certain of this because I was a Titan II missile crew commander in the USAF. This is obviously wrong and casts doubt on all of the material shown here.
February 21st, 2008 at 10:21 am
That first shot on the front page is very HALF LIFE 2.
February 28th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Here a link to Google Map of the location.
March 1st, 2008 at 5:08 pm
I’ve been to that abandoned submarine base in Crimea. You can now go there with the excursion. The place is really impressive
March 21st, 2008 at 3:13 am
Is Promyshlennyi completely abandoned? Is it monitored or anything?
Where can I find more information about this place?
Please contact me if you know, I’m extremely curious.
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:55 am
I agree with pmp, “I’ve been to that abandoned submarine base in Crimea. You can now go there with the excursion. The place is really impressive.”
Kristal D
April 13th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
this is an amazing article… very well written with complete photographs… I couldn’t stop reading and even read some of the other articles… very good… I really like the added information about Russia… makes me want to go there and see these places for myself…
April 22nd, 2008 at 3:06 pm
may i add that flurbex.com is just as rawsome?
April 22nd, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Im pretty sure there isn’t a publicly open missile silo in Latvia, I’ve spent months in Latvia and Russia and have seen a whole lot of stuff. I would recommend the abandoned Tzarist (and later Soviet) fortress in Daugavpils.
- Ryan
April 22nd, 2008 at 4:39 pm
I like the article but it was presented poorly. Each set of pictures should have the section title before it. The reader should not have to scroll down past the pictures just to find out what they are looking at. This is basic UI!
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:56 am
Looks like Detroit or Gary, Indiana.
June 14th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
This is amazing! I have been to the Vladivostok base! It is amazing! While I was reading the other ones I was thinking if they would have it! I’m so thrilled I had the chance to explore it, they go forever and alot of the tunnels have about 2 to 3 feet of water but they are amazing! Another cool thing about Vladivostok is on the hill just over the city they have artillery cannons that are abandoned and for a group of dudes that are about 20 years old they were alot of fun spinning around and swinging on them! I love Russia, the people were so nice to us. From what I experienced when I went the Cold war is waaaayyy over.
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:13 am
very interesting
Trackbacks
What do you think? Leave a comment!